Basel: Disputes, Amendments and Final Clauses

In one line

Final clauses are usually skipped and should not be here, because the amendment rule in article 17, the no-reservations rule in article 26 and the entry into force rule in article 25 are the three provisions that decide what the Ban Amendment could and could not do.

Why this chapter exists

Articles 21 to 29 are the machinery of the treaty as an instrument: who may sign, how it enters into force, whether reservations are allowed, how a party leaves. Most students skip them, and then cannot explain why the Ban Amendment took twenty-four years or why India can be a party to Basel and not to the Ban Amendment at the same time. The answers are in these articles.

Signature and participation, articles 21 to 24

Signature, article 21. Open for signature by States, by Namibia represented by the United Nations Council for Namibia, and by political or economic integration organizations, at Basel on 22 March 1989, at Berne from 23 March to 30 June 1989, and at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 1 July 1989 to 22 March 1990.

The reference to Namibia dates the Convention exactly. Namibia was still under United Nations administration in March 1989 and became independent in 1990. It is a small clause with a large use in an examination, because it proves the Convention is a document of the very end of the Cold War order.

Consent to be bound, articles 22 and 23. Ratification, acceptance or approval by States, formal confirmation or approval by integration organizations, with instruments deposited with the Depositary; accession is open from the day after signature closes.

The integration organization rules, articles 22(2) and (3), 23(2) and (3), and 24(2). An organization that becomes a party without any of its member States is bound by all the obligations. Where one or more member States are parties, the organization and its member States decide on their respective responsibilities and may not exercise rights concurrently. Such organizations must declare the extent of their competence and notify substantial modifications. On voting, each contracting party has one vote, but an organization voting on a matter within its competence casts a number of votes equal to the number of its member States that are parties, and may not vote if its member States vote, or the reverse.

This is drafted for the European Community, now the European Union, and it is worth naming, because the European ban on exports of hazardous waste to non-OECD States is the most consequential single act of implementation in this whole field.

Entry into force, article 25

The Convention entered into force on the ninetieth day after the deposit of the twentieth instrument, and for each later party on the ninetieth day after it deposits its own. An instrument deposited by an integration organization is not counted as additional to those of its member States.