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The ground-breaking decision by Parties to clarify which types of plastic waste are included in the Convention’s legally-binding regulatory system entered into force on 24 March 2020.
Basel Convention’s Plastic Waste Amendments enter into force
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The new Technical Series from the BRS Secretariat opens with four key publications on national reporting, national reporting best practices, legal frameworks, and illegal traffic.
New BRS Technical Series of Guidance Manuals now available online in the 6 UN languages
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Photographs are invited from professionals, amateurs and children, and will be judged by a panel including a National Geographic photographer. Deadline for submission: 30 September 2020.
New Plastic Waste Photo Contest launched to raise awareness on plastic waste pollution
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The 12th meeting of the Basel Convention’s Open-Ended Working Group will take place in Geneva, Switzerland from 22 to 25 June 2020, back-to-back with the 14th meeting of the Implementation and Compliance Committee and the meeting of the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention.
Preparations in full swing for the June meeting of the Basel Convention’s OEWG
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BRS information platforms expanded to include new portal sharing publications, events and contacts from the network of regional centres, starting with the Basel and Stockholm Regional Centre for Francophone Africa in Dakar, Senegal, as the first new information source and publisher.
Regional Centre in Senegal is the first to operationalise automatic information exchange through the BRS Clearing House Mechanism
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BRS Executive Secretary meets Director General, Kunio Mikuriya, after giving keynote address at the WCO Enforcement Committee meeting, in Brussels.
BRS and World Customs Organization seek to deepen cooperation
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The 43rd Session of the Human Rights Council addresses children’s rights to a healthy environment, as UN report shows that 25% of infant deaths are from preventable, environmental hazards.
85 million children engaged in hazardous labour affecting their health through exposure to toxic substances, says UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
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See Inger Andersen (UNEP), Rolph Payet (BRS), Malcom Johnson (ITU) and Maria Neira (WHO) talk about the newly-launched E-waste Massive Open Online Course.
UN agencies join forces to help meet the world’s growing electronic waste challenge: you can join in too!
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A first webinar in a series of five opens the updated and expanded Massive Open Online Course - or MOOC – on E-waste.
Join efforts to tackle the world’s growing E-waste problem
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Less than a year after its establishment, the new Plastic Waste Partnership of the Basel Convention meets for the first time at Beau Vallon, the Seychelles, from 2 to 5 March 2020.
First meeting of the new UN Plastic Waste Partnership takes place in the Seychelles
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The report of the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of Parties is now available online in the six UN languages.
Final Report of the Basel Convention’s COP-14 is now online
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Global seaborne operation on illegal waste dumping, led by INTERPOL, highlights the scale of plastic waste pollution
Month-long operation “30 Days at Sea 2.0” involves more than 200 enforcement agencies and detects more than 3,000 serious offences – land-based and maritime - across 61 countries
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The deadline for 2018 national reports is approaching. Parties can access the questionnaire for national reporting and submit it through the electronic reporting system.
Basel Convention 2018 national reports due 31 December 2019
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Watch live the special event in the UN Palais des Nations, which brings together many of the Convention’s 187 Parties to celebrate the strengthening of efforts for implementing this global, legally-binding, international agreement on waste.
Diplomatic community in Geneva marks the entry into force of the Basel Convention’s Ban Amendment
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High-level event on 25 November brings together key global stakeholders including the World Trade Organisation (WTO), World Bank, World Economic Forum (WEF), and China.
BRS Executive Secretary contributes to discussions on “what role for WTO on addressing plastic pollution” in Geneva
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The draft overall guidance document on the environmentally sound management of household waste is now available for comment by Parties and others, by 31 January 2020.
Household waste in the spotlight: opportunity to comment on Basel Convention guidance document
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Hot on the heels of the PWP launch in Geneva on 12 November, the first online consultation takes place on 13 November, chaired by the Co-Chairs, Mr. Ole Thomas Thommesen (Norway) and Mr. Ross Bartley (BIC).
First online consultation for working group of the new Basel Convention Plastic Waste Partnership
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The 3rd meeting of the expert working group takes place 5 to 8 November, 2019, with generous financial support from the governments of Germany, Norway, and Switzerland.
Experts gather in Bratislava, Slovakia, to continue their review of the Annexes to the Basel Convention
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As the 2019 Our Oceans conference concludes in Oslo, Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment, Mr Ole Elvestuen, confirms substantial support for efforts to tackle marine plastic litter.
Norway pledges funding for new Basel Convention Plastic Waste Partnership, which launches on 12 November
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Established by the Basel Convention COP in May, members and the diplomatic community gather to launch this new initiative at a special event hosted by the City of Geneva.
New UN Partnership on Plastic Waste launched in Geneva on 12 November, 2019
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A public/private partnership, technical guidelines on environmentally sound management, and a massive open online course are amongst the measures tackling e-waste, the world’s fastest growing hazardous waste stream.
On the occasion of the second International E-waste Day, read what Parties to the Basel Convention are doing to address this growing global problem
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The Basel Convention ENFORCE partnership met in Geneva from 30 September to 1 October, thanks to funding support from Norway.
International partnership of enforcement experts push forward on preventing illegal traffic of waste
The Environmental Network for Optimizing Regulatory Compliance on Illegal Traffic (ENFORCE) staged its 11th Meeting in Geneva from 30 September to 1 October, 2019, with funding support kindly provided by the Government of Norway.
As well as Basel Convention Parties representing their regions, the partnership includes representatives from of the Basel Convention Regional Centres, and organizations with a specific mandate to deliver implementation and enforcement capacity-building activities for preventing and combating illegal traffic of hazardous wastes and other wastes under the Basel Convention, such as UNEP, IMPEL, the International Criminal Police Organisation – INTERPOL - and the World Customs Organisation.
Members and observers exchanged information on their activities which will be included in the roadmap of activities for 2019-2020. ENFORCE also agreed to continue collecting training tools developed by its members as well as under the framework of the Basel Convention which will be made available through an online library on the Basel Convention website later this year.
Click here to read more information on the meeting and on ENFORCE.
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With waste the theme of this year’s World Habitat Day, Antonio Guterres highlights the role of frontier technologies to transform waste into wealth, and stresses the need to reduce waste in the first place.
UN Secretary General calls for increased investment in waste management
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With waste the theme of this year’s World Habitat Day, Antonio Guterres highlights the role of frontier technologies to transform waste into wealth, and stresses the need to reduce waste in the first place.
BRS Executive Secretary urges strong cooperation between chemicals and waste and regional seas conventions
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The final evaluation of the Convention’s Strategic Framework for implementation for 2012-2021 is underway, and Parties are asked to submit information by 31 January 2020.
Parties invited to provide information to improve Basel Convention implementation
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