The Basel Convention is the main international law governing where the world's electronic waste is allowed to go. Enviral GH tracks how it's enforced — and where it isn't — because accountability at the treaty level is what protects communities like Agbogbloshie on the ground.
The Basel Convention is a 1989 UN treaty controlling the movement of hazardous waste across borders. For decades it had a loophole: e-waste labeled "for reuse" or "donation" could cross borders with little oversight, even when much of it was unusable junk.
That changed with the e-waste amendments, agreed by 189 countries in 2022 and in force since 1 January 2025. For the first time, all electronic waste — hazardous or not — requires the importing country's prior written consent before it can ship. The rule exists. Enforcement is the ongoing fight, and it's uneven: some governments are seizing containers and returning them to sender, while others still let mislabeled shipments through.
Government agencies met with environmental groups after containers of electronic waste arriving at the Subic Bay Freeport were flagged as a possible violation of the Basel Convention's import rules.
Manila Times · Read more →Ghana has ratified the relevant international conventions and passed its own e-waste law in 2016, but government follow-through remains weak — and in some cases, dumpsite evictions have made workers' conditions worse, not better.
The Conversation · Read more →More than 580 delegates from 147 countries met for OEWG-15, agreeing to keep strengthening the prior-consent system for cross-border waste shipments. The outcomes now head to COP-18 in April 2027.
Down To Earth · Read more →A Geneva Environment Network side event brought together researchers and advocates to ask whether Basel's current tools are strong enough to keep pace with evolving e-waste trafficking routes, a year after the new rules took effect.
Geneva Environment Network · Read more →BAN commended Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia for taking action against brokers — primarily based in the US — who pose as recyclers while shipping containers of hazardous e-waste overseas.
Basel Action Network · Read more →BAN, Nexus3 Foundation, and ECOTON sent an open letter urging Indonesia's president to return containers of suspected illegal e-waste seized in Batam, and to publish full documentation of the seizure.
Basel Action Network · Read more →