Right to Know

The Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions promote transparency of information as a principle in chemicals and waste management. In order to protect ourselves and the environment from threats and make informed decisions, we need to have timely access to relevant information. 

Information tools provided by the conventions are available to discover where chemicals and wastes may place us at risk, how to prevent exposure to hazardous chemicals and waste, and possible solutions that can be acted upon in our daily lives.

Resources supporting the Right-to-Know

Basel Convention

Online Reporting Database

Parties to the Basel Convention are required to transmit their national reports to the Secretariat of the Basel Convention (SBC) annually. The online reporting database of the Basel Convention provides access to data and information contained in these national reports.

Country Fact Sheets

Basel Convention country fact sheets contain national reporting information available as of October 2011. They cover:

  • status of ratification data
  • competent authority and focal point contacts
  • national definitions of waste
  • restrictions on transboundary movement
  • reduction and/or elimination of hazardous waste generation
  • transboundary movement reduction measures
  • disposal recover facilities
  • bilateral, multilateral or regional agreements
  • technical assistance and training available
  • generation and transboundary movements of hazardous and other waste in 2009 including generation, export and import data.

National legislation

To protect your rights you should know the law. The texts of national legislation of relevance to the Basel Convention supplied by Parties are available to the public.

Confirmed cases of illegal traffic in hazardous waste

The Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention requests competent authorities to bring any alleged cases of illegal traffic to the attention of the Secretariat so it may take appropriate action.

Rotterdam Convention

Country Profiles

The Rotterdam Convention Country Profile provides information about each Party’s

  • date of ratification
  • designated national authorities and official contact points’ contact information
  • import responses
  • notifications of final regulatory actions
  • severely hazardous pesticide formulations proposals

Prior Informed Consent Procedure

The Rotterdam Convention promotes shared responsibility and cooperative efforts in the international trade among Parties of certain hazardous chemicals to protect human health and the environment from potential harm.

The Convention covers industrial chemicals, pesticides and severely hazardous pesticides formulations that have been banned or severely restricted for health or environmental reasons by Parties and which have been notified by Parties for inclusion in the prior informed consent, or PIC, procedure.

The PIC procedure is your key to the treasure of information on hazardous chemicals in international trade shared by the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention.

For each chemical listed in Annex III of the Convention, Parties are requested to take a decision as to whether they will allow future import of the chemical. The resulting decisions on future import of these chemicals are published by the secretariat and made available to all Parties every six months through the PIC Circular.

The PIC Circular is a key document in the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention, both for the operation of the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure and as a mechanism for the exchange of information on hazardous chemicals. It is published in June and December in English, French and Spanish.

Stockholm Convention

National Implementation Plans

In Stockholm Convention National Implementation Plans, Parties explain how they are going to implement the obligations under the Convention and make efforts to put such plans into operation.  The national implementation plan is a living document which is reviewed periodically and updated to address new obligations under the Convention.

Party reports – First Round (2007)

View the reports

Party reports – Second Round (2010)

View the reports

Monitoring reports

Prepared under the Stockholm Convention’s global monitoring plan, these reports include persistent organic pollutant data and monitoring capacity in the world's regions.