The Convention to Ban the importation into Forum Island Countries of Hazardous and Radioactive Wastes and to Control the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous wastes within the South Pacific Region, known also as Waigaini Convention, entered into force the 21st October 2001.

 

Text of Convention

Overview

The Convention to Ban the Importation into Forum Island Countries of Hazardous and Radioactive Wastes and to Control the Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within the South Pacific Region (the Waigani Convention) entered into force in 2001.

The Waigani Convention is modeled on the Basel Convention and constitutes the regional implementation of the international hazardous waste control regime (Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions). There are however some differences between the two conventions: the Waigani Convention also covers radioactive wastes; and its territorial coverage includes each Party's Exclusive Economic Zone (200 nautical miles) (rather than extending only to outer boundary of each Party's territorial sea (12 nautical miles) as under Basel).               
The Convention is also strongly related to the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and other matters, 1972 (London Convention).

The objective of the Convention is to reduce and eliminate transboundary movements of hazardous and radioactive waste, to minimize the production of hazardous and toxic wastes in the Pacific region and to ensure that disposal of wastes in the Convention area is completed in an environmentally sound manner.

The Waigani Convention is an Annex-driven Convention: the obligations for the Parties to reduce and control movement and production of hazardous wastes extend to all the wastes contained in Annex I (Categories of wastes which are hazardous wastes), or those that possess the characteristics contained in Annex II (List of hazardous characteristics). 

 

Parties' commitments include:

  • to take all appropriate measures to ban the import and export of hazardous waste to and from the Convention Area (Art. 4.1);
  • to prohibit dumping of hazardous wastes and radioactive wastes in the Convention Area (4.2);
  • to ensure that within the areas of their jurisdiction the generation of hazardous wastes is reduced (art.4.4); and
  • to ensure availability of adequate treatment and disposal facilities for the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes in the Convention Area (4.5).

Instruments for joining the Convention:

Instrument of Ratification can be accessed here

 

Parties

Dates of signature and ratification
 

 

Waigani

Basel

Rotterdam

Stockholm

Australia

X

X

X

X

Cook Is

X

X

X

X

FSM

X

X

 

X

Fiji

X

 

 

X

France

 

X

X

X

Kiribati

X

X

 

X

Marshall Is

 

X

X

X

Nauru

S

X

 

X

New Zealand

X

X

X

X

Niue

X

 

 

X

Palau

S

X

 

X

PNG

X

X

 

X

Samoa

X

X

X

X

Solomon Islands

X

 

 

X

Tonga

X

X

X

X

Tuvalu

X

 

 

X

UK

 

X

X

X

USA

 

S

S

S

Vanuatu

 

 

 

X


 

X: Ratified or acceded; S: Signed

 

Meetings

Conference of the Parties (COP)  

Article 13 of the Convention established a Conference of Parties and ordinary meetings of the Conference of Parties shall be held at regular intervals of two years. 

The primary role of the COP is to keep under continuous review and evaluation the effective implementation of the Convention. In particular, the COP is requested to: 

a) promote harmonization of appropriate legislation, policies, strategies, and measures in order to achieve the goals of the Convention;

b) consider and adopt, where necessary, protocols or amendments to the Convention.

c) approve and examine the regular budget prepared by the Secretariat.  

d) establish or designate subsidiary bodies or agencies as are necessary for the implementation of the Convention. 

At its First meeting the COP adopted the: 

Reporting:

Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC)
The Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee is a subsidiary body of the Waigani Convention. 

Its role is to assist the work of the Secretariat in pursuing the implementation of the Convention, specifically by:

a) examining the information provided by the Parties on measures adopted to implement the Convention;

b) working with the Secretariat to develop plans, programms and measures related to the technical and scientific aspects of the Convention;

c) providing guidelines and standards for the environmental sound management of hazardous wastes; and

d) assisting in creating coordination between the Waigani and the other regional and global Conventions. 

The first meeting of the STAC was held in Samoa from 21 - 23 June 2004.

The STAC meets every two years. Normally it convenes some months before the Conference of Parties so that the output of the meeting can be shared by the Secretariat with the Parties.   

STAC Terms of Reference 

 

Other Documents

 

Tonga Project: definition of a law that integrates 4 chemicals conventions

Hazardous Wastes and Chemicals Act, Tonga 2010

 

Pacific Regional Centre

For the Waigani and Basel Convention
Based at SPREP in Samoa, the Pacific Regional Centre for the Waigani and Basel Conventions (PRC) was established under an MoU between SPREP and the Secretariat for the Basel Convention. It aims to strengthen the capacity of Pacific Island Country Parties to the two Conventions to promote the environmentally sound management of waste in a coordinated manner through better integration of regional strategies, and relevant conventions such as the Stockholm and Rotterdam Conventions.

One of the core functions of the PRC is to provide assistance with the development of legislation for the implementation of the four chemical Conventions.  In this context, a regional integrated waste management law to implement the four international conventions has been developed by SPREP, UNEP and PRC through the Tonga Project. 

The Tonga Project aimed to harmonise the legislative arrangements required to comply with the international and regional regime on hazardous wastes and chemicals. 

This process lead to the adoption of the Hazardous Wastes and Chemicals Act by the Kingdom of Tonga in 2010. 

 

Brochure on the Waigani and Basel Conventions