Online Basel Convention meeting will disadvantage developing countries, says NGO
/Basel Action Network calls for longer 2021 meeting instead.
14 May 2020 / Africa & Middle East, Chemical restrictions, Global, Multinational bodies, Plastics, Substance notification & inventories, Substances of concern
The Basel Convention's open-ended working group (OEWG) meeting should not be held electronically in June, according to NGO Basel Action Network (BAN), because it "will greatly harm the already difficult circumstances for developing countries" that are parties to the convention.
The secretariat of the UN convention, which controls international movement and disposal of hazardous wastes, announced that an in-person meeting in Geneva wasn't possible due to the coronavirus pandemic. The convention's bureau on 9 April agreed to hold the meeting online "as an exceptional measure in the current situation", the secretariat said.
The online meeting will "not adopt full-fledged decisions as it would usually do, but only simple process decisions," the secretariat said in a statement, such as calling for comments on various documents that could then be taken into account before the convention's conference of parties (COP) in July 2021.