Highlights:
•    The objective of the Basel Convention is to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of hazardous wastes.
•     Actions taken under the Convention aim to reduce the generation of hazardous wastes and promote environmentally sound waste management. They also aim to restrict the transboundary movement of hazardous waste (except where the movement is environmentally justified) and operate a system of controls on the export, import, and transit of hazardous waste and other waste.
•    The Deputy Minister's tasks will include chairing the plenary meetings and the Joint Office's daily meetings, facilitating negotiations, and promoting consensus building among the Parties to the Convention.
 
In the run-up to the joint meeting of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention and the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (28 April – 9 May 2025, Geneva), the main task of Deputy Minister Anita Sowińska and the other members of the Bureau of the 17th Conference of the Parties will be (together with the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions) to prepare and organise the work of the 17th Conference of the Parties. In fulfilling the objective mentioned above, the Deputy Minister will, among other things, chair the meeting of the Bureau of the Basel Convention (29 June 2024 in Geneva).
 
She will also participate in the meeting of the Combined Bureau of the three Conventions mentioned above (November 2024), which will develop recommendations to the Secretariat of the three Conventions related to the implementation of the synergy process, i.e. the interaction of the Conventions in areas that require substantive involvement of more than one Convention. The Combined Bureau will also prepare joint recommendations on the organisation of work during the joint meeting of the three conventions.

Poland currently chairs the Basel Convention, and I have the honour of chairing the proceedings for the coming year. This is a great honour for me and the Ministry of Climate and Environment, but it is also a great responsibility. During my work, I will emphasise issues related to the prevention of hazardous waste, the reduction of transboundary transport, and the promotion of environmentally sound waste management.

- said Deputy Minister Anita Sowińska.

During the joint meeting of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention and the 12th Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention, Anita Sowińska will chair the proceedings of the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention. Her tasks will include chairing the plenary meetings, the daily meetings of the Joint Bureau (on a rotating basis), facilitating negotiations and promoting consensus building among the Parties to the Convention, as well as representing the Bureau at the meetings of the High-Level Representatives (to be held at the beginning or end of the joint meeting of the three Conventions), at side events of the three Conventions and at press conferences.

The overarching objective of the Basel Convention is to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of hazardous wastes. Actions under the Convention are aimed primarily at reducing the generation of hazardous wastes and promoting environmentally sound waste management, but also at restricting the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes except where their movement is ecologically sound, operating a control system for the export, import and transit of hazardous and other wastes.

The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, dated 22 March 1989, entered into force on 5 May 1992. Poland signed the Convention on 22 March 1990 and ratified it on 20 March 1992. One hundred ninety countries, including all EU Member States, are currently parties to the Basel Convention. It is a great honour for Poland to chair its work.

The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants was signed on 22-23 May 2001 in Stockholm and entered into force on 17 May 2004. It aims to restrict the production and use of substances from the group of persistent organic pollutants. It regulates the production and use and the import and export of POPs.