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International Agreements on Hazardous Waste and Chemicals

• The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
• The Waigani Convention to Ban the Importation into Forum Island Countries of Harzardous and Radio Active Waste and to Control the Transboundary Movement of Harzardous Waste within the South Pacific Region
• The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure (PIC) for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade
• The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

- The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (adopted, 1989; entry into force, 1992)

i. Transboundary movement and management of hazardous and other wastes: The overall goal of the Basel Convention is to protect, by strictly control, human health and the environment against the adverse effects which may result from the generation, transboundary movement and management of hazardous and other wastes.

ii. Reducing transboundary movements of wastes and controlling permitted transboudary movement: Further objectives include: reducing transboundary movements of wastes to a minimum consistent with their environmentally sound and efficient management, and controlling any permitted transboundary movement under the terms of the Convention; minimizing the amount of hazardous wastes generated and ensuring their environmentally sound management; and assisting developing countries in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate.

iii. Managing the disposal of hazardous wastes: In summary, the aim of the Basel Convention is to help reduce the transboundary movements and amounts of hazardous wastes to a minimum, and to manage and dispose of these wastes in an environmentally sound manner.

iv. Strict control system based on the prior written consent procedure: The Basel Convention has set up a very strict control system, based on the prior written consent procedure. Hazardous wastes shall be export only if the State of export does not have the technical capacity and facilities to dispose of them in environmentally sound management. Transboundary movement shall be prohibited if the State of export or import has reason to believe that the wastes shall not be managed in expected manner.

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- The Waigani Convention to Ban the Importation into Forum Island Countries of Harzardous and Radio Active Waste and to Control the Transboundary Movement of Harzardous Waste within the South Pacific Region (adopted 1995; entered into force, 2001)

i. Objectives:

The Convention aims to:

• Prohibit the importation of hazardous wastes into Pacific Island Developing countries; to regulate and facilitate the environmentally sound management of such wastes generated within the Convention area;
• Prohibit the importation of all radioactive wastes into Pacific Island Developing Parties, while at the same time recognizing that the standards, procedures and authorities responsible for the environmentally sound management of radioactive wastes will differ from those in respect of hazardous wastes; and,
• Ensure that any transboundary movements of hazardous wastes within the Convention area are undertaken in a controlled and environmentally sound manner.

ii. Area of Coverage: The Convention area includes the land territory, internal waters, territorial sea, continental shelf, archipelagic waters and exclusive economic zones of the Forum Island Countries and other territories and countries concerned.

iii. Scope of the Convention: Annexes I and II of the Convention contain detailed categories of wastes that are hazardous or of a hazardous characteristic.

iv. Relations with other MEAs: The Convention establishes provisions for coordination with the Basel Convention (1989), the London Convention (1972), the SPREP Convention, and the UN Law of the Sea Convention.

- The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure (PIC) for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (adopted, 1998; not yet entered into force)

i. Objectives: The Convention seeks to promote shared responsibility and cooperative efforts among Parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm and to contribute to their environmentally sound use, by facilitating information exchange about their characteristics by providing for a national decision-making process on their import and export and by disseminating these decisions to the Parties.

ii. Scope: The Convention applies to banned or severely restricted chemicals and severely hazardous pesticide formulations, and sets out procedures for such chemicals and pesticide formulations.

iii. National Authorities: The Convention calls on Parties to designate national authorities for the performance and administrative functions required by the Convention.

iv. Implementation: Article 7 sets out the provisions for implementing the Convention. Each Party must, within two years of the Convention's entry into force, establish a plan of action as its implementation plan.

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- The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (adopted, 2001; not yet entered into force).

i. Objective: The Convention seeks to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

ii. Control Measures: The Convention includes: various measures to eliminate releases of chemicals listed in Annexes A or B from intentional production and use (Article 3); measures to reduce or eliminate releases of chemicals listed in Annex C from unintentional production (Article 5); and measures to reduce or eliminate releases from stockpiles and wastes of chemicals listed in Annexes A, B or C, including handling, collecting, transporting or storing chemicals listed in Annexes A, B or C. (Article 6).

iii. Register of Exemptions: Article 4 of the Convention provides for the possibility of registering exemptions to chemicals listed in Annexes A and B. The Register includes: a list of the types of exemptions reproduced from Annex A or B; a list of the Parties that have specific exemptions listed in Annex A or B; and a list of expiry dates for each specific exemption.

iv. Implementation: Article 7 sets out the provisions for implementing the Convention. Each Party must, within two years of the Convention's entry into force, establish a plan of action as its implementation plan.