Amendments

Amendment of the Basel Convention (Article 17)

The proposal, adoption and entry into force of amendments of the Basel Convention are dealt with in Article 17 of the Convention. Only a Party may propose amendments to the Convention. Any amendment proposal must be made available by the Secretariat to Parties at least six months before the meeting of the Conference of the Parties at which it is proposed for adoption. Any amendment is adopted by the Conference of the Parties by consensus or, as a last resort, by a three-fourths majority vote of the Parties present and voting at the meeting.

Entry into force of amendments of the Convention is dealt with under paragraph 5 of that Article, which provides that:

"Instruments of ratification, approval, formal confirmation or acceptance of amendments shall be deposited with the Depositary. Amendments adopted in accordance with paragraphs 3 or 4 above shall enter into force between Parties having accepted them on the ninetieth day after the receipt by the Depositary of their instrument of ratification, approval, formal confirmation or acceptance by at least three-fourths of the Parties who accepted them or by at least two thirds of the Parties to the protocol concerned who accepted them, except as may otherwise be provided in such protocol. The amendments shall enter into force for any other Party on the ninetieth day after that Party deposits its instrument of ratification, approval, formal confirmation or acceptance of the amendments."

By decision BC-10/3 adopted in 2011 by the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, Parties agreed, without prejudice to any other multilateral environmental agreement, that the meaning of paragraph 5 of Article 17 of the Basel Convention should be interpreted to mean that “acceptance of three-fourths of those parties that were parties at the time of the adoption of the amendment is required for the entry into force of such amendment, noting that such an interpretation of paragraph 5 of Article 17 does not compel any party to ratify the Ban Amendment.”

Adoption and amendment to the annexes to the Basel Convention (Article 18)

The proposal, adoption and entry into force of new annexes or of amendments to existing annexes to the Basel Convention are dealt with in Article 18 of the Convention, which refers back to the provisions embodied in Article 17 with respect to their proposal and adoption. The rules governing the entry into force of new annexes or of amendments to existing annexes differ from those governing amendments to the Convention itself in that each Party has the right, within a six months deadline from the notification by the Depositary of the adopted amendment to an existing annex or of the adopted new annex, to declare that it is unable to accept it. Once it enters into force, the new annex or the amendment to an existing annex will only bind those Parties that have not made such a notification of non-acceptance.

In its decision VIII/15 to the decision, the Conference of the Parties agreed to the procedure for the review or adjustment of lists of wastes contained in Annexes VIII and IX to the Convention as well as on the procedure for corrections to those Annexes VIII and IX. The procedures are without prejudice to the provisions set out in Articles 17 and 18 of the Convention and relate essentially to the process for proposing and considering amendments to the waste streams listed in Annexes VIII and IX.