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The Conference of the Parties
1.Expresses its appreciation to the lead countries, Canada and Japan, and the small intersessional working group for their work pertaining to the technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants and to Norway for its work on waste-related information on decabromodiphenyl ether;
2.Adopts the following general technical guidelines, which are not legally binding:
(a)Updated general technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants;11UNEP/CHW.13/6/Add.1/Rev.1.
(b)Technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with hexachlorobutadiene;22UNEP/CHW.13/6/Add.2/Rev.1.
(c)Technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with pentachlorophenol and its salts and esters;33UNEP/CHW.13/6/Add.3/Rev.1.
(d)Updated technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, polychlorinated terphenyls, polychlorinated naphthalenes or polybrominated biphenyls, including hexabromobiphenyl;44UNEP/CHW.13/6/Add.4/Rev.1.
(e)Updated technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes containing or contaminated with unintentionally produced polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans, hexachlorobenzene, polychlorinated biphenyls, pentachlorobenzene or polychlorinated naphthalenes;55UNEP/CHW.13/6/Add.5/Rev.1.
(f)Updated technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with the pesticides aldrin, alpha hexachlorocyclohexane, beta hexachlorocyclohexane, chlordane, chlordecone, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorobutadiene, lindane, mirex, pentachlorobenzene, pentachlorophenol and its salts, perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, technical endosulfan and its related isomers or toxaphene, or with hexachlorobenzene as an industrial chemical;66UNEP/CHW.13/6/Add.6/Rev.1.
3.Requests the Secretariat to disseminate the technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 2 above to Parties and others in the six official languages of the United Nations;
4.Invites Parties and others to use the technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 2 above and to submit through the Secretariat, not later than two months before the fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, comments on their experience in so doing and requests the Secretariat to make such comments available to it at its fourteenth meeting;
5.Decides to extend the mandate of the small intersessional working group established by paragraph 9 of decision OEWG-I/4 of the Open-ended Working Group to provide that the group shall monitor and assist in the review, updating and preparation, as appropriate, of technical guidelines regarding persistent organic pollutants, working in particular by electronic means;
6.Welcomes the invitation by the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants to consider the enhanced involvement of experts working under the Basel Convention in the work of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee;
7.Invites Parties and others to encourage experts working under the Basel Convention to provide information on waste and disposal issues pursuant to paragraph 4 of decision SC-8/9;
8.Recalls that provisional low persistent organic pollutant content values have been established and that knowledge limitations have posed challenges for the setting of such values;
9.Decides to continue working towards a review of provisional low persistent organic pollutant content values in the technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 2 (a) above, and other technical guidelines, as appropriate, before its fourteenth meeting;
10.Invites Parties and others to submit to the Secretariat, three months in advance of the eleventh meeting of the Open-ended Working Group:
(a)Comments on the provisional low persistent organic pollutant content values included in the technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 2 (a) above, and other technical guidelines, as appropriate, and related information, including on studies, taking into account relevant information available under the Stockholm Convention;
(b)The low persistent organic pollutant content values applied at the national level;
11.Requests the Secretariat to prepare a compilation of any comments and information submitted pursuant to paragraph 10 above for consideration by the Open‑ended Working Group at its eleventh meeting;
12.Decides that the updating of the general technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 2 (a) above and the preparation or updating of specific technical guidelines with regard to the chemicals listed in Annexes A and C to the Stockholm Convention by decisions SC-8/10, SC-8/11 and SC-8/12 of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention should be included in the work programme of the Open-ended Working Group for 2018–2019, including with regard to the following:
(a)Establishment of levels of destruction and irreversible transformation for the chemicals necessary to ensure that when disposed of they do not exhibit the characteristics of persistent organic pollutants specified in paragraph 1 of Annex D to the Stockholm Convention;
(b)Determination of which disposal methods constitute environmentally sound disposal as referred to in paragraph 1 (d) (ii) of Article 6 of the Stockholm Convention;
(c)Establishment, as appropriate, of the concentration levels of the chemicals in order to define for them low persistent organic pollutant content as referred to in paragraph 1 (d) (ii) of Article 6 of the Stockholm Convention;
13.Invites Parties and organizations to indicate to the Secretariat by 31 August 2017 their willingness to take the lead in updating or preparing the following technical guidelines in accordance with paragraph 12 above:
(a)Updating the general technical guidelines referred in paragraph 2 (a) above, taking into account decisions SC-8/10, SC-8/11 and SC-8/12;
(b)Preparing new technical guidelines on short-chain chlorinated paraffins, taking into account decision SC-8/11, by which the chemical was listed in Annex A to the Stockholm Convention;
(c)Updating the technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 2 (e) above to include hexachlorobutadiene, taking into account decision SC-8/12, by which the chemical was listed in Annex C to the Stockholm Convention, and to make subsequent changes in the technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 2 (b);
14.Welcomes with appreciation the offer by Norway to prepare, in accordance with paragraph 12 above, updated technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with hexabromodiphenyl ether and heptabromodiphenyl ether, and tetrabromodiphenyl ether and pentabromodiphenyl ether, to include decabromodiphenyl ether, taking into account decision SC-8/10, by which the chemicals were listed in Annex A to the Stockholm Convention;
15.Invites the lead countries for the technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 13 above, if selected, and requests the Secretariat, if no country is selected for one or more of such technical guidelines and subject to the availability of resources, in consultation with the small intersessional working group, to prepare draft technical guidelines in accordance with paragraph 13 above for consideration by the Open-ended Working Group at its eleventh meeting;
16.Invites Norway to prepare, in consultation with the small intersessional working group, draft updated technical guidelines in accordance with paragraph 14 above for consideration by the Open-ended Working Group at its eleventh meeting;
17.Requests the small intersessional working group to prepare a draft analysis of candidate persistent organic chemicals recommended for listing in annexes A, B and/or C to the Stockholm Convention by the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee in order to identify whether technical guidelines will need to be updated or developed;
18.Welcomes the involvement of experts working under the Stockholm Convention, including members and observers of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee, in the work referred to in paragraphs 5, 9 and 12 above;
19.Requests the Secretariat, subject to the availability of resources, to continue to provide training to developing countries and other countries based on information gathered from Parties on their need for assistance with and training in using the adopted technical guidelines, and organizing such activities in cooperation with the Basel Convention regional and coordinating centres in accordance with their business plans or by other appropriate means;
20.Also requests the Secretariat to report on the implementation of the present decision to the Open-ended Working Group at its eleventh meeting and to the Conference of the Parties at its fourteenth meeting.