Background
All Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions have obligations related to the transmission of information to the Secretariat, such as national reporting or other specific notifications.
Each Party to the Basel Convention (Article 13) and the Stockholm Convention (Article 15) is required to report to the Secretariat on the measures it has taken to implement the provisions of the convention and on the effectiveness of such measures. Parties to the Rotterdam Convention must communicate notifications of final regulatory actions (Article 5) and import responses (Article 10) to the Secretariat, while export notifications must be sent from the exporting Party to the importing Party (Article 12).
Also, decision RC-5/2 requested the Secretariat to propose ways and means of improving levels of notifications of final regulatory actions under Article 5 of the Rotterdam Convention. These training and capacity building activities target competent authorities and focal points under the Basel Convention, official contact points and national focal points under the Stockholm Convention, designated national authorities and focal points under the Rotterdam Convention, chemicals and pesticides national regulatory authorities, customs authorities, Parties that are trade partners, industry and NGOs.
Objectives
The capacity building activities related to Parties’ ability to report and send notifications aim at:
- Enhancing the understanding of the reporting requirements under the Basel and Stockholm Conventions and of the use of the online reporting systems;
- Facilitating information exchange on the status of implementation of Articles 11 and 12 of the Rotterdam Convention, which are all related to trade;
- Enhancing Rotterdam Parties’ capacity to fulfill their obligations related to the control of the trade of Annex III chemicals (Article 11), export notification (Article 12) and information to accompany exports.
Recent Activities