Treaties and International Agreements

List of Treaties and International Agreements

• Bamako Convention

This convention prohibits the import into Africa of any hazardous, including radioactive, wastes, as well as products which have been banned, cancelled or withdrawn from registration for environmental or health reasons.

• Basel Convention and Ban Amendment

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (1989) together with its Ban Amendment (1995) deals with the control and banning of abusive transboundary movements of hazardous wastes. The Ban Amendment prohibits exports of hazardous wastes from the OECD, EC and Liechtenstein to all other countries.

• Central American Agreement

This agreement creates a ban on the import of all hazardous wastes into the Central American region.

• Izmir Protocol

This protocol prohibits the export of hazardous and radioactive wastes to non-OECD countries and those Parties that are not members of the European Community are prohibited from importing hazardous and radioactive wastes.

• London Convention Protocol

This convention bans virtually all industrial and radioactive waste from being dumped or incinerated at sea.

• Minamata Convention

This convention seeks to limit overall use of mercury and mercury compounds with the intent of protecting human health and the environment.

• Rotterdam Convention

This convention seeks to ensure that exports of extremely dangerous chemicals only take place with the consent of the recipient country, and replaces the current voluntary prior informed consent regime with a mandatory one.

• Stockholm Convention

This convention aims to eliminate from commercial use and release, 24 of the most dangerous global pollutants including the highly toxic, by-products of chlorine chemistry – dioxins and furans.

• Waigani Convention

This treaty prohibits each Pacific Island developing Party from importing all hazardous and radioactive wastes from outside of the Convention area. Australia and New Zealand are prohibited from exporting hazardous or radioactive wastes to all other South Pacific Forum Island countries.

Status of Treaties and International Agreements

Package Deal: Five Treaties to Fight Pollution

Time for Entry into Force for All Five

May, 2015

Some very significant milestones of international environmental law have occurred in recent years. First, the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade entered into force on 24 February 2004. Then, on 17 May 2004 the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) entered into force. And in 2009, the 1996 London Convention Protocol also achieved the requisite ratifications to enter into the force of international law. Governments, intergovernmental bodies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) alike celebrated the successful adoption of these vital treaties.

Unfortunately, any further celebration must be put on hold, as two of the Package of 5 Toxic Treaties have still, as yet not entered into international force. Most notably, the Basel Convention with the Basel Ban Amendment remains an unfulfilled promise! Without the Ban Amendment, envisaged as being part of the Convention since the beginning, the Basel Convention cannot be considered complete. Until the Ban Amendment enters into force, every country that has not yet done so should move with haste to ratify each of the treaties described below:

1. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (1989) together with its Ban Amendment (1995) deals with the control and banning of abusive transboundary movements of hazardous wastes. The Ban Amendment, which prohibits exports of hazardous wastes from the OECD, EC and Liechtenstein to all other countries, was passed twice by consensus; dramatically changing the effect of the original Basel Convention. The 1995 Basel Amendment strengthened the original treaty to such an extent that without the amendment, the original text must be viewed as unacceptably out of date. For more information on the significance of the Basel Ban Amendment see BAN Briefing Paper No. 1. At COP10 in October 2011, it was decided that the amendment will enter into force when 68 of the 90 countries that were Parties to the Convention in 1995 ratify the agreement. To date 56 of these have ratified leaving just 12 more needed. See BAN Briefing Paper No. 4 for more information on the countdown to entry into force.

2. The Protocol to the London Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Waste and Other Matter (1996) now in force and thus replaces the original London Dumping Convention (1972). The protocol, rather than prescribing which dumping can take place, takes a more precautionary approach to its predecessor. It utilizes a reverse list, which assumes that wastes cannot be dumped in our global commons unless explicitly reviewed and especially listed. Thus the treaty bans virtually all industrial and radioactive waste from being dumped or incinerated at sea.

3. The Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (1998) was the first international treaty to deal with chemical products. It seeks to ensure that exports of extremely dangerous chemicals only take place with the consent of the recipient country, and replaces the current voluntary prior informed consent regime with a mandatory one. The treaty currently covers 43 chemicals including 33 pesticides and is now in force.

4. The Stockholm Convention (2001) for the first time, aims to eliminate from commercial use and release, 24 of the most dangerous global pollutants including the highly toxic, by-products of chlorine chemistry – dioxins and furans. It will minimize the releases of these compounds from a variety of industrial and consumer sources through the substitution of less toxic products and processes. The Stockholm Convention moved from paper promise to international law in just three short years. The success of Stockholm in attaining this goal, much like Rotterdam’s, came about due to the aggressive promotion and support given by the Secretariat of the Convention in getting the Parties to ratify.

5. The Minamata Convention (2013) is the most recent addition to the “Package of Five”, having been adopted in October of 2013. This treaty seeks to limit overall use of mercury and mercury compounds with the intent of protecting human health and the environment. It has only been ratified by 12 Parties to the Convention thus far, requiring 38 more for entry into force.

Progress Reports on the “Package of Five”

BAN has compiled a country progress report on ratification of the “Package of Five” – the five most significant global toxics agreements. We will keep this report card up to date on our website (www.ban.org/country_status/report_card.html). In the table below one can view a summary of the report card showing how many countries have ratified none, one, two, three, four, or five of the “Package of Five” treaties.