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For Immediate Release, Basel
Action Network (BAN)
The call for this "new year's resolution" comes in the wake of this month's horrific scandal involving the export of hazardous wastes from chemical giant Formosa Plastics in Taiwan to the port town of Sihanoukville in Cambodia. The dumping incident is reported to have left seven dead due to both the immediate effects of the hazardous wastes as well as the public reaction that followed -- a riot and mass exodus of an estimated 10,000 persons. Neither Taiwan nor Cambodia are parties to the "Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal" and as such were left extremely vulnerable to waste traffickers, according to BAN. The Basel Convention adopted in 1989, forbids trade in hazardous wastes without high level consent by exporting and receiving countries, and assurances that the waste in question would be managed in a "environmentally sound manner." Additionally, in 1992, the Basel member countries passed a decision requesting all developing countries to prohibit the import of hazardous wastes from industrialized countries. Then in 1994 and again in 1995 (as an amendment), the Basel Convention adopted consensus decisions which strictly prohibited exports of hazardous wastes from developed countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD -- 29 member group of most industrialized countries) to non-OECD countries. The Basel Convention membership now exceeds 100 countries. While the Basel Ban Amendment has so far been ratified by the European Union, Norway and Ecuador (a total of 17 countries). "The fact that this disaster has happened to countries that have not yet joined the international treaty strictly curbing hazardous waste trade, is a wake-up call to the world," said Jim Puckett, Coordinator of the global Basel Action Network Secretariat. "While rapidly addressing the immediate crisis in Cambodia, all governments that have not already done so, must take immediate steps to simultaneously ratify the Basel Ban Amendment and the Basel Convention." According to BAN, if either Cambodia or Taiwan had already been Party to the Basel Convention, there would be no question that the Taiwan-to-Cambodia waste dumping would have been illegal and deemed a criminal offence. Thus it is likely that such a plan to export toxic wastes would likely have never commenced. Further the repatriation of the hazardous waste that was shipped illegally would have been a legal requirement. Asia is the area of the world currently experiencing the worst abuses of toxic waste trade. In the coming weeks BAN will be working with local affiliate organizations and with government officials to ensure that Cambodia and Taiwan ratify the Basel Convention and Ban Amendment at the earliest opportunity. "Seven persons have already died due to toxic waste dumping in Cambodia," said Puckett. "As tragic and despicable as this dumping has been, the greater tragedy would be if governments sat on their hands and failed to take the obvious step of joining the vast majority of the global community that has already condemned and banned waste trafficking." For more information contact: Jim Puckett, Coordinator More News |
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