About IPEN - IPEN (International Pollutants Elimination Network)

IPEN is the leading global network forging a healthier world where people and the environment are no longer harmed by the production, use, and disposal of toxic chemicals.

Together, we aim to create a healthy, toxics-free future for all.

A Global Network for Global Health

IPEN was founded in 1998 to promote global health at the initiation of negotiations for the first treaty to ban the world’s most toxic chemicals – the Stockholm Convention. Since then, IPEN members have successfully fostered adoption of hundreds of global and national policies to protect communities from toxic threats.

IPEN Members

Participating Organizations

The power of IPEN is grounded in its 700+ member organizations around the world–mostly small groups from low- and middle-income countries–that make up and drive the network. As IPEN Participating Organizations (POs), members define their roles in IPEN through their engagement in the network, action to advance IPEN’s mission, and adoption of IPEN’s global policy platforms.

IPEN Leaders

IPEN is led by Network-elected local leaders who work together to promote IPEN’s global agenda. Since its inception, IPEN has worked to advance voices from civil society groups in low- and middle-income countries, based on the principles of environmental justice. In all our work, leaders from our global network steer our efforts. IPEN’s work is coordinated via Regional Hubs based in eight regions. IPEN is governed by its POs. IPEN’s General Assembly elects the Executive Committee, the regionally-based Steering Committee, and IPEN’s two Co-chairs.

Contributing to International Policy

In addition to the Stockholm Convention, IPEN is the leading global network in international forums aiming to protect global health from harmful chemicals – including the Minamata Convention on Mercury, the Basel and Rotterdam Conventions, the Global Framework on Chemicals, the Plastics Treaty, and other chemical policy development bodies. IPEN works to ensure that the voices of leaders from communities most at risk are heard in these forums.

Ending Toxic Threats to Human Health

For more than 25 years, IPEN has successfully fostered new and stronger global and national policies to protect people and the environment from hazardous chemicals. Work by IPEN and its member groups have ended toxic threats from lead paint, mercury contamination, toxic pesticides, industrial chemicals, toxic plastics, hazardous waste, and many other chemical dangers.

Putting Science to Action

IPEN serves as a global information source to educate policymakers and inform health-protective policies. IPEN and its members’ original research has been published in peer-reviewed journals and sought by national governments, United Nations organizations, scientific institutions, and media outlets around the world.