UNEP/CHW/OEWG/7/20

UNITED
NATIONS / /

BC

UNEP/CHW/OEWG/7/20
/ Distr.: General
21 April 2010
Original: English

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UNEP/CHW/OEWG/7/20

Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention

on the Control of Transboundary Movements of

Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal

Seventh session

Geneva, 10–14 May 2010

Item 14 of the provisional agenda[(]

Other matters

Twentieth anniversary celebrations and the Basel Waste Solution Circle

Note by the Secretariat

Introduction

1.  By the Bali Declaration on Waste Management for Human Health and Livelihood, adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention at its ninth meeting, the Parties reaffirmed their commitment to promoting safe and environmentally sound waste management within each country, recognizing the importance of safe waste management for protecting human health and livelihood.

2.  At the first meeting of the Expanded Bureau of the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, held in Geneva on 23 and 24 June 2009, the Secretariat introduced an information note on events to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention (UNEP/SBC/BUREAU/9/1/INF/2). It provided information on the planned celebrations and on a proposed framework for showcasing successful projects contributing to the implementation of the Bali Declaration to be launched by Kenya, Indonesia and Colombia (as the past, current and future host countries of meetings of the Conference of the Parties) during the celebrations. During the meeting, the Bureau welcomed the work undertaken by the Secretariat to commemorate the twentieth anniversary and commended the idea of an award for best efforts to promote the implementation of the Bali Declaration.

I. Implementation

3.  The twentieth anniversary was celebrated on 17 November 2009 in Basel, Switzerland. The celebratory event sought to raise awareness about the Convention, in particular the link between waste management, human health and livelihood and the environment. It was jointly organized by the Secretariat and the canton of Basel-City with the generous support of the Government of Switzerland. The annex to the present note provides more information about the event.

4.  A highlight of the anniversary event was the launch of the Basel Waste Solutions Circle, a global initiative to promote the protection of human health and livelihood through the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes worldwide, as called for in the Bali Declaration. The representatives of Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya and Switzerland launched the Circle by each presenting one important project undertaken in their country that had contributed to the implementation of the Bali Declaration. The representatives were each awarded certificates of recognition by Ms. Katharina Kummer Peiry, Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention, for their commitment to the Convention.

II. Proposed action

5.  The Open-ended Working Group may wish to adopt a decision along the following lines:

The Open-ended Working Group

1. Welcomes the launch of the Basel Waste Solution Circle, a global initiative to promote the protection of human health and livelihood through the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes worldwide, as called for in the Bali Declaration on Waste Management for Human Health and Livelihood;

2. Agrees that the Basel Waste Solution Circle should reward activities furthering the objectives of the Bali Declaration and that showcase best efforts to promote its implementation;

3. Requests the Secretariat to develop further the concept of the Basel Waste Solution Circle and to elaborate, for consideration and possible adoption by the Conference of the Parties at its tenth meeting, processes and criteria for the selection of awardees.


Annex

Report on the celebrations of the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Basel Convention

The celebrations of the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Basel Convention were preceded by a press conference held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 13 November 2009, at which ambassadors Mr.Philip Richard Owade (Kenya), Mr. Dian Triansyah Djani (Indonesia), Mr.Angelino Garzón (Colombia) and Mr. Dante Martinelli (Switzerland), together with Ms.Katharina Kummer Peiry, Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Basel Convention, were present and gave presentations on the subject.

The twentieth anniversary was celebrated on 17November 2009 in Basel, Switzerland, the city that gave its name to the Convention on the occasion of its adoption in 1989. The event was held in the presence of a number of invited guests representing entities with a special relationship to the Convention. Mr. John N. Michuki, Minister of Environment and Mineral Resources of Kenya, Mr.Gusti Muhammad Hatta, Minister of Environment of Indonesia, and Mr. Carlos Costa Posada, Minister of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development of Colombia, were invited in their capacity as past, current and future presidents of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention. Mr.Moritz Leuenberger, Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications of Switzerland, was invited as a representative of the host country at the time of the adoption of the Convention in 1989. Representatives of the canton of BaselCity, of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment and invited guests from international organizations in Geneva, the heads of Geneva-based Permanent Missions to the United Nations, representatives of industry, scientific and economic organizations and non-governmental organizations from the Basel region, in addition to national and international media, were also invited to participate.

The event was opened with welcoming statements delivered by Ms. Kummer Peiry; Mr. Guy Morin, President of the Executive Council of the canton of Basel-City; and Mr.Manuel Sager, Ambassador of Switzerland. A message from Mr. Achim Steiner, United Nations UnderSecretaryGeneral and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, was also conveyed to those present.

The opening ceremony was followed by a high-level panel discussion on the theme of “Visions for waste in the next 20 years” in which Mr. Muhammad Hatta, Ms. Claudia Mora Pineda, ViceMinister of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development, Colombia, Mr. Owade, Mr.Sager, Mr. Christoph Brutschin, member of the Executive Council of the canton of Basel-City, and Ms.Kummer Peiry shared their visions of a future world in which wastes would be managed in such a way as to protect human health and livelihood and alleviate poverty.

The highlight of the event was the launch of the Basel Waste Solution Circle, a global initiative to promote the protection of human health and livelihood through the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes worldwide. Ms. Kummer Peiry said that the Circle’s aim was to bring together a group of Governments and other stakeholders committed to actively promoting waste management for human health and livelihood in accordance with the Bali Declaration on Waste Management for Human Health and Livelihood, by initiating and implementing projects contributing in a specific way to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals related to poverty and health. Governments, industry bodies and non-governmental organizations were invited to join the Circle through the launch of a project devoted to waste management for human health and livelihood.

The Circle was launched by Mr. Muhammad Hatta, Ms. Mora Pineda, on behalf of Mr. Costa Posada, Mr. Owade on behalf of Mr. Michuki, and Mr. Sager on behalf of Mr. Leuenberger. These government representatives were then each awarded a certificate of recognition by Ms. Kummer Peiry for their commitment to the Convention through the launch of the Circle.

As the first Circle members, the representatives of Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya and Switzerland each presented one important project from their countries. Ms. Mora Pineda presented a Colombian project called “Computer programme for educational purposes”. Mr. Djani presented an Indonesian project called “PROPER: a programme to improve the management of hazardous waste in Indonesia”. Mr. Owade presented a Kenyan project called “Nairobi River Basin Rehabilitation Programme”. Mr.Stefan Denzler, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, presented a Swiss project called “Development cooperation for e-waste recycling: a Swiss contribution to the implementation of the Basel Convention”. Leaflets containing brief descriptions of these projects and other information about the twentieth anniversary are available on the Basel Convention website (http://www.basel.int/convention/XX%20Anniversary/index.html).

The event was concluded with closing remarks by Mr. Morin and Ms. Kummer Peiry. Mr.Morin, welcoming the success of the anniversary event, conveyed the wish of the city of Basel to host the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, in 2013. Ms.Kummer Peiry expressed her gratitude to all those who had made it possible to celebrate the twentieth anniversary event in Basel and announced the release of a report entitled “Waste without frontiers” in early 2010. The report would contain an analysis of data on the generation and transboundary movements of hazardous and other wastes reported by Parties to the Convention for the period 20042006.

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[(]* UNEP/CHW/OEWG/7/1.