Interlinkages with the Minamata Convention on Mercury

The Minamata Convention is a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury.

Pursuant to the requests made by the conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, the latest being set out in their decisions on cooperation and coordination with the Minamata Convention on Mercury (BC-16/21, RC-11/8 and SC-11/20), the Secretariat cooperates with the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention on relevant administrative, programmatic, technical and technical assistance matters.

Cooperation between the two secretariats focuses on mercury wastes and their environmentally sound management; the provision of technical assistance, including through regional centres; financial resources; compliance; legal issues; effectiveness evaluation; organizational issues, in particular with regard to the organization and servicing of meetings; and knowledge and information management. The secretariats also cooperate to highlight the contributions of the four conventions to broader environmental agendas such as climate change and biodiversity.

The secretariats also implement shared services and the purchase of relevant services from one another, on a cost recovery basis, in accordance with the programme of work and budget of each respective convention.

The Basel Convention and the Minamata Convention have a close relationship for matters related to mercury wastes, their environmentally sound management and transportation across international boundaries, as set out in Article 11 of the Minamata Convention. Among other things, the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention shall seek to cooperate closely with the relevant bodies of the Basel Convention in the review and update of the technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of elemental mercury and wastes containing or contaminated with mercury. (updated version as adopted by COP-15 in May 2023).

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Reports on cooperative activities undertaken by the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions with the Secretariat of the Minamata Convention