National legislation

Within its mandate to improve the implementation of and compliance with paragraph 4 of Article 4 and paragraph 5 of Article 9 of the Convention on national legislation, the Committee was requested to undertake a number of activities.

By its Decision BC-15/17, the Conference of the Parties mandated the Committee to:

1.  Invite Parties to undertake a self-review of their legislation for implementing the Convention, using the legislator’s checklist, and to consider general trends;
2. Monitor progress achieved by Parties in transmitting to the Secretariat texts of national legislation and other measures adopted by them to implement and enforce the Convention;
3. Monitor requests from Parties received by the Secretariat for information aimed at facilitating the development and review of national legal frameworks and for the technical assistance activities of the Secretariat aimed at promoting the implementation of paragraph 4 of Article 4 and paragraph 5 of Article 9 of the Convention;
4. Monitor activities undertaken by or with the support of the Basel Convention regional and coordinating centres, UNEP and other entities aimed at assisting Parties in developing legal frameworks for the implementation of the Basel Convention;
5. Develop recommendations on how to improve implementation of and compliance with paragraph 4 of Article 4 and paragraph 5 of Article 9 of the Convention;
6. When undertaking the activities listed in subparagraphs (a) to (e) above, give adequate consideration to improving the implementation of and compliance with paragraph 4 of Article 4 and paragraph 5 of Article 9 of the Convention with respect to the amendments pursuant to decision BC III/1 (Ban Amendment) and decision BC-14/12 (plastic wastes amendments);
7. Establish a dialogue and coordinate with the Basel Convention regional and coordinating centres, the Executive Board of the Special Programme to support institutional strengthening at the national level for implementation of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, the Minamata Convention and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management, UNEP and other entities, such as FAO, GEF, UNDP, UNIDO, the World Bank and regional development banks, on their activities aimed at supporting Parties in performing their obligations related to the development of legal frameworks to implement and enforce the Convention, and develop recommendations for consideration by the Conference of the Parties;
8. Review, subject to the availability of resources and according to the priorities established by the Conference of the Parties for the given biennium, Parties’ implementation of the Convention in national law, starting with Parties that have not yet provided information to the Secretariat as to whether they have national legislation implementing the Convention, for consideration by the Conference of the Parties at its sixteenth and subsequent meetings.

To assist the Committee its work under a (1) above, the Secretariat, in a letter dated 8 July 2022, invited Parties to undertake a review of their legislation using the legislator’s checklist, or, in the event such legislation was not in place, to complete a questionnaire seeking information on the reasons for the lack of legislation or other measures, and on steps that could be taken to resolve the matter. The responses received from Parties are set out in the table below.