Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade
The Convention was adopted and opened for signature at a Diplomatic Conference that was held in Rotterdam on September 10 of 1998 and entered into force on February 24, 2004.
The objective of the Rotterdam Convention is to promote shared responsibility and cooperative efforts among Parties in the international trade of certain hazardous chemicals in order to protect human health and the environment from potential harm and to contribute to their environmentally sound use, by facilitating information exchange about their characteristics, by providing for a national decision-making process on their import and export and by disseminating these decisions to Parties.
The subsidiary bodies of the Convention are:
Parties and their designated National Authorities (DNAs): each Party shall designate one or more national authorities, which are the main points of contact for issues related to the operation of the Convention.
Conference of the Parties (COP): the Conference of the Parties oversees the operation of the Convention and decides on its amendments.
Secretariat: the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization FAO and the United Nations Program for the Environment - UNEP jointly serve as the Rotterdam Convention Secretariat, based in Geneva and Rome. The functions of the Secretariat are coordinating the meetings for the Conference of the Parties and its subsidiary bodies.
Chemical Review Committee (CRC): the CRC is a subsidiary body of the COP. His responsibilities include the review of notifications and proposals made by the Parties as well as making recommendations to the Conference of the Parties.
The 10th Meeting of the Review Committee on Chemicals (CRC-10) was held from 22 to 24 October 2014 at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy.
Colombia and the Rotterdam Convention
The Convention was adopted in Colombia by Law 1159 of 20 September 2007 and declared enforceable by the Constitutional Court Sentence C-538/08.
According with article 10 of the Rotterdam Convention, Colombia has provided information on decisions relating to the importation of chemicals subject to Prior Informed Consent (PIC).
Monitoring and implementation of the Convention is a competency of the Ministries of Environment and Sustainable Development, and of Health and Social Protection, as well as the Agricultural Institute ICA.
