Fourteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention

Geneva, Switzerland, from 29 April to 10 May 2019

Venue: Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG), 17 rue de Varembé, Geneva, Switzerland.

Summary of outcomes: About 1,400 participants took part in the Conference, which was held from 29 April to 10 May 2019, back-to-back with the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention (RC COP-9) and the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (SC COP-9). The theme of the meetings was "Clean Planet, Healthy People: Sound Management of Chemicals and Waste". The meetings included joint sessions covering matters of relevance to at least two conventions and separate sessions of the meetings of the each of the three COPs.

The fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention adopted 29 decisions, including seven identical decisions for the three meetings of the Conferences of the Parties on issues such as international cooperation and coordination and the clearing-house mechanism for information exchange. Some of the main outcomes of the Conference included the amendments to the annexes to the Basel Convention to include plastic waste, the establishment of a Partnership on Plastic Waste, the interim adoption of the technical guidelines on transboundary movements of electrical and electronic waste and used electrical and electronic equipment, in particular regarding the distinction between waste and non-waste under the Basel Convention, and the adoption of five further sets of technical guidelines and guidance documents developed by subsidiary and expert bodies to the Convention. These are just a few examples of the achievements contained in the decisions adopted by the Conference.

Thanks to voluntary contributions from Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway and Switzerland, financial support was provided to support the participation of developing country Parties and Parties with economies in transition to attend the meetings.

Working languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Meeting documents

Documents uploaded within the last five days have been highlighted in pale orange in the lists below.

  • Report
  • Decisions
  • Working documents
  • Information documents