Introduction

This section contains information relating to national legislation and other regulatory measures adopted by Parties and is intended to assist Parties and others to implement the provisions of the Basel Convention.
Recognizing the importance of national legal and administrative instruments for the effective implementation of the Basel Convention, Article 4(4) of the Convention provides that: "Each Party shall take appropriate legal, administrative and other measures to implement and enforce the provisions of this Convention, including measures to prevent and punish conduct in contravention of the Convention". The Conference of the Parties at its ninth meeting in addition urges Parties to promulgate, update or develop stringent legislation on the control of transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and to incorporate in their legislation, appropriate sanctions or penalties for illegal traffic in hazardous wastes.

Text of National legislation

The texts of national legislation included on this site have been supplied by the Parties to the Secretariat. Some of the texts are available only in the national language of the country concerned and are not translated into one of the official UN languages. It is also noted that this section of the site does not purport to contain a complete set of the national legislation adopted by all the Parties to implement the Convention. As texts are received, they shall be added to the collection on this site.

The Checklist for the Legislator

The Checklist for the Legislator has been prepared by the Secretariat of the Basel Convention in cooperation with the Committee for Administering the Mechanism for Promoting Implementation and Compliance (the Compliance Committee) as a complement to the Model National Legislation. The checklist is aimed at the legislator who will be drafting the national implementing legislation and seeks to identify the most fundamental matters that should be addressed in national implementing legislation, taking into account that such legislation may be combined with national legislation to implement the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

It should be noted that this checklist does not address all matters that a legislator could choose to address in national implementing legislation and that the Secretariat and the Compliance Committee welcome all comments from Parties to further elaborate and update the list.

Model National Legislation

The Model National Legislation was developed by the Legal Working Group on the basis of existing national legislation and institutional arrangements in various countries. It is designed to assist Parties in developing and/or up-dating their national legislation and institutional arrangements to ensure the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes and their disposal and to facilitate and ensure the compliance of Contracting Parties with the provisions of the Convention.

Additional Information

Additional information concerning national legislation can be obtained from the ECOLEX portal, which is an information service on environmental law jointly operated by FAO, IUCN and UNEP. This portal includes information on national legislation, treaties, judicial decisions and technical guidance documents and can be accessed at www.ecolex.org