Colombia reaffirmed its commitment to environmentally-rational management of chemicals, by joining the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10), of the Basel Convention On The Control Of Cross-Frontier Movements Of Hazardous Waste And Its Elimination, held on 17-21 October 2011 in Cartagena, Colombia. More than 700 participants, representing governments, the United Nations System, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs attended.
During COP10, the representatives of the 118 Parties to the Basel Convention came to an historic agreement to unblock an amendment that prohibited the export of hazardous waste to OECD member countries to non-OECD member countries, known as the "Prohibition Amendment”. COP10 has been called the "Miracle of Cartagena", due amongst other things to the adoption of the Declaration of Cartagena on the prevention, minimization and recovery of hazardous and other waste.
