QUESTION - Select an international environmental instrument on any area of environmental

protection (convention/treaty or declaration) and identify the issues related to North-South

dimension in the selected area of environmental issue.

ANSWER 3 –

The disaster of the Khian Sea and other ships during the 80s and their subsequent media
exposure led to the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of
Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal (Basel Convention). The Basel Convention presents the
legal regime that exists with respect to the regulation of the movement of toxic wastes across the
international borders. Countries that are not a party to the OECD convention wanted a complete
ban upon any type of export of toxic wastes but the Basel convention only provides a regulatory
mechanism1. The Global North countries pushed for a regulatory mechanism instead of a ban
citing the idea of free trade and how a ban would be restricting free trade.

The Basel Convention requires every member nation, under its objectives, to reduce toxic wastes
and become self reliant for waste disposal in a manner which is efficient environmentally.
Countries that lack the technical facilities to dispose such toxic wastes domestically are allowed
to export their wastes to other nations. Member nations who seek to export such waste are
required to notify such information to any country through which the waste would travel and to
the importing country. Consent from all the countries involved has to be obtained in writing.
During the transportation or disposal of the waste if the provisions of the convention are not
followed the exporting country has to reimport such toxic waste and dispose it in a sound
manner.

The Basel convention has been heavily criticized for ignoring the interests of the global south
and promoting toxic imperialism of the north. The existence of largely inadequate and vague
definitions under the convention support such contentions.

Firstly, there is no adequate or express definition of the term ‘hazardous waste’. This provides
the global north a chance to interpret the term hazardous waste to their benefit.

1
Ruchi Anand. International Environmental Justice: A North-South Dimension. Hampshire, England: Ashgate,
2004.
Secondly, the introduction of the words “environmentally sound management” provide a vague
concept which is tough to regulate or define.

Thirdly, the enforcement and liability structure under the convention is quite weak and does not
present proper monitoring standards.

The Basel convention rather than banning the export of toxic wastes legalized it through the
weak regulation mechanism that it presented. The global north is permitted to export the toxic
wastes, while paying the health and environmental cost, to the global south. The poorer countries
accept these toxic wastes on account of the financial incentives but fail to dispose off the toxic
wastes in a proper and efficient manner due to lack of infrastructure and legal frameworks in
such countries2.

The convention made a very significant decision in 1994 in the form of the Basel Ban
Amendment.3 The conference of the parties in 1994 decided to further the protection of the
convention by introducing a ban on any kind of transboundary movement between the OECD
and the non-OECD countries. Although this decision of the convention awaits ratification it
presents an important and significant step towards the ban on export of toxic wastes.

This problem represents a typical North-South conflict. International environmental law has long
deliberated upon the existence of a conflict between the industrialized wealthy nations and
economically developing nations. The wealthy North wants the economically poorer South to
raise their environmental standards and follow the path to sustainable development. The southern
nations however are skeptical of doing so at the cost of their development, especially, when the
development that the northern nations have achieved is through little or no regulation during
their own industrialization years. The developing countries often argue that if they were to raise
their environmental standards they should also be provided with advanced technology and
finances at concessionary rates from the developed countries in return. This would ensure
sustainable development4.

2
WTO/CTE (1998), Communication from the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Geneva: WT/CTE/W/90, 20 July)
3
Basel Action Network. Accessed September 27, 2015: (http://www.ban.org/about-basel-ban/what-is-basel-
ban.html).
4
Armin Rosencraz, Paul Kibel and Kathleen Yurchak, ‘The Principles, Structure, and Implementation of
International Environmental Law’.