This paper provides background information about international chemicals management to participants in the UNEP 7th Global Civil Society Forum (GCSF), including participants in the regional forums leading up to the GCSF. International chemicals management is one of three major topics scheduled to be discussed in Dubai at the 2006 Special Session of the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum (GC/GMEF). Thus, it is among the major topics that participants in the GCSF are invited to address. The issue is particularly timely because an important milestone in international chemicals management will occur in Dubai at the same time as the GCSF. National environmental ministers, other government ministers and officials, and representatives of civil society and the private sector will attend an International Conference on Chemicals Management, where they are slated to adopt a Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). The SAICM will provide a blueprint for how the global community will accomplish the goal set out in the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit onSustainable Development (WSSD) to “achieve by 2020 that chemicals are used and produced in ways that lead to the minimization of significant adverse effects on human health and the environment.”