STATEMENT of CONCERN
to the PARTIES OF THE BASEL CONVENTION
on the HONG KONG CONVENTION ON SHIP RECYCLING
September 2011
We the undersigned organisations working in the fields of human rights, environment,
labour and health, wish to register our profound concern over the Hong Kong Convention on
the Recycling of Ships. The Hong Kong Convention does not represent an “equivalent level
of control” to the Basel Convention as was called for by the Parties to that United Nations
Environment Programme Convention.
Despite prolonged and repeated effort by civil society NGOs to create legal restraints against
exploitation of human beings and the environment by the global shipping industry at the end
of the life of a ship, the Hong Kong Convention adopted by the International Maritime
Organisation in May 2009 fails to prevent the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes
found within obsolete ships, and will do nothing to halt the human rights and environmental
abuses of the infamous shipbreaking yards today operating in such countries as Bangladesh,
India, Pakistan, China and under project in other non-OECD countries. In short the Hong
Kong Convention fails to accomplish what the letter and spirit of the Basel Convention
requires for other forms of toxic waste.
(1) The Hong Kong Convention fails to reflect Basel Convention’s core obligation minimisation of transboundary movements of hazardous waste, and as such will not
prevent hazardous wastes such as asbestos, PCBs, old fuels, and heavy metals from being
exported to the poorest communities and most desperate workers in developing countries.
(2) The Hong Kong Convention fails to condemn the fatally flawed method of scrapping
ships known as “beaching” where ships are cut open on tidal flats. On a beach it is
impossible to contain oils and toxic contaminants from entering the marine environment;
safely use cranes along side ships to lift heavy cut pieces or to rescue workers; bring
emergency equipment (ambulances, fire trucks) to the workers or the ships; and protect the
fragile intertidal coastal zone from the hazardous wastes on ships.
(3) While the Basel Convention covers the recycling and disposal to final disposition, the
Hong Kong Convention stops at the gate of the ship recycling yard, meaning that the most
hazardous substances such as PCBs and asbestos, once removed from the ship, will not be
covered by the Hong Kong Convention. Thus it is that some of the most harmful materials
from a ship, will enter a developing country via a recycling yard, and once passing through
the yard can be mismanaged or even dumped in the receiving territory – a complete
circumvention of the Basel Convention leaving the likelihood of a toxic legacy for
generations to come.
(4) The Hong Kong Convention fails to ensure the fundamental principle of “Prior Informed
Consent”. While “reporting” takes place in the Hong Kong Convention, it is only after the
hazardous waste ship arrives in the importing country’s territory that a competent authority
has the right to object and the objection allowed is not to the importation but to the ship
recycling plan or ship recycling facility permit. In this way developing and other countries
are forced to receive toxic waste in the form of ships which can become abandoned and for
which their importation cannot be remedied by any right of return.
(5) The Hong Kong Convention currently represents a “turning back of the clock” on
principles already long established in international law and policy. The principles ignored
by the Hong Kong Convention include:
• The Polluter Pays/Producer Responsibility Principle
• The Environmental Justice Principle
• The Waste Prevention/Substitution Principles
• Principle of National Self Sufficiency in Waste Management
For the reasons outlined above, the Hong Kong Convention is not the treaty the world asked
for to address the global shipbreaking crisis. It will not effectively prevent the developing
world from receiving a disproportionate burden of the world’s ship-borne toxic wastes, nor
will it command green design of future ships. Rather the Hong Kong Convention appears
tailored to allow shipowners to continue to externalize the real costs and liabilities of ships
at end-of-life.
At the Basel Convention’s 10th Conference of Parties taking place on 17-21 of October 2011,
governments will be asked to consider the question of whether the Hong Kong Convention
currently provides an “equivalent level of control” to that provided by the Basel Convention.
While, expert bodies such as the Centre for International Environmental Law, and the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights’ Special Rapporteur, and the International Ship
Recycling Association have concluded that the Hong Kong Convention does not represent an
Equivalent Level of Control, the European Union, Japan and the United States have
shamefully concluded otherwise. International shipping deliberately circumvents the Basel
Convention’s rules against transfer of toxic waste to developing countries. That this powerful
industry can so blatantly pressure nation states to do their bidding in finding another United
Nations body (IMO) to create a far weaker set of rules, simply for their own economic
advantage, is an unacceptable precedent.
We the undersigned organizations believe that the Basel Convention provides a unique set
of protections to developing countries that exist nowhere else. While we wholeheartedly
support true advancement in international law for sustainable development, we cannot
accept the Hong Kong Convention holding sole competence over the rules for transboundary
movement and recycling of obsolete vessels, as it represents a dangerous step backwards
with respect to international governance, protection of human rights and the environment.
We therefore call on the Basel Convention Party governments to take the necessary actions
at the Basel Convention’s 10th Conference of the Parties, to ensure that the Basel
Convention does not conclude that the Hong Kong Convention provides and “equivalent
level of control” and maintains its legal competency over toxic end-of-life ships.
Signed by the following Organisations:
Ingvild Jenssen
Director
NGO Shipbreaking Platform
Belgium
Marietta Harjono
Toxics campaigner
Greenpeace
The Netherlands
Jim Puckett
Executive Director
Basel Action Network
USA
Merijn Hougee
Coordinator Maritime Campaign
North Sea Foundation
The Netherlands
Rizwana Hasan
Programmes Director
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers
Association (BELA)
Bangladesh
Svend Søyland
International Adviser
Bellona Foundation
Norway
Elin Wrzoncki
Head of the Globalization and Human
Rights Desk
Fédération Internationale des Droits de
l’Homme (FIDH)
France
Bill Hemmings
Programme Manager
Transport&Environment (T&E)
Belgium
Annie Thebaud-Mony
Ban Asbestos Network
France
Ritwick Dutta
Lawyer
Legal Initiative for Forest and
Environment (LIFE)
India
Madhumita Dutta
Corporate Accountability Desk of The
Other Media
India
Nityanand Jayaraman
Freelance writer and journalist
Vettiver Collective
India
Repon Chowdhury
Executive Director
Occupational Safety, Health and
Environment
Foundation (OSHE)
Bangladesh
Piyush Mohapatra
Senior Programme Officer
Toxics Link
India
T.Mohan
Senior Partner
Mohan and Devika Advocates
India
Muhammed Ali Shahin
Programme Officer
Young Power in Social Action (YPSA)
Bangladesh
Kanwar MJ Iqbal
Research Associate
Sustainable Development Policy Institute
(SDPI)
Pakistan
Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmed
Assistant Executive Director
Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies
(BILS)
Bangladesh
Sonia S. Mendoza
Chairman
Mother Earth Foundation
Philippines
Ralph Ryder
Coordinator
Communities Against Toxics
England
Raul Montenegro
Biologist
President of FUNAM (Environment
defense foundation)
Alternative Nobel Prize (RLA, Stockholm
Sweden)
Argentina
Mwadhini Myanza
Executive Director
Irrigation Training & Economic
Empowerment Organization
Tanzania
Siddika Sultana
Executive Director
Environment and Social Development
Organization (ESDO)
Bangladesh
Fr. Max Abalos, SVD
Chief Executive Officer
Action for Nurturing Children and
Environment, Inc. (ANCE)
Philippines
Rei Panaligan
National Coordinator
EcoWaste Coalition
Philippines
Mike Anane
Coordinator
Laureate-United Nations Environment
Programme, Global 500 Roll of Honour
League of Environmental Journalists
Ghana
Sandra Zambrano
Secretaria Ejecutiva
APUVIMEH
Asociación Para Una Vida Mejor de
Personas Infectadas/afectadas por el VIHSida en Honduras
Honduras
Muna Lakhani
Branch Co-ordinator
Earthlife Africa Cape Town
South Africa
Muna Lakhani
National Chairperson
Institute for Zero Waste in Africa
South Africa
Chacha Wambura
Executive Director
Foundation HELP
Tanzania
Uche Agbanusi
National President
Nigerian Environmental Society
Nigeria
E. Odjam-Akumatey
Executive Director
Ecological Restorations
Ghana
Paul Saoke
Executive Director
PSR-Kenya
(Physicians for Social Responsibility)
Kenya
Bernard Elia Kihiyo
Executive Director
Tanzania Consumer Advocacy Society
Tanzania
Ane Leslie Adogame
Executive Director
Sustainable Research and Action for
Environmental Development
(SRADev Nigeria)
Nigeria
Yusto Paradius Muchuruza
Executive Director
Kagera Develpment and Credit Revolving
Fund (KADETFU)
Tanzania
Tadesse Amera
Director
PAN-Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Anabela A.Lemos/Ticha
Director
JA! Justiça Ambiental
Mozambique
Silvani Mng’anya
Principal Program Officer
AGENDA
Tanzania
Mabule Mokhine
Programme Manager
The GreenHouse Project
South Africa
Keneilwe Moseki
Executive Director
Somarelang Tikologo
Botswana
Ronald Busiinge,
Executive Director
Earthsavers Movement Uganda Chapter
Uganda
Nicholas SSenyonjo
Executive Director
Uganda Environmental Education
Foundation (UEEF)
Uganda
Ellady Muyambi
Secretary General
Uganda Network on Toxic Free Malaria
Control (UNETMAC)
Uganda
Stéphane Harditi
Waste Policy Officer
European Environmental Bureau (EEB)
Belgium
Kamese Geoffrey N.
Senior Programme Officer
National Association of Professional
Environmentalists (NAPE)
Uganda
Betty Obbo
Program officer, Information
National Association of Professional
Environmentalists (NAPE)
Uganda
Robert Tumwesigye Baganda
Executive Director
Pro-biodiversity Conservationists in
Uganda (PROBICOU)
Uganda
Desmond D’Sa
Coordinator
South Durban Community Environmental
Alliance
South Africa
Rico Euripidou
Research Manager
groundWork, Friends of the Earth
South Africa
Karim Lahidji
Vice-President
FIDH
President
The Iranian League for the Defence of
Human Rights (LDDHI)
Iran
Chi-Hsun Tsai
Secretary-General
Taiwan Association for Human Rights
Taiwan
Debbie Stothard
Coordinator
Altsean-Burma
Thailand
Vo Van Ai
President
Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
France
Danthong Breen
Chairman
Union for Civil Liberty (UCL)
Thailand
Artak Kirakosyan
Chairman of the Board
Civil Society Institute
Armenia
Ramazan Dyryldaev
Chairman
Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights
Kyrgyzstan
Rosemarie R. Trajano
Acting Secretary General
Philippine Alliance of Human Rights
Advocates (PAHRA)
Philippines
Eldar Zeynalov
Director
Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Gopinath K. P.
General Secretary
Cividep-India
India
Olga Abramenko
Director
Anti-discrimination Centre MEMORIAL
Russia
Tolekan Ismailova
Director
Human Rights Centre "Citizens against
corruption"
Kyrgyzstan
Jeong-ok Kong
Occupational Health Physician
Korea Institute of Labor Safety and
Health
Korea
Yuyun Ismawati
Coordinator
Indonesia Toxics-Free Network
Indonesia
Jane Williams
Executive Director
California Communities Against Toxics
USA
Jacky Bonnemain
Director
Robin des Bois
France
Joanna Immig
Coordinator
National Toxics Network Inc.
Australia
Vanida Thephsouvanh
President
Lao Movement for Human Rights
Laos ( movement in exile)
Adilur Rahman Khan
Secretary
Odhikar
Bangladesh
Zohra Yusuf
Chairperson
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
Pakistan
Perry Gottesfeld
Executive Director
Occupational Knowledge International
(OK International)
USA
Maurice Claassens
Organization Development Coordinator
SOLIDAR
Belgium
John Maggs
Policy Advisor Shipping & Environment
Seas At Risk
Belgium