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International cooperation

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Table of Contents

  1. Preamble

International cooperation

The Conference of the Parties,Recalling its decisions V/8, V/9, V/10, V/11 and V/12 on cooperation between the Basel Convention and other intergovernmental bodies,Noting the increased level of activities undertaken by the secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal to cooperate with the relevant bodies, secretariats and organizations of the United Nations system, with regional conventions, commissions, secretariats and institutions, other multilateral environmental agreements and intergovernmental bodies,Noting also the effective and substantial progress made in the strengthening of cooperation and improved coordination and coherence of activities between the secretariat of the Basel Convention and, in particular, the interim secretariat of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants as well as with the interim secretariat of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, in the domains of capacity-building, training, science and information for the environmentally sound management of waste pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins and furans,Noting further the effective and fruitful cooperation with the International Maritime Organization and the International Labour Organization in the domain of the environmentally sound dismantling of ships,Welcoming the signature of the memorandum of understanding with the secretariats of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer on cooperation in the field of prevention and monitoring of illegal traffic,Welcoming also the development of a strategic partnership with other organizations and in particular with the United Nations Environment Programme Chemicals Branch, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in the area of environmentally sound technologies for the disposal of persistent organic pollutants as wastes,Encouraging further cooperation between the secretariat of the Basel Convention and the secretariat of the World Customs Organization to make progress on the one hand with submission of recommendations to the World Customs Organization for ascribing codes to wastes subject to the Basel Convention within the Third Harmonized System Review Cycle, effective from 1 January 2007, and on the other hand in joint enforcement activities,Welcoming the cooperation and development of programmatic activities with the World Health Organization on the environmentally sound management of biomedical and health-care wastes, and on matters pertaining to the characterization of such wastes,Welcoming also the work of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development towards harmonization of the provisions of the its decision C(2001)107/FINAL concerning the revision of its decision C(92)39/FINAL on the control of transboundary movements of wastes destined for recovery operations, with the provisions of the Basel Convention,Recognizing the need for the secretariat to continue participating in the work of the United Nations Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and on the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals,Welcoming further the initiatives taken by the secretariat to improve cooperation, coordination and coherence of activities with those of the United Nations Environment Programme and the regional seas conventions and action plans,Noting the cooperation between the secretariat of the Basel Convention and the interim secretariat of the Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa and the secretariat of the Waigani Convention to Ban the Importation into Forum Island Countries of Hazardous and Radioactive Wastes and to Control the Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within the South Pacific Region, to facilitate and reinforce regional delivery of the Basel Convention and coherence among these closely related legal instruments,Taking note of the tasks contained in the work programme of the Open-ended Working Group of relevance to the environmentally sound management of persistent organic pollutants, dismantling of ships, classification of wastes for transport purposes, identification of wastes controlled by the Basel Convention in the Third Harmonized System Review Cycle of the World Customs Organization, and to the area of harmonization of control procedures and forms,

I. Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

1.Requests the secretariat, under the guidance of the Open-ended Working Group, to continue its cooperation with the interim secretariat of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and other relevant intergovernmental organizations on the issue of persistent organic pollutants as wastes with a view to:
(a)Assisting in building the capacities of developing countries and other countries in need of such assistance to manage persistent organic pollutants as waste and other stockpiles of obsolete stocks of pesticides, including prevention of their accumulation, in an environmentally sound manner;
(b)Undertaking joint activities to improve coordination and coherence between chemical and waste programme activities, in particular by making use of the Basel Convention Regional Centres as regional delivery mechanisms;
2.Also requests the secretariat to keep the Open-ended Working Group regularly informed of progress on issues concerning or related to persistent organic pollutants;
3.Further requests the secretariat to cooperate with the interim secretariat of the Stockholm Convention in the implementation of decisions INC-6/9 and INC-6/10 of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee of the Stockholm Convention, on feasibility and case studies on regional and subregional centres respectively adopted in June 2002, as contained in appendix I to the present decision, and to the report on progress to the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties.

II. Rotterdam Convention

4.Requests the secretariat to continue its cooperation with the interim secretariat of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals in International Trade;

III. Other multilateral environmental agreements

5.Requests the secretariat to continue its effective cooperation with the secretariats of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, as well as with the United Nations Environment Programme in conducting joint training activities for enforcement officers;

IV. International Maritime Organization

6.Requests the secretariat, under the guidance of the Open-ended Working Group, to continue its cooperation with the International Maritime Organization on compliance and implementation and on issues concerning or related to the environmentally sound management of the dismantling of ships, in particular in regard to exploring the development of an inter-agency technical assistance project on ship dismantling together with the International Labour Organization and the International Maritime Organization; and to strengthen cooperation at the regional level with the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Maritime Organization on matters pertaining to the environmentally sound management of wastes to complement activities carried out at port reception facilities or related to marine litter or debris; and further to create a joint working group with the International Maritime Organization and the International Labour Organization as a means of achieving a common understanding of the problems and character of the required solutions, including the responsibility of ship owners and flag States and the roles of various other stakeholders,

V. Food and Agriculture Organization

7.Requests the secretariat to continue and reinforce its cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on matters pertaining to the disposal and prevention of accumulation of obsolete stocks of pesticides;

VI. World Customs Organization

8.Requests the secretariat to move forward, under the guidance of the Open-ended Working Group, with the issue of identification of the wastes covered by the Basel Convention in the Third Harmonized System Review Cycle;
9.Also requests the secretariat to pursue its efforts and cooperation with the World Customs Organization and other relevant organizations in the field of prevention and monitoring of illegal traffic and in providing training to enforcement personnel;

VII. World Health Organization

10.Further requests the secretariat to continue its cooperation with the World Health Organization as well as with the United Nations Committee on the Transport of Dangerous Goods and on the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals in the domain of environmentally sound management of biomedical and health care-wastes, taking into account the specific needs of some Parties for transport and disposal of these wastes;

VIII. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

11.Requests the secretariat to continue participating in the work of the subsidiary bodies of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, as appropriate, with a view to improving coherence between the Basel Convention and that organization’s decisions on transboundary movements of wastes and in regard to work of relevance to waste prevention and minimization, and to waste pesticides;

IX. Cooperation with other organizations and secretariats

12.Requests the secretariat to continue and further strengthen its cooperation in critical areas for the effective and concrete implementation of the Basel Convention, the Basel Protocol and Amendments with relevant organizations, including the following:
(a)International Atomic Energy Agency;
(b)United Nations Conference on Trade and Development;
(c)Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons;
(d)International Criminal Police Organization;
(e)United Nations International Drug Control Programme;
(f)Centre for International Crime Prevention;
(g)Environmental Crime Prevention Programme;
(h)United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development;
(i)United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs;
(j)United Nations Commission on Human Rights;
(k)United Nations regional economic commissions;
(l)United Nations Office of Legal Affairs/Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea;
(m)Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, 1972;
(n)Regional seas conventions and action plans;11Listed in appendix II to the present decision.
(o)African Union, as interim secretariat of the Bamako Convention;
(p)South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, as secretariat of the Waigani Convention;
(q)World Trade Organization.

X. United Nations Environment Programme

13.Requests the secretariat to continue cooperating with and providing technical and other guidance to the United Nations Environment Programme, as appropriate and taking into account its limited financial resources, in particular in regard to its activities in Africa, on post-conflict assessment activities, coordination of environmental agreements and compliance and enforcement as well as in regard to environment and trade initiatives, with a view to improving coordination and coherence of activities;

XI. General

14.Requests the secretariat to report on cooperation with the bodies listed under paragraphs 1 to 12 above, to the Conference of the Parties at its seventh meeting.

Appendix I

Decision related to the Basel Convention Regional Centres, adopted at the sixth meeting of the INC of the Stockholm Convention

Decision INC-6/9: Feasibility study on regional and subregional centres

The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee
1.Requests the secretariat to undertake, in consultation with the secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, as appropriate, a feasibility study on regional and subregional centres for capacity-building and transfer of technology. The study shall include:
(a)An identification of the needs of countries in the area of capacity-building and transfer of technology that might be facilitated by regional and subregional centres;
(b)An assessment of the capacity of all relevant regional and subregional centres, in particular, but not limited to Basel Convention regional centres, to facilitate capacity-building and transfer of technology. Such an assessment shall include, but not be limited to, a review of mandates, functions, performance, institutional arrangements and the needs identified in paragraph 1 (a) above;
(c)An assessment of the gaps and limitations of existing arrangements, including the availability of technology to be transferred, and the means to address these constraints;
(d)A review of the experiences gained by other international agreements in capacity-building and transfer of technology;
(e)An identification and analysis of the potential synergies between the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and other multilateral environmental agreements regarding the provision of capacity-building and transfer of technology;
2.Further requests the secretariat to communicate terms of reference for the feasibility study to Governments for comments prior to its commencement, and to present the intermediate or final report of the study to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee at its seventh session. The final report should be presented no later than 31 December 2003, unless otherwise decided by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee at its seventh session.

Decision INC-6/10: Case studies on regional and subregional centres

The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee
1.Requests the secretariat to develop and conduct, in cooperation with the secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and the Basel Convention regional centres, as appropriate, one or more case studies of regional and subregional centres for the purpose of facilitating capacity-building and transfer of technology in accordance with article 12 of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and with a view to contributing to the feasibility study provided for in decision INC-6/9 on the feasibility study on regional and subregional centres;
2.Invites Governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and international financial institutions to provide information to the secretariat on how they might contribute to the case studies. Such information should be submitted to the secretariat by 31 October 2002;
3.Requests the secretariat to report to the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee at its seventh session on progress made in implementing the case studies;
4.Agrees that implementation of the case studies should be subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources, and invites developed countries and other countries in accordance with their capabilities, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and international financial institutions who are in a position to do so, to contribute resources.

Appendix II

Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans

1.Convention for the Protection of the Marine and Coastal Envrionment of the West and Central African Region (Barcelona)
2.Abidjan Convention for Cooperation in the Protection and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the West and Central African Region (Abidjan)
3.Convention for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Eastern African Region (Nairobi)
4.Kuwait Regional Convention for Cooperation on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Pollution
5.Regional Convention for the Conservation of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden Environment (Jeddah)
6.South Asia Cooperative Environment Programme (SACEP)
7.East Asian Seas Action Plan
8.Action Plan for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal environment of the Northwest Pacific Region (UNEP/DEC serves as interim Secretariat) (NOWPAP)
9.Convention for the Protection of the Natural Resources and Environment of the South Pacific Region (Noumea)
10.Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and Coastal Area of the South-East Pacific (Lima)
11.Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region (Cartagena)
12.Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (Bucharest)
13.Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area (Helsinki)
14.Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (Paris) (OSPAR)
15.Programme for the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME)
16.Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR)
17.Caspian Environment Programme
18.Northeast Pacific Regional Action Plan