Dumping hazardous wastes

The scandals of 1987 and 1988 which followed the discovery of deals whereby African countries received trivial sums of money from western companies in return for the use of land for the dumping and burial of toxic waste, brought a justifiably violent reaction from some developing countries. It is in that context that the Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) declared that such dumping was a crime against Africa and the African people. The United Nations, following in the footsteps of OAU, adopted a resolution in which it expressed profound concern regarding practices of dumping nuclear and industrial wastes in Africa. The 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal was the result of a compromise between those who favoured a complete ban on transboundary movements of waste and those who wished to define the framework and legal conditions for the transfer of wastes, as though any negotiation was possible in that field.