The President of the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (COP 9), in his statement on the way forward on the Ban Amendment (Annex to decision IX/26; document UNEP/CHW.9/39), called for a process to explore means by which objectives of the Ban Amendment might be achieved.

Based on the statement of the President of COP 9, Indonesia and Switzerland announced their readiness to organize a “Country-led Initiative” (CLI), inviting key players, to discuss in an informal, dynamic and non-dogmatic manner those issues related to the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes, especially to developing countries, contrary to the overarching objective of the Ban Amendment.

The CLI process developed a draft omnibus decision, which formed the basis of discussions and the adoption of a decision at the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (Decision BC-10/3 on the Indonesian-Swiss country-led initiative to improve the effectiveness of the Basel Convention).