The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Basel Convention) excludes from its scope, “wastes which derive from normal operations of a ship, the discharge of which is covered by another international instrument”. This formulation raises issues relating to the interaction between the Basel Convention and the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), since the latter instrument covers the discharge of wastes deriving from normal operations of a ship.
In this context, this CIEL Issue Brief addresses the following question: what do the travaux préparatoires of MARPOL reveal about the meaning of the terms “normal operations of a ship”?