Proposed amendments

Amendment of the Basel Convention (Article 17)

There is currently one proposal under consideration for amending paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Convention by the Russian Federation. The proposal was put forward for consideration by the Conference of the Parties during its fifteenth meeting. The proposal was considered during the face-to-face segment of the meeting (6-17 June 2022) at what time the Conference of the Parties noted the discussions on the strategic framework with regard to Parties’ interest in considering possible ways of improving the prior informed consent procedure and decided to defer consideration of the proposal by the Russian Federation to amend paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Convention to the following meeting of the Conference of the Parties. The proposal was considered during the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties at what time the Conference of the Parties agreed to defer its further consideration to the seventeenth meeting in 2025.

The proposal was communicated to Parties on 19 January 2021, comments by Parties were invited by 1 December 2021.

Comments received from Parties and observers prior to the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties on the proposal by the Russian Federation to amend paragraph 2 of Article 6 of the Convention

  • Parties
  • Observers

The third meeting of the Conference of the Parties adopted the Ban Amendment by decision III/1, which includes amendments to the preamble and Article 4 to the Convention – more information is available here.

Adoption of annexes to the Basel Convention (Article 18)

There is currently no proposal under consideration for adding new annexes to the Convention.

Amendment to the annexes to the Basel Convention (Article 18)

There is currently one proposal by the European Union to amend the annexes to the Basel Convention. The proposal was put forward for consideration by the Conference of the Parties during its fifteenth meeting. The proposal was considered during the face-to-face segment of the meeting (6-17 June 2022) at what time the Conference of the Parties, in its decision BC-15/19 on further legal clarity (link to the decision), among others, requested the Open-ended Working Group to consider the proposals by the European Union to amend Annex IV and certain entries in Annexes II and IX to the Basel Convention and the recommendations and findings of the expert working group taking into account the discussions at the fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, as well as the progress made in the review of Annexes I and III, and to provide recommendations for consideration by the Conference of the Parties at its sixteenth meeting. 

The proposal was considered again during the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties at what time the Conference of the Parties, in its decision BC-16/15 on legal clarity, among others, requested the expert working group on the review of Annexes to consider the proposal and the recommendations and findings of the expert working group and develop revised amendment proposals on Annex IV for consideration by the Open-ended Working Group at its fourteenth meeting, and decided to consider at its seventeenth meeting the revised amendment proposals for Annex IV.

Information on the work of the expert working group on the review of the Annexes to the Basel Convention is available here.

The initial amendment proposal by the European Union was communicated to Parties on 19 January 2021, comments by Parties were invited by 1 December 2021.

Comments received from Parties and observers prior to the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties on the proposal by the European Union to amend Annex IV and certain entries in Annexes II and IX to the Convention in relation to disposal operations

  • Parties
  • Observers

At its fifteenth meeting, by decision BC-15/18, the Conference of the Parties adopted a proposal by Ghana and Switzerland and other Parties to amend Annexes II, VIII and IX to the Basel Convention in relation to e-waste. For more information on the E-waste amendments, see here.

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Comments received from Parties and observers prior to the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties on the proposal by Ghana and Switzerland to amend Annexes II, VIII and IX to the Basel Convention in relation to e-waste

At its fourteenth meeting, by decision BC-14/12 the Conference of the Parties adopted the Plastic Waste Amendments based on an amendment proposal put forward by Norway.

On 12 October 2018, the Secretariat received from Norway proposals to amend Annexes II, VIII and IX to the Basel Convention, followed by a corrigendum on 19 November 2018. The proposals are set out in annex I to document UNEP/CHW.14/27, while Annex II to the same document shows in tracked changes the proposed amendments to the current texts of Annexes II, VIII and IX. An explanatory note, in the six languages of the United Nations, from Norway is set out in document UNEP/CHW.14/INF/18.

Pursuant to paragraph 2 of Article 17 and paragraphs 2 (a) and 3 of Article 18 of the Convention, on 26 October 2018, more than six months before the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the Secretariat communicated the proposals to amend Annexes II, VIII and IX to the Convention to the Parties and signatories to the Convention. A corrigendum to the proposal was subsequently communicated on 6 December 2018. The proposals were also communicated to the depositary for information. The table below sets out comments received from Parties and observers on the proposals. A compilation of comments received from Parties relating to the proposed amendments is set out in document UNEP/CHW.14/INF/17.

For more information on the work under the Convention on marine plastic litter and microplastics, please see here.

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Comments received from Parties and observers prior to the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties on the proposals to amend Annexes II, VIII and IX to the Convention.