26 June 2013: The First Conference of the Parties (COP 1) to the Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa convened in Bamako, Mali, from 24-26 June 2013. The Bamako Convention came into force in 1998, but this was the first meeting of the COP.

COP 1 agreed that, subject to the UN Environment Assembly of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UNEP will carry out the Bamako Convention Secretariat functions. Parties also agreed to encourage the Secretariat of the Bamako Convention to further strengthen its collaboration with the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, and any other relevant Secretariats of Conventions. They also agreed that designated Centers for the Basel and Stockholm conventions in Africa are ipso facto designated centers for the Bamako Convention. Parties agreed to hold Bamako COP 2 in March 2015, in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

The Bamako Convention covers more wastes than those covered by the Basel Convention, as it includes radioactive wastes as well as any waste with a listed hazardous characteristic or a listed constituent as a hazardous waste. Under the Bamako Convention, Parties should ban the import of hazardous and radioactive wastes as well as all forms of ocean disposal. For intra-African waste trade, Parties must minimize the transboundary movement of wastes and only conduct it with consent of the importing and transit states, among other controls. Parties also should minimize the production of hazardous wastes and cooperate to ensure that wastes are treated and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner.

The following parties to the Bamako Convention attended COP 1: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Libya, Mali, Mozambique, Mauritius, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia. In addition, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Swaziland and Zambia participated as observers. [Report of the Meeting] [COP 1 Meeting Website]