14 November 2012: The Basel Convention Secretariat has issued the report of the ninth meeting of the Convention’s Implementation and Compliance Committee (ICC), which reviewed Convention implementation by nine countries and offered recommendations to the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) on tools and guides to implementing specific aspects of the Convention.

The Committee noted that not a single party had met the Convention’s annual reporting obligation for both 2009 and 2010 and recommended that COP11 set compliance targets requiring that 30% of reports due for 2011 should be submitted on time and 20% submitted complete.

Regarding the nine countries individually reviewed, the ICC approved compliance action plans for Bhutan and Togo, focused on developing a national inventory, and allocated up to US$50,000 apiece from the Implementation Fund for their plan activities. Oman agreed to submit a voluntary compliance action before COP11, which if approved by the ICC, would make Oman eligible for Fund money. In the cases of Cape Verde, Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Libya and Swaziland, the Committee reminded them of their duties under the Convention, particularly regarding reporting, and in most cases called for them too to submit compliance action plans by COP11.

In other matters, the ICC agreed to recommend to COP11 that it, inter alia: request the Secretariat and regional centers (BCRCs) to help countries, upon request, establish compatibility between their national waste classification systems and the Convention’s; request the Secretariat to develop an electronic tool to help parties organize information on the generation and transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and other wastes; and include in the ICC’s 2014-2015 work programme further work on the draft methodological guidance for hazardous waste inventories‭, a review and update of the Manual for the Implementation of the Basel Convention, and exploration of whether to develop guidance on how to implement paragraph 11 of Convention Article 6 on insurance, bond and guarantee.

The ICC also agreed to request the Secretariat to: circulate the draft revised Guide to the Control System as well as the draft guidance on implementation of the take-back provision in paragraph 2 of Article 9 to parties and BCRCs for comment by 31 July 2013; and revise the draft terms of reference for cooperative arrangements on preventing and combating illegal traffic.

The ICC meeting was held from 8-9 November 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland. [Basel Convention Note] [Meeting documents including Report of the 9th Session of the ICC]