Basel Convention

Basel Convention

Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
The logo of the Basel Convention Secretariat
Type	United Nations treaty
Signed	22 March 1989 (1989-03-22)
Location	Basel, Switzerland
Effective	5 May 1992
Condition	Ninety days after the ratification by at least 20 signatory states
Signatories	53
Parties	185
Depositary	Secretary-General of the United Nations
Languages	Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish
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The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, usually known as the Basel Convention, is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries (LDCs). It does not, however, address the movement of radioactive waste. The Convention is also intended to minimize the amount and toxicity of wastes generated, to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the source of generation, and to assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the hazardous and other wastes they generate.

The Convention was opened for signature on 22 March 1989, and entered into force on 5 May 1992. As of November 2016, 184 states and the European Union are parties to the Convention. Haiti and the United States have signed the Convention but not ratified it.

With the tightening of environmental laws (for example, RCRA) in developed nations in the 1970s, disposal costs for hazardous waste rose dramatically. At the same time, globalization of shipping made transboundary movement of waste more accessible, and many LDCs were desperate for foreign currency. Consequently, the trade in hazardous waste, particularly to LDCs, grew rapidly.

One of the incidents which led to the creation of the Basel Convention was the Khian Sea waste disposal incident, in which a ship carrying incinerator ash from the city of Philadelphia in the United States dumped half of its load on a beach in Haiti before being forced away. It sailed for many months, changing its name several times. Unable to unload the cargo in any port, the crew was believed to have dumped much of it at sea.

Another is the 1988 Koko case in which five ships transported 8,000 barrels of hazardous waste from Italy to the small town of Koko in Nigeria in exchange for $100 monthly rent which was paid to a Nigerian for the use of his farmland.

These practices have been deemed "Toxic Colonialism" by many developing countries.