The Illegal Trade in Chemicals

Status: The Convention entered into force on 5 May 1992. There are 187 Parties to the Convention as of February 2020.

traffic in hazardous wastes and other wastes through the better implementation and enforcement of national law.

Regional Conventions

The Parties have recognized the need for synergies between the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions in preventing and combating illegal traffic and trade in hazardous chemicals and wastes, and in 2017 formalized this recognition in a new decision. 4 The Parties agreed that as the first step in implementing this decision the relevant organizations and global and regional enforcement networks should provide information on their activities aimed at preventing and combating illegal traffic and trade in hazardous chemicals and wastes as well as lessons learned from those activities. The Conferences of the Parties also invited Parties to share information on their national coordination mechanisms and cases of illegal traffic and trade. Environmental Network for Optimizing Regulatory Compliance on Illegal Traffic The Environmental Network for Optimizing Regulatory Compliance on Illegal Traffic was established by the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention at the eleventh Conference of Parties in 2013. Its membership includes parties to the Convention, entities with a specific mandate that could assist parties in preventing and combating illegal traffic of hazardous waste and other waste, and entities with a specific role or relevance to the objective of the network. It seeks to promote Parties’ compliance with the provisions of the Basel Convention pertaining to preventing and combating illegal

The Convention to Ban the Importation into Forum Island Countries of Hazardous and RadioactiveWastes and to Control theTransboundaryMovement andManagement of Hazardous Wastes within the South Pacific Region (Waigani Convention) and the Bamako Convention on the Ban on the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa (Bamako Convention) are regional agreements regulating trade in hazardous wastes. The Bamako Convention prohibits the import of all hazardous and radioactive wastes into the African continent for any reason; minimizes and controls transboundary movements of hazardous wastes within the African continent; and prohibits all ocean and inland water dumping or incineration of hazardous wastes. The Convention defines a violation of these requirements as illegal trade. Currently, 28 African countries are Parties to the Convention.

Agenda 21

At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992, Parties endorsedAgenda 21, anon-bindingactionplan for sustainable development. Chapter 19 of the plan outlines six programme

The Illegal Trade in Chemicals

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