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Welcoming decision SC-5/9 of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants on measures to reduce or eliminate releases from wastes and decision SC‑5/5 on a work programme on brominated diphenyl ethers and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride,
1.Decides that the following should be included in the work programme of the Open‑ended Working Group for 2012–2013 with regard to the chemicals listed in Annexes A, B and C to the Stockholm Convention by decisions SC-4/10–SC-4/18 and SC-5/3 of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention:
(a)Updating of the general technical guidelines for the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants and the preparation or updating of specific technical guidelines developed under the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, taking into account the documents referred to in paragraphs 2(a)–(c) of decision POPRC-6/3,1 the recommendations on the elimination of brominated diphenyl ethers from the waste stream and on risk reduction for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, its salts and perfluorooctane sulfonyl fluoride set out in the annex to decision POPRC‑6/2 and annex II to the report of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee on the work of its sixth meeting,2 where appropriate;
(b)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;
(c)Determination of which disposal methods constitute environmentally sound disposal as referred to in paragraph 1 (d) (ii) of Article 6 of the Stockholm Convention;
(d)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;
(e)Consideration of the amendment of the entries in Annex VIII to the Basel Convention for polychlorinated dibenzo-furans and polychlorinated dibenzo-dioxins (entry A4110), DDT and other relevant persistent organic pollutants to include concentration levels for those chemicals, after the development of an appropriate framework for establishing de minimis concentrations;
2.Decides to extend the mandate of the small intersessional working group established by paragraph 9 of decision OEWG-I/4 to provide that the group shall monitor and assist in the review and updating, as appropriate, of technical guidelines regarding persistent organic pollutants, working in particular by electronic means;
3.Welcomes with appreciation the offer by Canada to chair that group until the eighth session of the Open-ended Working Group;
4.Invites parties and stakeholders to nominate, by 15 January 2012, experts, including experts working under the Stockholm Convention such as members and observers of the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee, to participate in the small intersessional working group or to update earlier nominations, as appropriate;
5.Requests the small intersessional working group to prepare a draft programme of work to undertake the activities described in subparagraphs 1 (a)–(d) of the present decision, including, for example, an assessment of which chemicals or groups of chemicals require the preparation of new specific technical guidelines and which existing specific technical guidelines should be updated, by 30 March 2012 for publication on the Basel Convention website;
6.Invites parties and others to submit comments on the draft programme of work by 15 May 2012 for publication on the Basel Convention website;
7.Requests the small intersessional working group to prepare, taking into account the comments received, a revised programme of work for consideration by the Open‑ended Working Group at its eighth session;
8.Invites one or more parties to consider serving as lead country for the further development of the technical guidelines referred to in paragraph 1 (a) of the present decision and to inform the Secretariat of their willingness to do so by 31 May 2012;
9.Invites the lead country or lead countries, if any are selected, or the small intersessional working group, if no lead country is selected, to prepare, if possible, first outlines of the updated general technical guidelines and of new or updated specific technical guidelines for consideration by the Open‑ended Working Group at its eighth session.