Agenda 21
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Chapter 20. Environmentally Sound Management of Hazardous Wastes
Including Prevention of Illegal International Traffic in Hazardous Wastes
Introduction
20.1. Effective control of the generation, storage, treatment, recycling and reuse,
transport, recovery and disposal of hazardous wastes is of paramount importance for proper
health, environmental protection and natural resource management, and sustainable
development. This will require the active cooperation and participation of the
international community, Governments and industry. Industry, as referred to in this paper,
shall include large industrial enterprises, including transnational corporations and
domestic industry.
20.2. Prevention of the generation of hazardous wastes and the rehabilitation of
contaminated sites are the key elements, and both require knowledge, experienced people,
facilities, financial resources and technical and scientific capacities.
20.3. The activities outlined in the present chapter are very closely related to, and
have implications for, many of the programme areas described in other chapters, so that an
overall integrated approach to hazardous waste management is necessary.
20.4. There is international concern that part of the international movement of
hazardous wastes is being carried out in contravention of existing national legislation
and international instruments to the detriment of the environment and public health of all
countries, particularly developing countries.
20.5. In section I of resolution 44/226 of 22 December 1989, the General Assembly
requested each regional commission, within existing resources, to contribute to the
prevention of the illegal traffic in toxic and dangerous products and wastes by monitoring
and making regional assessments of that illegal traffic and its environmental and health
implications. The Assembly also requested the regional commissions to interact among
themselves and cooperate with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with a view
to maintaining efficient and coordinated monitoring and assessment of the illegal traffic
in toxic and dangerous products and wastes.
Overall objective
20.6. Within the framework of integrated life-cycle management, the overall objective
is to prevent to the extent possible, and minimize, the generation of hazardous wastes, as
well as to manage those wastes in such a way that they do not cause harm to health and the
environment.
Overall targets
20.7. The overall targets are:
(a) Preventing or minimizing the generation of hazardous wastes as part of an overall
integrated cleaner production approach; eliminating or reducing to a minimum transboundary
movements of hazardous wastes, consistent with the environmentally sound and efficient
management of those wastes; and ensuring that environmentally sound hazardous waste
management options are pursued to the maximum extent possible within the country of origin
(the self-sufficiency principle). The transboundary movements that take place should be on
environmental and economic grounds and based upon agreements between the States concerned;
(b) Ratification of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal and the expeditious elaboration of related protocols,
such as the protocol on liability and compensation, mechanisms and guidelines to
facilitate the implementation of the Basel Convention;
(c) Ratification and full implementation by the countries concerned of the Bamako
Convention on the Ban on the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement
of Hazardous Wastes within Africa and the expeditious elaboration of a protocol on
liability and compensation;
(d) Elimination of the export of hazardous wastes to countries that, individually or
through international agreements, prohibits the import of such wastes, such as, the
contracting parties to the Bamako Convention, the fourth Lom Convention or other
relevant conventions, where such prohibition is provided for.
20.8. The following programme areas are included in this chapter:
(a) Promoting the prevention and minimization of hazardous waste;
(b) Promoting and strengthening institutional capacities in hazardous waste management;
(c) Promoting and strengthening international cooperation in the management of
transboundary movements of hazardous wastes;
(d) Preventing illegal international traffic in hazardous wastes.
Programme Areas
A. Promoting the prevention and minimization of hazardous waste
Basis for action
20.9. Human health and environmental quality are undergoing continuous degradation by
the increasing amount of hazardous wastes being produced. There are increasing direct and
indirect costs to society and to individual citizens in connection with the generation,
handling and disposal of such wastes. It is therefore crucial to enhance knowledge and
information on the economics of prevention and management of hazardous wastes, including
the impact in relation to the employment and environmental benefits, in order to ensure
that the necessary capital investment is made available in development programmes through
economic incentives. One of the first priorities in hazardous waste management is
minimization, as part of a broader approach to changing industrial processes and consumer
patterns through pollution prevention and cleaner production strategies.
20.10. Among the most important factors in these strategies is the recovery of
hazardous wastes and their tranformation into useful material. Technology application,
modification and development of new low-waste technologies are therefore currently a
central focus of hazardous waste minimization.
Objectives
20.11. The objectives of this programme area are:
(a) To reduce the generation of hazardous wastes, to the extent feasible, as part of an
integrated cleaner production approach;
(b) To optimize the use of materials by utilizing, where practicable and
environmentally sound, the residues from production processes;
(c) To enhance knowledge and information on the economics of prevention and management
of hazardous wastes.
20.12. To achieve those objectives, and thereby reduce the impact and cost of
industrial development, countries that can afford to adopt the requisite technologies
without detriment to their development should establish policies that include:
(a) Integration of cleaner production approaches and hazardous waste minimization in
all planning, and the adoption of specific goals;
(b) Promotion of the use of regulatory and market mechanisms;
(c) Establishment of an intermediate goal for the stabilization of the quantity of
hazardous waste generated;
(d) Establishment of long-term programmes and policies including targets where
appropriate for reducing the amount of hazardous waste produced per unit of manufacture;
(e) Achievement of a qualitative improvement of waste streams, mainly through
activities aimed at reducing their hazardous characteristics;
(f) Facilitation of the establishment of cost-effective policies and approaches to
hazardous waste prevention and management, taking into consideration the state of
development of each country.
Activities
(a) Management-related activities
20.13. The following activities should be undertaken:
(a) Governments should establish or modify standards or purchasing specifications to
avoid discrimination against recycled materials, provided that those materials are
environmentally sound;
(b) Governments, according to their possibilities and with the help of multilateral
cooperation, should provide economic or regulatory incentives, where appropriate, to
stimulate industrial innovation towards cleaner production methods, to encourage industry
to invest in preventive and/or recycling technologies so as to ensure environmentally
sound management of all hazardous wastes, including recyclable wastes, and to encourage
waste minimization investments;
(c) Governments should intensify research and development activities on cost-effective
alternatives for processes and substances that currently result in the generation of
hazardous wastes that pose particular problems for environmentally sound disposal or
treatment, the possibility of ultimate phase-out of those substances that present an
unreasonable or otherwise unmanageable risk and are toxic, persistent and bio-accumulative
to be considered as soon as practicable. Emphasis should be given to alternatives that
could be economically accessible to developing countries;
(d) Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations and other relevant organizations and industries, as
appropriate, should support the establishment of domestic facilities to handle hazardous
wastes of domestic origin;
(e) Governments of developed countries should promote the transfer of environmentally
sound technologies and know-how on clean technologies and low-waste production to
developing countries in conformity with chapter 34, which will bring about changes to
sustain innovation. Governments should cooperate with industry to develop guidelines and
codes of conduct, where appropriate, leading to cleaner production through sectoral trade
industry associations;
(f) Governments should encourage industry to treat, recycle, reuse and dispose of
wastes at the source of generation, or as close as possible thereto, whenever hazardous
waste generation is unavoidable and when it is both economically and environmentally
efficient for industry to do so;
(g) Governments should encourage technology assessments, for example through the use of
technology assessment centres;
(h) Governments should promote cleaner production through the establishment of centres
providing training and information on environmentally sound technologies;
(i) Industry should establish environmental management systems, including environmental
auditing of its production or distribution sites, in order to identify where the
installation of cleaner production methods is needed;
(j) A relevant and competent United Nations organization should take the lead, in
cooperation with other organizations, to develop guidelines for estimating the costs and
benefits of various approaches to the adoption of cleaner production and waste
minimization and environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes, including
rehabilitation of contaminated sites, taking into account, where appropriate, the report
of the 1991 Nairobi meeting of government-designated experts on an international strategy
and an action programme, including technical guidelines for the environmentally sound
management of hazardous wastes; in particular in the context of the work of the Basel
Convention, being developed under the UNEP secretariat;
(k) Governments should establish regulations that lay down the ultimate responsibility
of industries for environmentally sound disposal of the hazardous wastes their activities
generate.
(b) Data and information
20.14. The following activities should be undertaken:
(a) Governments, assisted by international organizations, should establish mechanisms
for assessing the value of existing information systems;
(b) Governments should establish nationwide and regional information collection and
dissemination clearing-houses and networks that are easy for Government institutions and
industry and other non-governmental organizations to access and use;
(c) International organizations, through the UNEP Cleaner Production programme and
ICPIC, should extend and strengthen existing systems for collection of cleaner production
information;
(d) All United Nations organs and organizations should promote the use and
dissemination of information collected through the Cleaner Production network;
(e) OECD should, in cooperation with other organizations, undertake a comprehensive
survey of, and disseminate information on, experiences of member countries in adopting
economic regulatory schemes and incentive mechanisms for hazardous waste management and
for the use of clean technologies that prevent such waste from being generated;
(f) Governments should encourage industries to be transparent in their operations and
provide relevant information to the communities that might be affected by the generation,
management and disposal of hazardous wastes.
(c) International and regional cooperation and coordination
20.15. International/regional cooperation should encourage the ratification by States
of the Basel and Bamako Conventions and promote the implementation of those Conventions.
Regional cooperation will be necessary for the development of similar conventions in
regions other than Africa, if so required. In addition there is a need for effective
coordination of international regional and national policies and instruments. Another
activity proposed is cooperating in monitoring the effects of the management of hazardous
wastes.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
20.16. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual cost
(1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be about $750 million from
the international community on grant or concessional terms. These are indicative and
order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by Governments. Actual costs
and financial terms, including any that are non-concessional, will depend upon, inter
alia, the specific strategies and programmes Governments decide upon for implementation.
(b) Scientific and technological means
20.17. The following activities related to technology development and research should
be undertaken:
(a) Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations and other relevant organizations, and industries, as
appropriate, should significantly increase financial support for cleaner technology
research and development programmes, including the use of biotechnologies;
(b) States, with the cooperation of international organizations where appropriate,
should encourage industry to promote and undertake research into the phase-out of the
processes that pose the greatest environmental risk based on hazardous wastes generated;
(c) States should encourage industry to develop schemes to integrate the cleaner
production approach into design of products and management practices;
(d) States should encourage industry to exercise environmentally responsible care
through hazardous waste reduction and by ensuring the environmentally sound reuse,
recycling and recovery of hazardous wastes, as well as their final disposal.
(c) Human resource development
20.18. The following activities should be undertaken:
(a) Governments, international organizations and industry should encourage industrial
training programmes, incorporating hazardous waste prevention and minimization techniques
and launching demonstration projects at the local level to develop "success
stories" in cleaner production;
(b) Industry should integrate cleaner production principles and case examples into
training programmes and establish demonstration projects/networks by sector/country;
(c) All sectors of society should develop cleaner production awareness campaigns and
promote dialogue and partnership with industry and other actors.
(d) Capacity-building
20.19. The following activities should be undertaken:
(a) Governments of developing countries, in cooperation with industry and with the
cooperation of appropriate international organizations, should develop inventories of
hazardous waste production, in order to identify their needs with respect to technology
transfer and implementation of measures for the sound management of hazardous wastes and
their disposal;
(b) Governments should include in national planning and legislation an integrated
approach to environmental protection, driven by prevention and source reduction criteria,
taking into account the "polluter pays" principle, and adopt programmes for
hazardous waste reduction, including targets and adequate environmental control;
(c) Governments should work with industry on sector-by-sector cleaner production and
hazardous waste minimization campaigns, as well as on the reduction of such wastes and
other emissions;
(d) Governments should take the lead in establishing and strengthening, as appropriate,
national procedures for environmental impact assessment, taking into acount the
cradle-to-grave approach to the management of hazardous wastes, in order to identify
options for minimizing the generation of hazardous wastes, through safer handling,
storage, disposal and destruction;
(e) Governments, in collaboration with industry and appropriate international
organizations, should develop procedures for monitoring the application of the cradle to
grave approach, including environmental audits;
(f) Bilateral and multilateral development assistance agencies should substantially
increase funding for cleaner technology transfer to developing countries, including small-
and medium-sized enterprises.
B. Promoting and strengthening institutional capacities in hazardous waste management
Basis for action
20.20. Many countries lack the national capacity to handle and manage hazardous wastes.
This is primarily due to inadequate infrastructure, deficiencies in regulatory frameworks,
insufficient education and training programmes and lack of coordination between the
different ministries and institutions involved in various aspects of waste management. In
addition, there is a lack of knowledge about environmental contamination and pollution and
the associated health risk from the exposure of populations, especially women and
children, and ecosystems to hazardous wastes; assessment of risks; and the characteristics
of wastes. Steps need to be taken immediately to identify populations at high risk and to
take remedial measures, where necessary. One of the main priorities in ensuring
environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes is to provide awareness, education
and training programmes covering all levels of society. There is also a need to undertake
research programmes to understand the nature of hazardous wastes, to identify their
potential environmental effects and to develop technologies to safely handle those wastes.
Finally, there is a need to strengthen the capacities of institutions that are responsible
for the management of hazardous wastes.
Objectives
20.21. The objectives in this programme area are:
(a) To adopt appropriate coordinating, legislative and regulatory measures at the
national level for the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes, including the
implementation of international and regional conventions;
(b) To establish public awareness and information programmes on hazardous waste issues
and to ensure that basic education and training programmes are provided for industry and
government workers in all countries;
(c) To establish comprehensive research programmes on hazardous wastes in countries;
(d) To strengthen service industries to enable them to handle hazardous wastes, and to
build up international networking;
(e) To develop endogenous capacities in all developing countries to educate and train
staff at all levels in environmentally sound hazardous waste handling and monitoring and
in environmentally sound management;
(f) To promote human exposure assessment with respect to hazardous waste sites and
identify the remedial measures required;
(g) To facilitate the assessment of impacts and risks of hazardous wastes on human
health and the environment by establishing appropriate procedures, methodologies, criteria
and/or effluent-related guidelines and standards;
(h) To improve knowledge regarding the effects of hazardous wastes on human health and
the environment;
(i) To make information available to Governments and to the general public on the
effects of hazardous wastes, including infectious wastes, on human health and the
environment.
Activities
(a) Management-related activities
20.22. The following activities should be undertaken:
(a) Governments should establish and maintain inventories, including computerized
inventories, of hazardous wastes and their treatment/disposal sites, as well as of
contaminated sites that require rehabilitation, and assess exposure and risk to human
health and the environment; they should also identify the measures required to clean up
the disposal sites. Industry should make the necessary information available;
(b) Governments, industry and international organizations should collaborate in
developing guidelines and easy-to-implement methods for the characterization and
classification of hazardous wastes;
(c) Governments should carry out exposure and health assessments of populations
residing near uncontrolled hazardous waste sites and initiate remedial measures;
(d) International organizations should develop improved health-based criteria, taking
into account national decision-making processes, and assist in the preparation of
practical technical guidelines for the prevention, minimization and safe handling and
disposal of hazardous wastes;
(e) Governments of developing countries should encourage interdisciplinary and
intersectoral groups, in cooperation with international organizations and agencies, to
implement training and research activities related to evaluation, prevention and control
of hazardous waste health risks. Such groups should serve as models to develop similar
regional programmes;
(f) Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations and other relevant organizations as appropriate, should
encourage as far as possible the establishment of combined treatment/disposal facilities
for hazardous wastes in small- and medium-sized industries;
(g) Governments should promote identification and clean-up of sites of hazardous wastes
in collaboration with industry and international organizations. Technologies, expertise
and financing should be available for this purpose, as far as possible and when
appropriate with the application of the "polluter pays" principle;
(h) Governments should ascertain that their military establishments conform to their
nationally applicable environmental norms in the treatment and disposal of hazardous
wastes.
(b) Data and information
20.23. The following activities should be undertaken:
(a) Governments, international and regional organizations and industry should
facilitate and expand the dissemination of technical and scientific information dealing
with the various health aspects of hazardous wastes, and promote its application;
(b) Governments should establish notification systems and registries of exposed
populations and of adverse health effects and databases on risk assessments of hazardous
wastes;
(c) Governments should endeavour to collect information on those who generate or
dispose/recycle hazardous wastes and provide such information to the individuals and
institutions concerned.
(c) International and regional cooperation and coordination
20.24. Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations and other relevant organizations, as appropriate,
should:
(a) Promote and support the integration and operation, at the regional and local levels
as appropriate, of institutional and interdisciplinary groups that collaborate, according
to their capabilities, in activities oriented towards strengthening risk assessment, risk
management and risk reduction with respect to hazardous wastes;
(b) Support capacity-building and technological development and research in developing
countries in connection with human resource development, with particular support to be
given to consolidating networks;
(c) Encourage self-sufficiency in hazardous waste disposal in the country of origin to
the extent environmentally sound and feasible. The transboundary movements that take place
should be on environmental and economic grounds and based upon agreements between all
States concerned.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
20.25. The Conference secretariat has estimated the average total annual cost
(1993-2000) of implementing the activities of this programme to be about $18.5 billion on
a global basis with about $3.5 billion related to developing countries, including about
$500 million from the international community on grant or concessional terms. These are
indicative and order-of-magnitude estimates only and have not been reviewed by
Governments. Actual costs and financial terms, including any that are non-concessional,
will depend upon, inter alia, the specific strategies and programmes Governments decide
upon for implementation.
(b) Scientific and technological means
20.26. The following activities should be undertaken:
(a) Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations and other relevant organizations and industry as
appropriate, should increase support for hazardous waste research management in developing
countries;
(b) Governments, in collaboration with international organizations, should conduct
research on the health effects of hazardous wastes in developing countries, including the
long-term effects on children and women;
(c) Governments should conduct research aimed at the needs of small and medium-sized
industries;
(d) Governments and international organizations in cooperation with industry should
expand technological research on environmentally sound hazardous waste handling, storage,
transport, treatment and disposal and on hazardous waste assessment, management and
remediation;
(e) International organizations should identify relevant and improved technologies for
handling, storage, treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes.
(c) Human resource development
20.27. Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations and other relevant organizations and industry as
appropriate, should:
(a) Increase public awareness and information on hazardous waste issues and promote the
development and dissemination of hazardous wastes information that the general public can
understand;
(b) Increase participation in hazardous waste management programmes by the general
public, particularly women, including participation at grass-roots levels;
(c) Develop training and education programmes for men and women in industry and
Government aimed at specific real-life problems, for example, planning and implementing
hazardous waste minimization programmes, conducting hazardous materials audits and
establishing appropriate regulatory programmes;
(d) Promote the training of labour, industrial management and government regulatory
staff in developing countries on technologies to minimize and manage hazardous wastes in
an environmentally sound manner.
20.28. The following activities should also be undertaken:
(a) Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations, other organizations and non-governmental organizations,
should collaborate in developing and disseminating educational materials concerning
hazardous wastes and their effects on environment and human health, for use in schools, by
women's groups and by the general public;
(b) Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations and other organizations, should establish or strengthen
programmes for the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes in accordance
with, as appropriate, health and environmental standards, and extend surveillance systems
for the purpose of identifying adverse effects on populations and the environment of
exposure to hazardous wastes;
(c) International organizations should provide assistance to member States in assessing
the health and environmental risks resulting from exposure to hazardous wastes, and in
identifying their priorities for controlling the various categories or classes of wastes;
(d) Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations and other relevant organizations, should promote centres
of excellence for training in hazardous waste management, building on appropriate national
institutions and encouraging international cooperation, inter alia, through institutional
links between developed and developing countries.
(d) Capacity-building
20.29. Wherever they operate, transnational corporations and other large-scale
enterprises should be encouraged to introduce policies and make commitments to adopt
standards of operation with reference to hazardous waste generation and disposal that are
equivalent to or no less stringent than standards in the country of origin, and
Governments are invited to make efforts to establish regulations requiring environmentally
sound management of hazardous wastes.
20.30. International organizations should provide assistance to member States in
assessing the health and environmental risks resulting from exposure to hazardous wastes
and in identifying their priorities for controlling the various categories or classes of
wastes.
20.31. Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations and other relevant organizations and industries, should:
(a) Support national institutions in dealing with hazardous wastes from the regulatory
monitoring and enforcement perspectives, with such support including enabling of those
institutions to implement international conventions;
(b) Develop industry-based institutions for dealing with hazardous wastes and service
industries for handling hazardous wastes;
(c) Adopt technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of hazardous
wastes and support the implementation of regional and international conventions;
(d) Develop and expand international networking among professionals working in the area
of hazardous wastes and maintain an information flow among countries;
(e) Assess the feasibility of establishing and operating national, subregional and
regional hazardous wastes treatment centres. Such centres could be used for education and
training, as well as for facilitation and promotion of the transfer of technologies for
the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes;
(f) Identify and strengthen relevant academic/research institutions or centres for
excellence to enable them to carry out education and training activities in the
environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes;
(g) Develop a programme for the establishment of national capacities and capabilities
to educate and train staff at various levels in hazardous wastes management;
(h) Conduct environmental audits of existing industries to improve in-plant regimes for
the management of hazardous wastes.
C. Promoting and strengthening international cooperation in the management of
transboundary movements of hazardous wastes
Basis for action
20.32. In order to promote and strengthen international cooperation in the management,
including control and monitoring, of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes, a
precautionary approach should be applied. There is a need to harmonize the procedures and
criteria used in various international and legal instruments. There is also a need to
develop or harmonize existing criteria for identifying wastes dangerous to the environment
and to build monitoring capacities.
Objectives
20.33. The objectives of this programme area are:
(a) To facilitate and strengthen international cooperation in the environmentally sound
management of hazardous wastes, including control and monitoring of transboundary
movements of such wastes, including wastes for recovery, by using internationally adopted
criteria to identify and classify hazardous wastes and to harmonize relevant international
legal instruments;
(b) To adopt a ban on or prohibit, as appropriate, the export of hazardous wastes to
countries that do not have the capacity to deal with those wastes in an environmentally
sound way or that have banned the import of such wastes;
(c) To promote the development of control procedures for the transboundary movement of
hazardous wastes destined for recovery operations under the Basel Convention that
encourage environmentally and economically sound recycling options.
Activities
(a) Management-related activities
Strengthening and harmonizing criteria and regulations
20.34. Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of United Nations and other relevant organizations, as appropriate, should:
(a) Incorporate the notification procedure called for in the Basel Convention and
relevant regional conventions, as well as in their annexes, into national legislation;
(b) Formulate, where appropriate, regional agreements such as the Bamako Convention
regulating the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes;
(c) Help promote the compatibility and complementarity of such regional agreements with
international conventions and protocols;
(d) Strengthen national and regional capacities and capabilities to monitor and control
the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes;
(e) Promote the development of clear criteria and guidelines, within the framework of
the Basel Convention and regional conventions, as appropriate, for environmentally and
economically sound operation in resource recovery, recycling reclamation, direct use or
alternative uses and for determination of acceptable recovery practices, including
recovery levels where feasible and appropriate, with a view to preventing abuses and false
presentation in the above operations;
(f) Consider setting up, at national and regional levels, as appropriate, systems for
monitoring and surveillance of the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes;
(g) Develop guidelines for the assessment of environmentally sound treatment of
hazardous wastes;
(h) Develop guidelines for the identification of hazardous wastes at the national
level, taking into account existing internationally - and, where appropriate, regionally -
agreed criteria and prepare a list of hazard profiles for the hazardous wastes listed in
national legislation;
(i) Develop and use appropriate methods for testing, characterizing and classifying
hazardous wastes and adopt or adapt safety standards and principles for managing hazardous
wastes in an environmentally sound way.
Implementing existing agreements
20.35. Governments are urged to ratify the Basel Convention and the Bamako Convention,
as applicable, and to pursue the expeditious elaboration of related protocols, such as
protocols on liability and compensation, and of mechanisms and guidelines to facilitate
the implementation of the Conventions.
Means of implementation
(a) Financing and cost evaluation
20.36. Because this programme area covers a relatively new field of operation and
because of the lack so far of adequate studies on costing of activities under this
programme, no cost estimate is available at present. However, the costs for some of the
activities related to capacity-building that are presented under this programme could be
considered to have been covered under the costing of programme area B above.
20.37. The interim secretariat for the Basel Convention should undertake studies in
order to arrive at a reasonable cost estimate for activities to be undertaken initially
until the year 2000.
(b) Capacity-building
20.38. Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of United Nations and other relevant organizations, as appropriate, should:
(a) Elaborate or adopt policies for the environmentally sound management of hazardous
wastes, taking into account existing international instruments;
(b) Make recommendations to the appropriate forums or establish or adapt norms,
including the equitable implementation of the polluter pays principle, and regulatory
measures to comply with obligations and principles of the Basel Convention, the Bamako
Convention and other relevant existing or future agreements, including protocols, as
appropriate, for setting appropriate rules and procedures in the field of liability and
compensation for damage resulting from the transboundary movement and disposal of
hazardous wastes;
(c) Implement policies for the implementation of a ban or prohibition, as appropriate,
of exports of hazardous wastes to countries that do not have the capacity to deal with
those wastes in an environmentally sound way or that have banned the import of such
wastes;
(d) Study, in the context of the Basel Convention and relevant regional conventions,
the feasibility of providing temporary financial assistance in the case of an emergency
situation, in order to minimize damage from accidents arising from transboundary movements
of hazardous wastes or during the disposal of those wastes.
D. Preventing illegal international traffic in hazardous wastes
Basis for action
20.39. The prevention of illegal traffic in hazardous wastes will benefit the
environment and public health in all countries, particularly developing countries. It will
also help to make the Basel Convention and regional international instruments, such as the
Bamako Convention and the fourth Lom Convention, more effective by promoting
compliance with the controls established in those agreements. Article IX of the Basel
Convention specifically addresses the issue of illegal shipments of hazardous wastes.
Illegal traffic of hazardous wastes may cause serious threats to human health and the
environment and impose a special and abnormal burden on the countries that receive such
shipments.
20.40. Effective prevention requires action through effective monitoring and the
enforcement and imposition of appropriate penalties.
Objectives
20.41. The objectives of this programme area are:
(a) To reinforce national capacities to detect and halt any illegal attempt to
introduce hazardous wastes into the territory of any State in contravention of national
legislation and relevant international legal instruments;
(b) To assist all countries, particularly developing countries, in obtaining all
appropriate information concerning illegal traffic in hazardous wastes;
(c) To cooperate, within the framework of the Basel Convention, in assisting countries
that suffer the consequences of illegal traffic.
Activities
(a) Management-related activities
20.42. Governments, according to their capacities and available resources and with the
cooperation of the United Nations and other relevant organizations, as appropriate,
should:
(a) Adopt, where necessary, and implement legislation to prevent the illegal import and
export of hazardous wastes;
(b) Develop appropriate national enforcement programmes to monitor compliance with such
legislation, detect and deter violations through appropriate penalties and give special
attention to those who are known to have conducted illegal traffic in hazardous wastes and
to hazardous wastes that are particularly susceptible to illegal traffic.
(b) Data and information
20.43. Governments should develop as appropriate, an information network and alert
system to assist in detecting illegal traffic in hazardous wastes. Local communities and
others could be involved in the operation of such a network and system.
20.44. Governments should cooperate in the exchange of information on illegal
transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and should make such information available to
appropriate United Nations bodies such as UNEP and the regional commissions.
(c) International and regional cooperation
20.45. The regional commissions, in cooperation with and relying upon expert support
and advice from UNEP and other relevant bodies of the United Nations system, taking full
account of the Basel Convention, shall continue to monitor and assess the illegal traffic
in hazardous wastes, including its environmental, economic and health implications, on a
continuing basis, drawing upon the results and experience gained in the joint UNEP/ESCAP
preliminary assessment of illegal traffic.
20.46. Countries and international organizations, as appropriate, should cooperate to
strengthen the institutional and regulatory capacities, in particular of developing
countries, in order to prevent the illegal import and export of hazardous wastes.
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