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What is Basel Convention?

www.basel.int


Basel Convention on Hazardous Wastes


  • The Basel Convention was adopted on March 22, 1989 by the Conference of Plenipotentiaries in Basel, Switzerland and entered into force on May 5, 1992. India ratified the Convention in June 24, 1992.
  • The objective of the Basel Convention is to protect human health and the environment against adverse effects of hazardous wastes including “other wastes” - the household waste and incinerator ash, wastes that are explosive, flammable, poisonous, infectious, corrosive, toxic, or eco-toxic.
  • The Convention aims towards restricting trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and its disposal with environmentally sound management (ESM).
[Read also about related Conventions, The Rotterdam Convention and The Stockholm Convention]


Background of the Basel Convention

  • The convention was adopted in the 1980s in response to a public outcry following the discovery of deposits of toxic wastes in Africa and other parts of the developing world. These toxic wastes were imported from developed nations.
  • As environmental awareness and tightening of environmental regulations in the industrialized world during 1970s and 1980s had led to  an increasing public resistance to the disposal of hazardous wastes – in accordance with what became known as the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome.
  • This led to an escalation of disposal costs. This in turn led some operators to seek cheap disposal options for hazardous wastes in the developing world, which was lagging in environmental awareness regulations and enforcement mechanisms.
  •  Against this background, the Basel Convention was negotiated in the late 1980s, and at the time of its adoption its thrust to combat the “toxic trade”.

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