Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa

 

Each Party Shall:

(a) Ensure that hazardous waste generators submit to the Secretariat
reports regarding the wastes that they generate in order to enable
the Secretariat of the Convention to produce a complete hazardous
waste audit;

(b) Impose strict, unlimited liability as well as joint and several
liability on hazardous waste generators;

(c) Ensure that the generation of hazardous wastes within the area
under its jurisdiction is reduced to a minimum taking into account
social, technological and economic aspects;

(d) Ensure the availability of adequate treatment and disposal
facilities, for the environmentally sound management of hazardous
wastes which shall be located, to the extent possible, within its
jurisdiction;

(e) Ensure that persons involved in the management of hazardous wastes
within its jurisdiction take such steps as are necessary to prevent
pollution arising from such wastes and, if such pollution occurs,
to minimize the consequence thereof for human health and the
environment;

The Adoption of Precautionary Measures:

(f) Each Party shall strive to adopt and implement the preventive,
precautionary approach to pollution problems which entails,
inter-alia, preventing the release into the environment of
substances which may cause harm to humans or the environment
without waiting for scientific proof regarding such harm. The
Parties shall co-operate with each other in taking the appropriate
measures to implement the precautionary principle to pollution
prevention through the application of clean production methods,
rather than the pursuit of a permissible emissions approach based
on assimilative capacity assumptions;

(g) In this respect Parties shall promote clean production methods
applicable to entire product life cycles including:

– raw material selection, extraction and processing;

– product conceptualisation, design, manufacture and assemblage;

– materials transport during all phases;

– industrial and household usage;

– reintroduction of the product into industrial systems or nature
when it no longer serves a useful function;

Clean production shall not include “end-of-pipe”pollution controls
such as filters and scrubbers, or chemical, physical or biological
treatment. Measures which reduce the volume of waste by
incineration or concentration, mask the hazard by dilution, or
transfer pollutants from one environmental medium to another, are
also excluded;

(h) The issue of preventing the transfer to Africa of polluting
technologies shall be kept under systematic review by the
Secretariat of the Conference and periodic reports shall be made to
the Conference of the Parties;

Obligations in the Transport and Transboundary Movement of Hazardous
Wastes from Contracting Parties:

(i) Each Party shall prevent the export of hazardous wastes to States
which have prohibited by their legislation or international
agreement all such imports, or if it has reason to believe that the
wastes in question will not be managed in an environmentally sound
manner, according to criteria to be decided on by the Parties at
their first meeting;

(j) A Party shall not permit hazardous wastes to be exported to a State
which does not not have the facilities for treating or disposing of
them in an environmentally sound manner;

(k) Each Party shall ensure that hazardous wastes to be exported are
managed in an environmentally sound manner in the State of import
and transit. Technical guidelines for the environmentally sound
management of wastes subject to this Convention shall be decided by
the Parties at their first meeting;

(l) The Parties agree not to allow the export of hazardous wastes for
disposal within the area South of 60 degrees South Latitude,
whether or not such wastes are subject to transboundary movement;

(m) Furthermore, each Party shall:

(i) Prohibit all persons under its national jurisdiction from
transporting, storing or disposing of hazardous wastes unless
such persons are authorized or allowed to perform such
operations;

(ii) Ensure that hazardous wastes that are to be the subject of a
transboundary movement are packaged, labelled, and
transported in conformity with generally accepted and
recognized international rules and standards in the field of
packaging, labelling, and transport, and that due account is
taken of relevant internationally recognized practices;

(iii) Ensure that hazardous wastes be accompanied by a movement
document, containing information specified in Annex IV B,
from the point at which a transboundary movement commences to
the point of disposal;

(n) Parties shall take the appropriate measures to ensure that the
transboundary movements of hazardous wastes only are allowed if:

(i) The State of export does not have the technical capacity and
the necessary facilities, capacity or suitable disposal sites
in order to dispose of the wastes in question in an
environmentally sound and efficient manner; or

(ii) The transboundary movement in question is in accordance with
other criteria to be decided by the Parties, provided those
criteria do not differ from the objectives of this
Convention;

(o) Under this Convention, the obligation of States in which hazardous
wastes are generated, requiring that those wastes are managed in an
environmentally sound manner, may not under any circumstances be
transferred to the States of import or transit;

(p) Parties shall undertake to review periodically the possibilities
for the reduction of the amount and/or the pollution potential of
hazardous wastes which are exported to other States;

(q) Parties exercising their right to prohibit the import of hazardous
wastes for disposal shall inform the other Parties of their
decision pursuant to Article 13 of this Convention;

(r) Parties shall prohibit or shall not permit the export of hazardous
wastes to States which have prohibited the import of such wastes,
when notified by the secretariat or any competent authority
pursuant to sub-paragraph (q) above;

(s) Parties shall prohibit or shall not permit the export of hazardous
wastes if the State of import does not consent in writing to the
specific import, in the case where that State of import has not
prohibited the import of such wastes;

(t) Parties shall ensure that the transboundary movement of hazardous
wastes is reduced to the minimum consistent with the
environmentally sound and efficient management of such wastes, and
is conducted in a manner which will protect human health and the
environment against the adverse effects which may result from such
movement;

(u) Parties shall require that information about a proposed
transboundary movement of hazardous wastes be provided to the
States concerned, according to Annex IV A of this Convention, and
clearly state the potential dangers of the wastes on human health
and the environment.

4. Furthermore

(a) Parties shall undertake to enforce the obligations of this
Convention against offenders and infringements according to
relevant national laws and/or international law;

(b) Nothing in this Convention shall prevent a Party from imposing
additional requirements that are consistent with the provisions of
this Convention, and are in accordance with the rules of
international law, in order to better protect human health and the
environment;

(c) This Convention recognizes the sovereignty of States over their
territorial sea, waterways, and air space established in accordance
with international law, and jurisdiction which States have in their
Exclusive Economic Zone and their continental shelves in accordance
with international law, and the exercise by ships and aircraft of
all States of navigation rights and freedoms as provided for in
international law and as reflected in relevant international
instruments.

 

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa, Exclusive Economic Zone.