Having considered the invitation of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, in its decision MC-2/2 on mercury waste thresholds, to consider reviewing, as appropriate, the technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with mercury or mercury compounds1 to include additional guidance for certain mercury wastes,
Recalling decision BC-12/4, by which it adopted the technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with mercury or mercury compounds,
1.Decides that the technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with mercury or mercury compounds should be updated;
2.Invites Parties to consider serving as lead countries in the updating of the technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 1 of the present decision and to inform the Secretariat of their willingness to do so by 31 August 2019;
3.Decides to establish a small intersessional working group, operating by electronic means, to assist in the updating referred to in paragraph 1 of the present decision;
4.Invites Parties and others to nominate experts to participate in the small intersessional working group and to inform the Secretariat of their nominations by 31 August 2019;
5.Requests the lead country or countries or, if there is no lead country, the Secretariat, subject to the availability of resources and in consultation with the small intersessional working group, to prepare an updated draft of the technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 1 of the present decision for consideration by the Open-ended Working Group at its twelfth meeting;
6.Calls upon the members of the small intersessional working group to cooperate with the group of technical experts on mercury waste thresholds established by decision MC-2/2, if invited to do so by the group of technical experts;