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COMPENSATION AND LIABILITY PROTOCOL ADOPTED BY BASEL CONVENTION ON HAZARDOUS WASTES

UNEP Press Release

BASEL, Switzerland, 10 December 1999 -­ The Protocol on Liability and Compensation for Damage Resulting from the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal has been adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention. Officials from the 125 governments, including 26 government ministers, met this week in Basel, Switzerland, to consider the Protocol, among other issues regarding hazardous wastes.

The objective of the Protocol is to provide for a comprehensive regime for liability as well as adequate and prompt compensation for damage resulting from the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and other wastes, including incidents occurring because of illegal traffic in those wastes.

“For the first time, we have a mechanism for assigning responsibility for damage caused by accidental spills of hazardous waste during export or import,” said Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “The adoption of the Protocol is a major breakthrough.”

The Protocol addresses who is financially responsible in the event of an incident. Each phase of a transboundary movement, from the generation of wastes to their export, international transit, import, and final disposal, is considered.

Delegates have also adopted a decision for an interim arrangement to cover emergency situations until the Protocol enters into force.

The Protocol talks began in 1993 in response to the concerns of developing countries about their lack of funds and technologies for coping with illegal dumping or accidental spills.

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal entered into force in 1992. It is concerned with the annual world-wide production of hundreds of millions of tonnes of hazardous wastes. These wastes are considered hazardous to people or the environment if they are toxic, poisonous, explosive, corrosive, flammable, eco-toxic, or infectious.

The Convention regulates the movement of these wastes and obliges its members to ensure that such wastes are managed and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

Governments are expected to minimize the quantities that are transported, to treat and dispose of wastes as close as possible to where they were generated, and to minimize the generation of hazardous waste at source.

Note to journalists: For more information please contact Mr. Michael Williams on (+41-22) 917 8242/44, fax: (+41-22) 797 3464, email: michael.williams@unep.ch. Official documents and other information on the Basel Convention are available on the Internet at http://www.basel.int/

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