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Delegates had three days to address the challenges of updating the Basel Convention and its associated tools on issues including e-waste, plastic wastes, and modernizing the prior informed consent (PIC) procedure, while working to ensure the Convention is functioning effectively given the shifting landscape of chemicals and waste policy.
Final report
Summary report 21–23 February 2023
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There is a renewed impetus to address chemicals and wastes. In May 2022 the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes agreed to amend the Convention to make all electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) subject to the prior informed consent (PIC) procedure. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution held its first session in November 2022. Negotiations on a science-policy panel on chemicals and wastes began at the end of January 2023. In September 2023, the International Conference on Chemicals Management is due to approve a post-2020 global platform on the sound management of chemicals and waste. It is against this backdrop that the thirteenth meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention (OEWG-13) convened in Geneva, Switzerland.
OEWG-13 considered issues prioritized by the Bureau clustered around four areas: strategic; scientific and technical; legal, governance and enforcement; and international cooperation and coordination.
Items for consideration included:
- technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of plastic wastes, as well as further Basel Convention consideration of plastic waste issues;
- recommendations to the COP about whether existing guidance, technical guidelines and factsheets on e-waste should be updated in order to reflect adjustments consequential to the COP adoption of the e-waste amendments to Convention Annexes;
- technical guidelines on transboundary movements of electrical and electronic waste and used electrical and electronic equipment;
- technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of waste lead-acid batteries;
- waste containing nanomaterials;
- work to improve the functioning of the Convention’s PIC procedure;
- electronic approaches to the notification and movement documents used under the Convention;
- recommendations to improve the Strategic Framework; and
- the Basel Convention Partnership Programme.
View past and future events
Past event
5th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP5) to the Basel Convention
Past event
6th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP6) to the Basel Convention
Past event
7th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) to the Basel Convention
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5th Session of the Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention (OEWG5)
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8th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP8) to the Basel Convention
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9th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the Basel Convention
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10th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the Basel Convention
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2013 Meetings of Basel Convention COP11, Rotterdam Convention COP6, Stockholm Convention COP6, and ExCOPs2
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9th Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention (OEWG9)
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2015 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
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10th Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention (OEWG10)
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2017 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
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11th Meeting of the Open-Ended Working Group of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (OEWG11)
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2019 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions
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12th Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (OEWG12)
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2021 Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
Past event
Resumed Session of the 12th Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention (OEWG-12)
Past event
Face-to-Face Meetings of the Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
Past event
13th Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention
Past event
2023 Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions (BRS COPs)
Past event
14th Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention
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