Regional Agreement on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes 11-12-92

DEFINITIONS For the purposes of this Agreement, the following shall be considered: 1. "Hazardous Wastes", the substances included in any of the categories of Annex I, or those having the characteristics specified in Annex II of this Agreement; as well as substances considered as such according to the local laws of the Exporting State, Importing State or Transit State and hazardous substances that have been prohibited or whose registration has been cancelled or rejected by governmental regulation or voluntarily withdrawn in the country where they were manufactured for reasons of human health or environmental protection. 2. "Transboundary Movement", is any movement of hazardous wastes from an area under the national jurisdiction of any State toward or through an area under the national jurisdiction of another State, or toward or through an area that is not under the national jurisdiction of another State, provided that the movement involves at least two States. 3. "Elimination" means any operation specified in Annex III of this Agreement. 4. "Area under the national jurisdiction of a State" is any land, maritime, or airspace area within which a State has administrative and legal competence, in accordance with International Law, with respect to the protection of human health and the environment. 5. "Exporting State" is any State from which the initiation or the initiation of a transboundary movement of hazardous wastes is projected or initiated. 6. "Importing State" is any State toward which a transboundary movement is projected or carried out, with the object of eliminating them in its territory or for embarking hazardous wastes prior to elimination in an area that would not be under the national jurisdiction of any State. 7. "State of Transit" is any State that is not the Exporting State or Importing State, through which the movement of hazardous wastes is projected or carried out. 8. "Transporter" means any natural or legal person that carries out the transport of hazardous wastes. 9. "Illegal Traffic", means any transboundary movement of hazardous wastes in contravention of what is established in this Agreement, in the national Laws of the States Parties and in the norms and principles of International Law. 10. "Dumping at sea" means the deliberate elimination of hazardous wastes in the sea from vessels, aircraft, platforms or other structures constructed by man in the sea, including incineration at sea and elimination on and under the seabed.

SCOPE OF APPLICATION OF THE AGREEMENT 1. This Agreement shall apply to the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes in the Central American Region. 2. Wastes that due to their radioactivity, are subject to any system of international control, including international instruments, specifically applicable to radioactive materials are excluded from the scope of this Agreement. 3. Also excluded from the scope of this Agreement are wastes resulting from the normal operation of a ship and whose rationing is regulated by another international instrument. 4. This Agreement recognizes the sovereignty of States over their territorial sea, marine ways and airspace established according to international law and the jurisdiction that States exercise over their exclusive economic zone and their continental platforms, according to international law and the exercise by ships and aircraft of all States according to the rights of navigation and freedoms contemplated in international law and as reflected in the pertinent international instruments.

GENERAL OBLIGATIONS 1. Prohibition on Importing Hazardous Wastes: The Central American countries that are signatories to this Agreement shall take all legal, administrative or other measures that may be appropriate within the areas under their jurisdiction, to prohibit the importation and transit of wastes considered hazardous, toward Central America from countries that are not Parties to this Agreement. For the fulfillment of the objectives of this Agreement the Parties: a) Shall send to the Secretariat of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD), as soon as possible, all information related to activities of importation of such hazardous wastes and the Secretariat shall distribute said information to all delegate representatives before the Commission. b) Shall cooperate so that importations of hazardous wastes do not enter a State Party to this Agreement. 2. Prohibition on Dumping of Hazardous Wastes at Sea and in Inland Waters. The Parties, in accordance with international conventions and related instruments, in the exercise of their jurisdiction within their inland waters, marine ways, territorial seas, exclusive economic zones and continental platform, shall adopt the legal, administrative and other measures that may be appropriate to control all transporters that come from States not Parties to the Agreement and shall prohibit the dumping at sea of hazardous wastes, including their incineration at sea and their elimination on and under the seabed. 3. Adoption of Preventive Measures: Each of the Parties shall endeavor to adopt and apply the preventive and precautionary approach to contamination problems. Said approach shall have as its object, among other things, to prevent the release into the environment of substances that could cause harm to human beings or to the environment. The Parties shall cooperate with each other, to take the appropriate measures to apply the precautionary approach to the prevention of contamination through the application of clean production methods or, failing that, an approach related to permissible or tolerable emissions. 4. Obligations Relating to the Transport and Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes Generated by the Parties: The Parties shall not permit the export of hazardous wastes to States that have prohibited their importation, according to their internal legislation, or having subscribed to international agreements in this regard, or if it is considered that such wastes will not be handled in an environmentally sound manner, in accordance with the guidelines and principles adopted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 5. Furthermore: a) The Parties commit to require compliance with the obligations of this Agreement from all violators, according to the pertinent national laws and/or international law. b) The Parties may impose additional requirements in their respective national legislation that do not contravene the provisions of this Agreement with the objective of protecting human health and the environment.

ILLEGAL TRAFFIC 1. Illegal Traffic is considered as defined in this Agreement. 2. Each Party shall promote specific norms, in its National legislation, that impose criminal penalties on all those who have planned, committed or contributed to such Illegal Traffic. These penalties shall be sufficiently severe so as to punish and deter such conduct.

NATIONAL AUTHORITY Each Party shall designate a National Authority to follow up, update and enforce this Agreement, which shall be in communication with the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) and with other bodies of regional and international character, in everything related to the movement of hazardous wastes; the name of said Authority shall be reported at the time of ratification by each State.

GENERAL PROVISIONS 1. Ratification. This Agreement shall be submitted for Ratification by the Member States, in accordance with the internal norms of each State. 2. Accession. This Agreement is open to accession by States of the Mesoamerican Region. 3. Deposit. The instruments of ratification or accession and denunciation of this Agreement and its amendments shall be deposited in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Guatemala, which shall send a certified copy thereof to the Foreign Ministries of the Member States. 4. Entry into Force. For the first three depositing States, this Agreement shall enter into force eight days after the date on which the third instrument of ratification is deposited, and for other signatory or acceding States, on the date of deposit of their respective instruments. 5. Registration. Upon entry into force of this Agreement and its amendments, the Executive Secretariat of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development, CCAD, shall proceed to send a certified copy thereof to the General Secretariat of the United Nations, for the purposes of registration indicated in Article 102 of the Charter of said Organization. 6. Duration. This Agreement shall have a duration of 10 years counted from the date of entry into force and shall be renewed for successive periods of 10 years. 7. Denunciation. This Agreement may be denounced by any State Party. The denunciation shall take effect for the denouncing State 6 months after being deposited and the Agreement shall continue in force for the other States as long as at least three of them remain adhered to it. 8. Review. For the purposes of updating Annexes I, II and III, in light of technological development and science, the substances and activities contained in the annexes may be reviewed at the request of three member countries of this agreement. For the purposes concerned, Annexes I, II and III are incorporated into this Agreement as an integral part thereof. IN WITNESS WHEREOF this Agreement is signed, in the city of Panama, Republic of Panama, in six original copies, on the eleventh (11) day of the month of December 1992.