The Basel Convention: Scope and General Obligations

In one line

MU asks for the salient features of the Basel Convention, and there are eight: a definition that borrows national law, a duty to minimise generation, a duty to dispose at home, a ban on export to a party that has prohibited import, prior informed consent, a bar on trade with non-parties, environmentally sound management as a condition of every movement, and the declaration that illegal traffic is criminal.

The four questions the Convention answers

Every provision in articles 1 to 6 answers one of four questions, and organising an answer round them beats reciting article numbers.

• What does it cover? Articles 1 and 2, examined in the previous chapter.
• What must a party do at home? Article 4(2), (4), (7) and (13).
• When may waste leave? Article 4(1), (5), (6), (8) and (9).
• How is a movement controlled? Articles 5 and 6.

Article 3, national definitions

Each party must inform the Secretariat, within six months of becoming a party, of wastes other than those in Annexes I and II that are considered or defined as hazardous under its national legislation, and of any requirements concerning transboundary movement procedures applicable to them. Significant changes must be notified subsequently, the Secretariat must inform all parties forthwith, and each party is responsible for making that information available to its exporters.

That last duty is what makes article 1(1)(b) workable. An exporter is fixed with knowledge of the destination State's definitions because its own State must give them to it.

Article 4, the general obligations

This is the heart of the Convention and the article MU's question about salient features is really asking about.

The right to prohibit, and its consequence. A party exercising its right to prohibit the import of hazardous or other wastes for disposal must inform the other parties through the Secretariat under article 13. Every other party must then prohibit or not permit the export of such wastes to it. Where a State of import has not prohibited import, export is still forbidden unless that State consents in writing to the specific import. Article 4(1)(a) to (c).

Domestic duties. Under article 4(2) each party must take appropriate measures to:

• reduce the generation of hazardous and other wastes to a minimum, taking social, technological and economic aspects into account;
• ensure the availability of adequate disposal facilities for environmentally sound management, located to the extent possible within it;
• ensure that persons managing wastes prevent pollution and, if it occurs, minimise the consequences;
• ensure that transboundary movement is reduced to the minimum consistent with environmentally sound and efficient management;
• not allow export to a party, particularly a developing country, that has prohibited all imports by its legislation, or if it has reason to believe that the wastes will not be managed in an environmentally sound manner;
• require information about a proposed movement to be given to the States concerned in accordance with Annex V A, stating clearly the effects on human health and the environment;
• prevent import if it has reason to believe the wastes will not be soundly managed;
• cooperate with other parties and with the Secretariat to improve environmentally sound management and to prevent illegal traffic.