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-16/14, the Conference of the Parties mandated the Committee to:
- Invite Parties that have yet to undertake a self-review of their legislation for implementing the Convention, using the legislator’s checklist, to do so and also provide, where applicable, information on their legislative implementation of the Ban Amendment, the plastic wastes amendments and the e-waste amendments;
- Invite the 49 Parties that undertook a self-review of their legislation for implementing the Convention, using the legislator’s checklist, to consider updating their self-review if needed, and, where applicable, to specifically review whether their legislation reflects the Ban Amendment, the plastic wastes amendments and the e-waste amendments;
- Consider general trends with the implementation of and compliance with paragraph 4 of Article 4 and paragraph 5 of Article 9 of the Convention;
- 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; giving adequate consideration to improving the implementation of and compliance with paragraph 4 of Article 4 and paragraph 5 of Article 9 of the Convention, where applicable, with respect to the Ban Amendment, the plastic wastes amendments and the e-waste amendments;
- 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, including the Ban Amendment, the plastic wastes amendments and the e-waste amendments;
- Monitor activities undertaken by or with the support of the Basel Convention regional and coordinating centres (BCRCs), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other entities, including national development agencies, aimed at assisting Parties in developing legal frameworks for the implementation of the Basel Convention, including the Ban Amendment, the plastic wastes amendments and the e-waste amendments;
- Establish a dialogue and coordinate with the BCRCs, 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 (SP), UNEP and other entities, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Global Environment Facility (GEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Industrial Development organization (UNIDO), the World Bank and other relevant financial institutions, on their activities aimed at supporting Parties in performing their obligations related to the development of legal frameworks to implement and enforce the Convention, including the Ban Amendment, the plastic wastes amendments and the e-waste amendments;
- 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, also taking into account the information received by three Parties under the 2022–2023 work programme of the Committee, for consideration by the Conference of the Parties at its sixteenth and subsequent meetings;
- 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.
To assist the Committee with its work under (1) and (2) above, which is a continuation of activities under the Committee’s 2022-2023 work programme the Secretariat invited Parties that had not yet undertaken a self-review of their legislation for implementing the Convention, using the legislator’s checklist, to do so and to also provide, where applicable, information on their legislative implementation of the Ban Amendment, the plastic wastes amendments and the e-waste amendments. In addition, the 49 Parties that had undertaken a self-review of their legislation for implementing the Convention under the Committee’s work programme for 2022-2023, using the legislator’s checklist, were invited to consider updating their self-review if needed and, where applicable, to specifically review whether their legislation reflects the Ban Amendment, the plastic wastes amendments, and the e-waste amendments. The responses received from Parties are set out in the table below.