The Basel Convention

The Basel Convention

The Basel Convention Policy is also known as the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. Designed to decrease the movement and disposal of hazardous waste from developed natation’s to the less developed nations, the Basel Convention is one of the most comprehensive global environmental treaties on dangerous waste. By March 2011, the global agreement boasted of 175 members, closer to its goal of universal membership.

During the 1980s and 1970s, there was an environmental awareness awakening in industrialized developed nations, which was followed by the corresponding constriction of environmental regulation laws and policies. According to toVoinov Kohler (2017), increased public awareness led to increased civil resistance to the movement and disposal of hazardous waste in the developing world and Eastern Europe. The opposition became known as the Not in My Back Yard syndrome (NIMBY) that ultimately led to increased disposal costs. As a result, hazardous waste operators begun seeking cheaper waste disposal options in countries in Eastern Europe and third world countries. These regions were more suitable due to less environmental awareness and little to no regulations and policies on hazardous waste disposal.

At the time, environmental policies such as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 was a United States federal law that governed hazardous and solid waste disposal (Khan, 2016). It only regulated one nation; there was a need for an injunction to regulate hazardous waste disposal globally. Through this background, the Basel Convention negotiations begun during the late 1980s. At the time, its primary objective was to combat what was termed as a toxic trade of toxic colonialism.

The predominant objective of the policy is to protect the environment and human health from the adverse effects of hazardous and solid waste. The scope of dangerous waste included range from waste composition, waste origin, and characteristics, and two other wastes incinerator ash and household waste. Provisions of the policy center around;

1. regulatory systems that apply to instances where transboundary movement is allowed
2. Decreasing the generation of hazardous waste while promoting environmentally safe ways to dispose of dangerous waste (Ghosh et al., 2016).
3. Restrict the transboundary movement of hazardous material; unless when in compliance with the environmentally safe management of such waste.

I chose this policy because it is one of the most comprehensive global treaties of the 20^th century. Both developed and undeveloped nations were able to work together and find systems to ensure environmental safety and human health. Additionally, the policy does not focus on prevention alone, and it also develops sub-regional and regional centers for technology transfers and training on the effective management of hazardous wastes. The generation of these centers is minimized to cater to the unique needs of hazardous waste from different sub-regions and regions.

The research will use both primary and secondary sources for a literature review. Primary sources will be researched from original documents, newspaper reports, letters, recorded interviews, speeches, survey data, diaries, data subsets, video, audio, economic statistics, and texts of laws. Some of the primary sources that will be included in this study include; Hackett, D. P. (1989). Assessment of the Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal. Am. UJ Int’l L. & Pol’y, 5, 291 and Kummer, K. (1992). The international regulation of transboundary traffic in hazardous wastes: The 1989 Basel Convention. International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 41(3), 530-562.

The secondary sources are second-hand commentary and information from other researchers. Some of the sources to be used for this research include; Gareau, B. J., & Lucier, C. A. (2018). Neoliberal restructuring of the world polity: the weakening of the Montreal Protocol and Basel Convention from a historical perspective. Environmental Sociology, 4(3), 325-342, and Khan, S. A. (2016). E‐products, E‐waste, and the Basel Convention: regulatory challenges and impossibilities of international environmental law. Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law, 25(2), 248-260.