Illegal traffic

Within its mandate to improve the implementation of and compliance with Article 9 on preventing and combating illegal traffic, the Committee was requested to undertake a number of activities.

By its decision BC-14/15 (link to the decision), the Conference of the Parties mandated the Committee to:

1. Undertake a scoping exercise of the extent of illegal traffic with a view to estimating: (i) how many cases of illegal traffic there are; (ii) with respect to which wastes; (iii) in which regions; and (iv) how they were resolved;
2. To better assist Parties to enhance coordination between their competent authorities and enforcement entities, and to develop a better understanding of the reasons for: (i) any shortcomings in establishing coordination mechanisms; (ii) the limited amount of information on illegal traffic shared with the Secretariat; and (iii) what can be done to enhance coordination and increase the flow of information;
3. Establish a dialogue with other multilateral environmental agreements with international trade control regimes to learn from their experience;
4. Review the information provided by Parties in response to question 1 (c) of the reporting format and make recommendations to improve the implementation of paragraphs 3 and 4 of Article 4 of the Convention as they relate to preventing and combating illegal traffic;
5. Review existing cooperative arrangements with international organizations or entities with a mandate regarding preventing and combating illegal traffic including the terms of reference of the Environmental Network for Optimizing Regulatory Compliance on Illegal Traffic (ENFORCE) with a view to strengthening such arrangements;
6. Explore modalities for disseminating, especially to enforcement entities, existing guidance and technical assistance tools developed under the Convention to assist Parties to prevent and combat illegal traffic;

The assist with this work, the Committee prepared two questionnaires with a view to collecting information as follows:

• Information from international organizations or entities with a mandate regarding preventing and combating illegal traffic. Those organisations and entities were:
  • the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL);
  • the World Customs Organization (WCO);
  • the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC);
  • the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP);
  • the United Nations University (UNU);
  • the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE);
  • the Basel Convention regional and coordinating centres (BCRCs);
  • the Global Resource Information Database at Arendal, Norway (GRID-Arendal);
  • the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI); and
  • the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL).
• Information from Parties as well as current and former members of ENFORCE about their experience with the ENFORCE cooperative arrangements.