basel convention and some guidance for myanmar 33rd volme/6sharmina haque.pdfthe basel convention2...
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77
BASEL CONVENTION AND SOME GUIDANCE FOR MYANMAR
1Sharmina Haque,
2Sariful Islam,
3Tabassum Zarin
1,2,3 Lecturer, Dept. of Architecture, American International University-Bangladesh
Abstract
By addressing the importance of Basel convention, this paper tries to take attention of the
government of Myanmar regarding this particular issue. Then, considering the history,
geography, economy, environmental condition and existing laws, Technical and financial
capacity of this country this paper suggests Myanmar to be a party of Basel convention
for becoming a sustainable developed country. The mechanisms to assist Myanmar's
implementation of the Convention are also examined here .At the end, inadequacies of
the convention with some suggestions to strengthen it are also addressed.
Keywords: Myanmar, Basel Convention, environment, laws.
1. Basel convention:
For a long time International trading of
hazardous waste has-been taking place in silence.
Recently, Global awareness of this trading has
increased because of several factors.1This
problem has emerged the need of developing a
comprehensive global environmental treaty to
regulate the international transportation and
disposal of hazardous waste.
The Basel convention2 is the first international
convention to control the export of hazardous
and others wastes. This Convention was signed
in 1989 and it entered into force on 5 May 1992.
As of May 2013, 179 states and the European
Union are parties.
1.1 Aims of the Convention:
The aim of the Basel Convention is to
protect human health and the environment
against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes.
Its scope of application wraps a wide range of
1 Krueger, J.,1999, What’s to become of trade in hazardous wastes? Environment. 41, 9, 11-21 2 The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal, Basel, 22 March 1989, 28 Int’l Leg. Mat. 657 (1989)
wastes defined as “hazardous wastes” based on
their origin and/or composition and their
characteristics (article 1 and annexes I, III, VIII
and IX), as well as two types of wastes defined
as “other wastes” (household waste and
incinerator ash; article 1 and annex II)3.
Based on a recognition of the threat posed by
hazardous waste to human health and the
environment ,the Convention sets three key
aims,:4 First, a reduction in the amount of
hazardous waste generated; second, decrease the
amount of transboundary movements of
hazardous waste; and third, the promotion of the
„environmentally sound management(ESM)5 of
hazardous waste‟.6 7
3 Text of Basel convention, available at http://www.basel.int/Portals/4/Basel%20Convention/docs/text/BaselConventionText-e.pdf (accessed 1 November,2013) 4 ibid., note 21 above, Preamble. 5 Environmentally sound management (‘ESM’) is defined as ‘taking all practicable steps to ensure that hazardous wastes or other wastes are managed in a manner which will protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects which 6 K. Kummer,1998, ‘The Basel Convention: Ten Years On’, 7/3 ,Review of European Community and International Environmental Law 227, 228. 7 ibid. 3, note 21 above, at Article 2 (8).
78
1.2 How Basel convention Works:
First, the Basel Convention regulates
the transboundary movements of hazardous and
other wastes by applying the “Prior Informed
Consent”8 procedure. Transport to and from non-
Parties are illegal unless there is a special
agreement. Each Party is required to introduce
appropriate national or domestic legislation to
prevent and punish illegal traffic in hazardous
and other wastes. Second, the Convention should
ensure that hazardous and other wastes of its
parties are managed and disposed of in ESM
system. Strong controls have to be applied from
the moment of generation of a hazardous waste
to its storage, transport, treatment, reuse,
recycling, recovery and final disposal. 9
1.3 Consequent Developments (1992-2013)
The adaptation of the amendment to the
convention on the control of transboundary
movements of hazardous wastes and their
disposal was adopted by COP 3(The third
meeting of the Conference of the Parties) in 1995
which referred as "Ban amendment".10
The Ban
Amendment provides for the prohibition of
exports of all hazardous wastes covered by the
Convention that are intended for final disposal,
reuse, recycling and recovery from countries
listed in annex VII to the Convention to all other
countries.11
But problem arise by the emergence
of new waste streams and techniques for
recycling and resource recovery, and the
increasing availability of recycling12
facilities in
non-OECD countries while the challenge was to
8 shipments made without consent are illegal 9 The Basel Convention At A Glance… ,available at http://archive.basel.int/convention/bc_glance.pdf (accessed 1 November,2013) 10 Available at http://www.basel.int/Implementation/LegalMatters/BanAmendment/tabid/1484/Default.aspx(accessed 1 November,2013) 11 ibid. 12 state-of-the-art
protect vulnerable countries from unwanted
hazardous waste imports without preventing the
import of wastes. 13
While addressing the
concerns, recently in COP10 focused on
"combating illegal traffic more effectively" and
"entry into force of Ban amendment".14
Besides
that, new strategies frame works and the
Indonesian-Swiss Country-Led initiative was
focused to “find the path forward” for the Ban
Amendment‟s entry into force ,15
which was
Followed up In COP11.16
The "Basel Protocol" on Liability and
Compensation for Damage resulting from
Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes
and their Disposal was adopted by COP 5 in
1999.17
The Basel Protocol takes the civil
liability for damage resulting from the
transboundary movement of hazardous wastes
and other wastes, occurring because of illegal
traffic.
A Committee for administering the mechanism
for promoting implementation and compliance
was established at COP 6 in 2002 which is
13 Kummer peiry, Katharina, Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law, p 5-6 ,available at, http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/bcctmhwd/bcctmhwd.html (accessed 1 November,2013) 14Available at http://www.basel.int/Implementation/LegalMatters/CountryLedInitiative/OutcomeofCOP10/tabid/2666/Default.aspx(accessed 1 November,2013) 15 Earth Negotiations Bulletin , 2011 ,A Reporting Service for Environment and Development Negotiations , the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IIS D ), Vol. 20 No. 37 , Available at http://www.iisd.ca/basel/cop10/ 16 Report of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their, Disposal on the work of its eleventh meeting, Available at http://synergies.pops.int/2013COPsExCOPs/Overview/tabid/2914/mctl/ViewDetails/EventModID/9163/EventID/297/xmid/9411/language/en-US/Default.aspx (accessed 1 November,2013) 17 ibid .13,p 5-6
79
referred as “Implementation and Compliance
Committee”.18
A large body of "Technical guidelines" on the
management of specific waste streams has been
developed by technical government expert
groups and approved by the COP6.
The decision on cooperation with the "WTO" 19
was adopted in COP 10.20
"Ex-COP" is one of
the international co-proration and coordination
development activities of Basel convention that
was focused in COP10 21
and recently, in
COP11, through "ExCOPs-2"22
, it enhanced
these development activities.23
2. Study of Myanmar:
Country study is very essential for
proposing any kind of convention. A small part
of this analysis is shown here with focusing
specific issues.
2.1 History and geography:
History: Myanmar was conquered and
incorporated into its Indian Empire by Britain
over a period of 62 years (1824-1886) and it was
administered as a province of India until 1937.
Myanmar attained independence from the Britain
in 1948. And in 1962, all state functions,
controlling all aspects of political, economic and
18 ibid 13.p 5-6 19 UNEP/ CHW.10/ 16 20 Summary of the tenth meeting of the conference of the parties to the Basel convention: 17-21 October 2011 21 Earth Negotiations Bulletin , 2011 ,A Reporting Service for Environment and Development Negotiations , the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IIS D ), Vol. 20 No. 37 , Available at http://www.iisd.ca/basel/cop10/ 22 For the first time Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, the ordinary and extraordinary meeting of the conferences of the parties were held back to back from 28 April to 10 May 2013 to enhancing cooperation and coordination among the Them 23 Available at http://synergies.pops.int/2013COPsExCOPs/Briefings/tabid/3137/language/en-US/Default.aspx(accessed 1 November,2013)
social life in the country was taken by the army
.After that, In 1988, the Large-scale protests
against military rule broke down the central part
of the country and the market economic
principles was formally embraced . Because of
the unstable political situation ,Foreign investors
have hesitated to invest in the country
.Investments are primarily concentrated in the
natural-resource extraction sectors, especially
oil, gas, timber and gems, while other industries
have received little attention. 24
A new military-
backed government with new political system
was inaugurated in March 2011, which have
brought a major change in the political
atmosphere in Myanmar, raising prospects of the
most fundamental reform and realignment in
national politics in decades.25
Geography: Myanmar, the original
official name “Union of Burma”, is located in
South-east Asia. From north to south, Tibeto-
Himalayan Mountains stretch along the border;
in the south-west and south, Myanmar borders
the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The
neighboring countries are Bangladesh, India,
China, Laos, and Thailand. Myanmar is the
second largest state in Southeast Asia, having
area of 678,033 km2. Total population is over 60
million with 135 national races.26
2.2 Economical Condition:
Since 1988, the Myanmar government
has mainly relied on the extraction of natural
resources for foreign currency27
. But in 2011, the
access to foreign resources enhanced the
Economic potential of Myanmar by new trading
opportunities, the inflow of foreign investment,
24 BTI 2012, Myanmar Country Report, More on the BTI at http://www.bti-project.org 25 Kramer, Tom, 2012, Ending 50 years of military rule? Prospects for peace, democracy and development in Burma, NOREF Report 26 Available at http://www.burma-center.org/en/burma/history/ (accessed 1 November,2013) 27 ibid. 28
80
elevated levels of bilateral and multilateral
assistance.28
Foreign investment into the country
was almost 5 times higher in the economic year,
March 2013 compared to the previous year and
over 85 percent of the country's total economic
potential coming from the few sectors that
includes energy and mining, agriculture,
manufacturing and infrastructure according to
the report.29
The country's gross domestic
product (GDP) is just 0.2 percent of Asia's GDP
and it has the potential to be one of the fastest-
growing economies in emerging Asia.
Currently.30
According to a 2012 ADB study,"
Myanmar could follow Asia‟s fast growing
economies and expand at 7% to 8% a year,
become a middle income nation, and triple per
capita income by 2030 if it can surmount
substantial development challenges by further
implementing across-the-board reforms".31
2.3 Environmental management in Myanmar:
Myanmar faces environmental problems
arising from three factors: Globalization,
Overpopulation and Industrialization.32
Transboundary trade, and border area
rehabilitation programmes are one of the main
causes of environmental degradation ,where E-
wastes is the most popular problems here which
is increasing day by day. But Environmental
concerns are not yet taken seriously .There is no
proper environmental ministry and even
environmental impact assessments (EIA) are not
required either for domestic or foreign
28 U Myint ,2013, Myanmar’s economic prospects and its real potential, See more http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2013/04/21/myanmars-economic-prospects-and-its-real-potential/ 29 http://www.cnbc.com/id/100763685(accessed 1 November,2013) 30 ibid.33 31 http://www.adb.org/countries/myanmar/main(accessed 1 November,2013) 32 Soe, Kay Thi, Yin ,Mon Mon,2009,Environmental Management in Myanmar, Yangon University of Distance Education Research Journal, Vol. 1, No.1
investment projects. 33
.For that, there are a lot of
negative health impacts reports due to the use of
toxic chemicals in the mining process without
proper safeguards; for example, at gold mines in
Kachin and Karen States and copper mines in
upper Myanmar. 34
After implementing the National Environmental
Policy in 1994, Myanmar Agenda 21 was
formulated and published in 1997 to get the
progress toward National Sustainable
Development Strategies. This Myanmar Agenda
21 identified four programme areas in
Environmental Quality Management and
Enhancement where "Promote environmentally
sound management of toxic chemical and
hazardous wastes" is one of them.35
Besides that,
Myanmar has some existing Laws for pollution
control waste management 36
. Laws related to
coastal and marine environments are illustrated
in different sectoral laws under two ministries
the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries and the
Ministry of Forestry.37
Some recent Laws are
adopted by parliament from 2011 to prevent the
environment 38
But, The laws that currently
apply in Myanmar are generally too wide and
insufficient to deal with complex environmental
management issues.
2.3.1 Management of toxic chemicals and
hazardous waste:
33 ibid.28 34 ibid. 35 Fourth Regional 3R Forum in Asia,“3Rs in the Context of Rio+20 Outcomes – The Future We Want”,2013,Country Analysis Paper(Draft),<Myanmar>,The Republic of the Union of Myanmar 36 Lwin ,S ,2000 , Exerts from laws relating to environmental protecting in the Laws of the Union of Myanmar 37LATT ,U Win , The role of Myanmar 's environment related laws and regulations inprotection and management of costal marine ecosystems issues and need,Aquaculture Development and Environmental Consultants,International Symposium on Protection and Management of Coastal Marine Ecosystem 38 Myanmar rules of law assessment ,March 2013
81
In 1990, Myanmar established the
National Commission for Environmental Affairs,
for international transport of dangerous goods39
.
There is no specific institution assigned for
overall management of chemicals and waste, but
there are a number of existing frameworks in
legislation, classification and Labelling standards
that could accommodate the Globally
Harmonized System of Classification and
Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) . To implement
the GHS, Myanmar is currently preparing to
revise existing legislation and administrative
procedures.40
But in practice the effectiveness in
implementation and enforcement of those laws
are limited. There is neither a specific protection
and management body or coordination unit with
multidisciplinary approach.
2.3.2 Technical capacity for the treatment of
hazardous waste
The technologies that Myanmar is using
for treatment of hazardous waste is somehow in
workable status but still needs to achieve other
advanced technology .Myanmar require the new
projects, from both forging and private
investments for the technical support of
environmental management .41
2.3.3 Future Plan for managing Hazardous
waste:
"Developing a framework for hazardous
waste management" is one of the future plan of
government that have to be completed within 5
years. "Enact a hazardous waste law" and
"Interaction with international bodies" to obtain
information and knowledge about environmental
39 See Implementation through international legal instruments, recommendations, codes and guidelines 40 See at http://www.unece.org/?id=25735(accessed 1 November,2013) 41 ibid.39
toxicity of chemicals, their assessment and risk
reduction programmes are some of the action
plan for next 10 years.42
The extended
application of renewable energy, energy
efficiency and energy conservation measures are
being undertaken widely as Energy Policy. 43
2.4 International Cooperation
Myanmar had expended a lot to
maintain its military power, by sacrificing other
productive sectors. Even The government didn't
make the payments on its external debt to
international financial institutions for many
years. Now, Myanmar has generally tried to
maintain good relations with neighboring
counties and to secure itself some degree of
protection in international forums, it became
member of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) in 1997. However, outside the
context of these relationships, Myanmar does not
considered as a credible or reliable partner to the
international community.44
3. Myanmar and Basel convention:
Illegal traffic of waste is one of the
most important environmental concerns in
developing country. Still industrialized countries
are exporting their hazardous waste to
developing countries which lack the capacity to
safely dispose of it. "It is a grave abuse and an
offence against the solidarity of humanity when
industrial enterprises of rich countries profit
from the weak economies and legislation of
poorer countries by exporting dirty technologies
and wastes which degrade the environment and
health of the population."--- Pope John Paul II,
October 22, 1993
Being a developing country Myanmar should
protect the environment and health of their
42 Ref: Myanmar NSDS (2008) 43 ibid.39 44 ibid.28
82
people from those unsafe hazardous wastes of
illegal transport and it needs policies and laws,
particularly foreign investment environmental
laws .Basel conventions provides for specific
obligations that parties are to implement and
comply with in order to prevent and combat
illegal traffic with the details of consequences of
illegal traffic (article 4).45
Most of the
developing countries have already became a
party of Basel convention. Of the ten nations in
ASEAN, only Myanmar is not a party to the
Basel Convention. The importances of Basel
convention for Myanmar are shown with
focusing some basic beneficial issues and
mechanism of convention.
3.1. Damages caused by hazardous waste:
Improper management and disposal of
hazardous wastes can affect human health, the
environment and the economy.
3.1.1 Health: An immediate effect is
death or illness with lots of short and long-term
effects to humans from the exposure to toxins,
dioxins and PCBs. Long-term health effects stem
from contaminated wastes leakage into the
groundwater or soil and then working their way
into the food chain .Work of Dismantling of
ships or other end‑of‑life equipment are also
harmful as number of dangerous substances may
emerge for it. There were numerous reported
deaths of both humans and livestock, with an
increases number of illnesses in those areas.46
Heather Spalding of Greenpeace‟s International
Toxics Campaign told Safety and Health in
1995, "The bottom line is people have died from
the irresponsible transshipment of hazardous
wastes. A lot of developing countries don’t even
45 Available at http://www.basel.int/Implementation/LegalMatters/IllegalTraffic/Mandate/tabid/3436/Default.aspx (accessed 1 November,2013) 46 Edwards, R.,1995, Dirty tricks in a dirty business. New Scientist. 1965, 12-13.
have the facilities or the power to police the
importation of waste, and other countries
consistently take advantage of them."
3.1.2 Ecosystem and environment:
Illegal traffic or inappropriate storage and
treatment of hazardous wastes and other wastes
may contaminate soil and water systems which
effects on entire ecosystem. During an extreme
weather or natural disaster such as a hurricane,
earthquakes the contamination can be massive in
scale.
3.1.3 Economy: The poor are the most
vulnerable to such impacts as they are dependent
on a particular ecosystem for their survival and
their income beside that, The costs of restoring
the environment and reversing the impacts on
health and the environment can be very high, and
the process can take many years to complete .A
rise of losing important income flows from
tourism because of environmental degradation
can effects on total economy.
3.2 Benefit from the Basel convention:
The Basel Convention acts as a role to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) - poverty reduction, reducing child
mortality, improving maternal health, ensure
environmental sustainability.47
The Basel
Convention promotes environmentally sound
management practices which can contribute to
sustainable development.
3.2.1 Environmentally sound
management: A fundamental principle of the
Basel Convention is environmentally sound
management of wastes which is the minimum
baseline that Parties to the Convention are
required to achieve. It includes minimization and
prevention of the generation of wastes and the
proper handling of wastes in respect of their
47 ibid.3
83
recycling, recovery, treatment, storage and final
disposal. The technical guidelines are adopted by
the party to ensure that.
3.2.2 Towards Millennium
Development Goals: The Ministerial Statement
on Partnerships for Meeting the Global Waste
Challenge48
adopted in 2004 by the Conference
of the Parties which linkages the
environmentally sound management of
hazardous wastes with wider issues that have key
implications for the attainment of the
Millennium Development Goals, in particular
water protection, improved sanitation, solid
waste management and economic and social
development.49
3.2.3 Sustainable future by
integrating environment and development:
Sustainable development requires the integration
of the economic, social and environmental
objectives of a country in order to maximize
human well-being for the present generation
without compromising that of future generations.
Effective implementation of the Basel
Convention can contribute towards sustainable
Future by achieving:
- Poverty reduction
- Human health
- Environmental sustainability
- Global partnerships for development
- Developing markets
- Security
3.2.4 Development of International
relationship: Basel convention provides the
International cooperation and exchange of
48 UNEP/CHW.7/33, annex V. 49 Our sustainable future: the role of the Basel Convention, available at http://www.basel.int/Portals/4/Basel%20Convention/docs/pub/broch090508.pdf(accessed 1 November,2013)
information between parties through which
foreign relationship developed.
3.2 Mechanisms to assist Myanmar's
implementation of the Basel Convention:
The nature of the mechanism of Basel
convention supports the developing country like
Myanmar Cause "this convention pays particular
attention to the special needs of developing
countries and countries with economies in
transition".50
Facts that can assist Myanmar's
implementation on Basel convention are
explained here:
3.2.1 Financial and Technical
support: The convention has the protocol on
liability and compensation for damage resulting
from transboundary movements of hazardous
wastes and their disposal.51
On the other hand,
Technical Cooperation Trust Fund is established
to assist developing countries and other countries
in need of technical assistance in the
implementation of the Basel
Convention.52
Numerous national and regional
capacity building and training projects are also
implemented under the umbrella of this
fund.53
According to the policy developing
country can apply for assistance from the
Technical Cooperation Trust Fund of the Basel
Convention, in cases of emergency resulting
from incidents arising from transboundary
movements of hazardous wastes and other
wastes and their disposal, and this emergency
mechanism allows the Secretariat of the Basel
Convention, to use the funds allocated to the
Technical Cooperation Trust Fund. By
50 The Basel convention mechanism for promoting implementation and compliance ,celebrating a decade of assistance to parties 51 ibld.3,p 96-126 52 Available at http://www.basel.int/TheConvention/FinanceBudget/tabid/1279/Default.aspx (accessed 1 November,2013) 53 ibld.3,p 96-126
84
estimating the magnitude of damage it takes
appropriate emergency measures to prevent or
mitigate damage and helps by giving assistance
if needed.54
The Convention establish The regional or sub-
regional centres for training and technology
transfers for the management of hazardous
wastes and other wastes and the minimization of
their generation with providing specific
needs55
.There are about Fourteen such centres
have established .They are carrying out training
and capacity building activities in the regions.56
3.2.2 Promotes cooperation between
all Parties: Basel convention provides for
cooperation between parties, ranging from
exchange of information on issues relevant to the
implementation of the Convention to technical
assistance, particularly to developing countries57
.
Besides that, the convention selltement of
dispute and arbitration between different
countries, which will also help to maintain good
relationship with other countries.58
3.3 Outcomes from the analysis: From
the Myanmar study, its exposed that, after
dissolving military junta in 2011, Myanmer
economical and political condition has improved
a lot and it started to develop good relationship
with foreign countries. At the same time, the
technical and financial capacities of Myanmar
for managing hazardous waste are limited, as it
54 Emergency mechanism,http://www.basel.int/Implementation/LegalMatters/EmergencyFund/tabid/2370/Default.aspx(accessed 1 November,2013) 55 ibid.,p Article 14 56 Kummer peiry, Katharina, Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law, available at, http://legal.un.org/avl/ha/bcctmhwd/bcctmhwd.html (accessed 1 November,2013) 57 ibid.3, articles 10 and 13 58 ibid.3, article 20
needs international help. By being a party of
Basel convention Myanmar can get all the
support to overcome the shortage.
As strategically Myanmar is located near
major Indian Ocean shipping lanes59
, which is
vulnerable and most of the people in Myanmar
who are depending on nature like mining or
agriculture to survive are also in a vulnerable
situation. Proper environmental management
system is requiring for the sustainable growth of
this country. On the other hand,"the energy
policy" and the "Future Plan for managing
Hazardous waste" of Myanmar shows that it
already have some initiatives which can be
properly implemented by being a party of Basel
convention.
Beside that, this convention offers the power to
propose amendments of convention and
adaptation60
and the power of vote
also.61
Besides that, there is a option to withdraw
the party from the Convention by giving written
notification to the Depositary.62
Therefore, from
all the respect, this convention is very convenient
and supportive for Myanmar .So, Myanmar
should be a party of Basel convention for its
sustainable future.
4. Inadequacies of the Convention and some
recommendations:
The main disappointment of Basel
convention is that it is still failing to prevent
industrialized country from exporting their
hazardous waste to developing countries and the
lack of safely dispose of it. The failure is clear
from the incidents like the Abidjan disaster in
59 see,http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcburma.htm(accessed 1 November,2013) 60 ibid.3, article17 & 18 61 ibid.3,article 24 62 ibid.3, article 27
85
2006.63
And as, US failed to ratify the
convention, and remains the most significant
non-party to the treaty, it is still exporting a lot
of hazardous waste. Each year, around 8.5
million tons of hazardous material travels
internationally where the US is responsible for
three million tons which is around 35% of the
total.64
On the other hand, environmental NGOs,
the European Union and many developing
nations continue to advocate a blanket ban on
trade in hazardous waste and its difficult to
enforce where a blanket ban is
implemented.65
Therefore, the amount of
hazardous waste and other toxic waste are
increasing day by day. e-waste issue which is
presently being addressed as another big concern
which Basel convention failed to control.
Besides that, Convention failed to safeguard the
interests of the world‟s poor in the International
trade in Hazardous waste.66
The imprecise
definition of hazardous waste, less liability,
lacking in monitoring compliance and
enforcement67
, and Lack of Funding for
Technology Transfer, The Recycling Loophole 68
etc are some other Inadequacies.
63Available at http://www.elawreview.org/elaw/382/in_my_backyard_how_enabling_ha.html(accessed 1 November,2013) 64 Choksi, Sejal, 2001, "The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal: 1999 Protocol on Liability and Compensation." Ecology Law Quarterly 28 (2001): 509. 65 Andrews, A., 2009, Beyond the Ban- Can the Basel Convention Adequately Safeguard the Interests of the World’s poor on International trade of hazardous waste?, LEAD journal, 5/2, pg 169-183 66 L. Widawsky, 2008,‘In My Backyard: How Enabling Hazardous Waste Trade To Developing Nations Can Improve the Basel Convention’s Ability to Achieve Environmental Justice’, 38/2 Environmental Law 577, 604 67Hackett, David P., An assessment of the Basel convention on The control of transboundary movements Of hazardous wastes and their disposal, AM. U.J. INT'L L. & POL'Y ,[VOL. 5:291 68 ibid.67
From my point of view, by banning hazardous
material trade69
can solve the problem effectively
.For that, It may need to adopt Ban amendment.
Restriction on US to dump hazardous waste on
developing countries or by forcing US to deal
with its own waste and consumption of goods
may be an option to control the waste. Besides
that, by strengthening technical guideline and by
focusing some compliance and implementation
issues like proper access of technical and
financial support (particularly for developing
countries, including technology transfer and
capacity-building), establishing and developing
means of detecting and eradicating illegal traffic,
including investigating, sampling and testing,
proper monitoring, specified obligations under
the Convention, can help to achieve the goal of
the convention.
Despite its apparent shortcomings, the
Convention is the most comprehensive global
environmental agreement on hazardous and other
wastes. In addition, the Inadequacies that the
Convention has are curable. Global awareness is
essential to ensure the environmentally sound
management and disposal of hazardous and other
wastes which sustains Basel convention and by
being a party of basal convention Myanmar can
show the awareness to the world environment
and be reliable partner of entire world.
Bibliography:
Documents and reports:
1. BTI 2012, Myanmar Country Report,
More on the BTI at http://www.bti-
project.org
69 Sundram, Muthu S., 1997, "Basel Convention on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes: Total Ban Amendment." Pace International Law Review 9 Pace Int'l L.
86
2. Earth Negotiations Bulletin , 2011 ,A
Reporting Service for Environment and
Development Negotiations , the
International Institute for Sustainable
Development (IIS D ), Vol. 20 No. 37 ,
Available at
http://www.iisd.ca/basel/cop10/ 3. Edwards, R.,1995, Dirty tricks in a dirty
business. New Scientist. 1965, 12-13.
4. Emergency
mechanism,http://www.basel.int/Imple
mentation/LegalMatters/EmergencyFun
d/tabid/2370/Default.aspx(accessed 1
November,2013)
5. Fourth Regional 3R Forum in
Asia,“3Rs in the Context of Rio+20
Outcomes – The Future We
Want”,2013,Country Analysis
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