Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 6 • Number 7 • 14th April 2006
Basel Convention Points to IMO Negotiations on New Ship Treaty
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The Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes met for its fifth session in Geneva on 3-7 April. Executive Secretary Kuwabara-Yamamoto identified ship dismantling as a major issue which recently attracted international attention because of the controversial proposed dismantling of French ship Clemenceau in Indian waters (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 17 February 2006). The Clemenceau case highlighted the current uncertainty regarding the international jurisdiction over ship dismantling; the Basel Convention currently has jurisdiction over transboundary shipments of Hazardous Wastes, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) over ships and the International Labour Organisations over labour in shipbreaking yards. While negotiations are currently underway at the IMO on a legally binding instrument on ship recycling, delegates at the meeting decided to keep the issue on the Basel Convention agenda so that Parties to the Convention can continue to debate the best way to input into the IMO negotiations to ensure that the new instrument fulfils the Basel Convention’s environmental objectives.
The discussion on synergies with the Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, which includes proposals to consolidate the leadership and secretariats of the three conventions, proved particularly controversial. One Nigerian delegate warned that “Basel is being weakened and subjected to a marriage that is going to kill the Convention”. This issue, and others, will be discussed at the Convention of the Parties to the Basel Convention, to be held in Nairobi in November 2006.
ICTSD Reporting.
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