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-14/15, 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 annexed to the Manual for the implementation of the Basel Convention 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 for information received by the Secretariat from Parties aimed at facilitating the development and review of national legal frameworks, as well as 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, the United Nations Environment Programme and other entities aimed at assisting Parties to develop 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, taking into account activity 2 (d) of the work programme

To assist with its work under (4) above, the Committee prepared a questionnaire with a view to collecting information on activities undertaken by or with the support of the Basel Convention regional and coordinating centres, the United Nations Environment Programme and other entities aimed at assisting Parties with the development of legal frameworks. The questionnaire, which also sought information on activities aimed at assisting Parties with the transmission of national reports, was made available to the following organizations:

• The Basel Convention regional and coordinating centres;
• UNEP;
• the Global Environment Facility (GEF);
• the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD);
• the World Bank;
• the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO);
• the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO);
• the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP);
• the African Development Bank (AFDB);
• the Asian Development Bank (ADB); and
• the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).