Hazardous Wastes - Basel Convention

Distr.
GENERAL

UNEP/CHW.6/40
10 February 2003


ORIGINAL:ENGLISH
CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE BASEL
CONVENTION ON THE CONTROL OF
TRANSBOUNDARY MOVEMENTS OF
HAZARDOUS WASTES AND
THEIR DISPOSAL
Sixth meeting
Geneva, 9-13 December 2002


REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES TO THE BASEL CONVENTION
ON THE CONTROL OF TRANSBOUNDARY MOVEMENTS
OF HAZARDOUS WASTES AND THEIR DISPOSAL

PART ONE. PREPARATORY SEGMENT

I. OPENING OF THE MEETING (Item 1)

The sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention
on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their
Disposal was held at the Palais de Nations, Geneva, from 9 to 13 December
2002. The meeting was called to order at 10 a.m. on Monday, 9 December
2002, by Ms. Sachiko Kuwabara-Yamamoto, Executive Secretary of the Basel
Convention.

Following an opening ceremony, which included a video presentation on the
background and status of the Basel Convention, Mr. Philippe Roch, President
of the Expanded Bureau of the fifth meeting of the Conference of the
Parties, welcomed the participants to the sixth meeting. The officers of
the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties presided over the
meeting until the election of new officers.

Mr. Roch stated that many important decisions and achievements since the
fifth meeting had laid the groundwork for the tasks ahead of the current
meeting. The Ministerial Declaration on Environmentally Sound Management
had brought forth the draft strategic plan which, when fine-tuned and
approved by the Parties, would provide strong guidance for implementation
of the Convention through 2010. The Basel Protocol on Liability and
Compensation, when it entered into force with the required number of
ratifications, would provide a simple and unbureaucratic way of ensuring
that companies dealing in hazardous wastes had taken on adequate financial
protection. The Basel Convention Regional Centres, once legally
established, would play a central role in executing the strategic plan. In
that respect, the secretariat's in-depth analysis of the Regional Centres
showed the need to support their effectiveness as channels for action under
the Convention.

With regard to partnership-building, Mr. Roch announced the initiative on
mobile telephones of the Government of Switzerland to promote partnerships
with industry, as well as funding of a new position in the secretariat for
that purpose, noting that the industrial sector held vast knowledge and
technical and financial resources which could be drawn upon to find
solutions for environmentally sound waste management. The Basel
Convention's increasing focus on waste prevention and management, together
with its partnership-building initiatives, were consistent with the greater
cooperation between multilateral environmental agreements that had been
encouraged at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

In closing, Mr. Roch called on Parties to provide financial support and
technical input to the secretariat, thanked outgoing Expanded Bureau
members and working group chairs for their efforts, commended the
secretariat for its dedication and hard work, and wished participants a
successful meeting.

The meeting was then addressed by Ms. Sachiko Kuwabara-Yamamoto, Executive
Secretary of the secretariat of the Basel Convention. Noting widespread
support for the Basel Convention within the international community, she
welcomed 17 new Parties that had ratified the Convention since the fifth
meeting of the Conference of the Parties, and noted that 5 more were in the
process of ratification. She noted a slower but steady progress in
ratifications of the Ban Amendment (see decision III/1), expressed concern
at the lack of ratifications of the Protocol on Liability and Compensation,
and called on the Parties to work with the secretariat to improve the
situation.

With regard to activities under the Convention, a great deal of progress
had been made, as exemplified by the proposed technical guidelines and
mechanisms for implementation and compliance, notably the draft strategic
plan, as well as achievements at the regional level. It was essential to
build on those achievements and maintain momentum, particularly by making a
strong commitment to the Convention's Regional Centres. The Executive
Secretary stressed that the Centres would not survive if the current
Conference of the Parties failed to demonstrate concrete support for their
work.

The period leading up to the current Conference of the Parties had also
been used to pursue and strengthen cooperative relationships with other
United Nations bodies, specialized agencies, multilateral environmental
agreements, industry and non-governmental organizations. In fact, in view
of the importance of the matter, the Expanded Bureau had agreed that
"Partnership for implementation of the Convention" should be the theme of
the current Conference.

Noting that the World Summit on Sustainable Development had stressed the
importance of hazardous waste management, particularly in developing
countries, the Executive Secretary said that the Basel Convention should
help developing countries achieve environmentally sound waste management.
That meant seeing the recovery and disposal of hazardous and other wastes
in the context of the integrated life-cycle management of materials, with
particular emphasis on waste minimization. The Basel Declaration was
providing the road map to achieve environmentally sound management, and the
secretariat would continue to work within the framework of its
comprehensive approach to minimizing the quantity and hazardousness of
wastes.

The Executive Secretary thanked a number of Governments for their support
to the voluntary trust fund for developing and other countries in need of
technical assistance, and for sponsoring junior programme officers and a
senior position within the secretariat for partnership with industry, and
wished participants a fruitful Conference of the Parties.

A statement was then made by Mr. Vijay Samnotra, speaking on behalf of Mr.
Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP). He expressed UNEP's great pride in the Basel Convention,
and commended it for its positive measures to propel the international
environmental agenda forward. He invited Parties to work cooperatively to
develop the strategic plan for the implementation of the Basel Convention,
and commended the good cooperation that existed between the secretariats of
the Basel Convention and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic
Pollutants. UNEP appreciated the implementing activities of the Basel
Convention's Regional Centres, which should also play a supportive role in
the implementation of related multilateral environmental agreements.

He highlighted the fact that the success of multilateral environmental
agreements was judged by the degree of compliance with convention
obligations. He therefore urged participants to complete the negotiation of
a compliance mechanism, with a view to adopting it at the current meeting.
With regard to coordination of the multilateral environmental agreements,
he said that UNEP would focus on enhancing its programmatic and
administrative service role towards the agreements it served. As part of
that process, UNEP would continue to consult with the secretariat of the
Basel Convention, in full consideration of the autonomous nature of the
Convention.

In closing, the representative of UNEP said that he was sure that the
decisions taken at the current meeting, though not easy, would be
recognized by future historians as having contributed to the emergence of
the new world of sustainable development.

Following the opening statements, the meeting proceeded to elect the
incoming President and other officers of the Expanded Bureau for the sixth
meeting of the Conference of the Parties.


II. ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT AND OTHER OFFICERS (Item 2)

The following officers were elected to the Bureau of the sixth meeting of
the Conference of the Parties:

President: Mr. Ioan Jelev (Romania)


Vice-President: Mr. Ephraim Mathebula (South Africa)
Mr. Andreas Jaron (Germany)
Mr. Toshiyuki Taga (Japan)


Rapporteur: Ms. Maria Cecilia Rozas (Peru)

Following his election, Mr. Jelev congratulated the outgoing President for
his guidance at the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties. He
expressed his thanks to the delegates for putting trust in him and electing
him President of the sixth meeting of the Conference of the Parties. He
promised to do his best to achieve results and requested full cooperation
from all the delegates to that end.


III. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA (Item 3)

At the opening plenary session, the Conference adopted the following
agenda, based on the provisional agenda which had been circulated in
document UNEP/CHW.6/1 and its Corr.1.

Preparatory segment

1. Opening of the meeting:


(a) Opening statement by the President of the fifth meeting of
the Conference of the Parties;


(b) Statement by the Executive Secretary;


(c) Statement by the representative of the Executive Director of
UNEP.


2. Election of the President and other officers.


3. Adoption of the agenda.


4. Organization of the meeting.


5. Credentials of representatives.


6. Consideration of the implementation of the Basel Convention:


(a) Basel Declaration on Environmentally Sound Management and the
10-year strategic plan for the implementation of the Basel
Convention;


(b) Basel Convention Regional Centres for Training and Technology
T