Under the Basel Convention, Parties have specific obligations to transmit certain information to each other, through the Secretariat. This includes notifications of national definitions of “hazardous wastes” that are additional to the wastes listed in the Annexes of the Convention, thereby expanding the scope of the Convention.

Transmitting information is essential to inform stakeholders (countries, importers, exporters etc.) of national legislative and administrative requirements implemented in certain jurisdictions. In turn, this facilitates compliance with such requirements and may prevent illegal traffic in hazardous or other wastes.

This information on national definitions has been transmitted to the Secretariat either through notifications by Parties using the revised standardised reporting format for transmitting information under Article 3 of the Convention or through information reported under question 2 (c) of the national reporting questionnaire under Article 13(3) and transmitted through designated focal points.

The full texts of the Basel Convention national reports are available here