Waste Management & Research 2016, Vol. 34(6) 502–510 © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0734242X16640927 wmr.sagepub.com Introduction In order to address transboundary environmental threats, nation- states have preferred to create binding agreements and interna- tional law through negotiation since the end of the nineteenth century (O’Neill, 2009). Among chemical and waste-related mul- tilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), there are three major MEAs whose parties exceeded 140 signatories, ratifications or accessions. They are the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (referred to hereinafter as the Basel Convention), Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (referred to hereinafter as the Rotterdam Convention) and Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete Ozone Layer (referred to hereinafter as Montreal Protocol). All of the three MEAs have trade regulation provisions to control transboundary movement of chemicals or toxic waste. Basel Convention The Basel Convention was adopted on 22 March 1989 and entered into force on 5 May 1992, with the aim to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous waste. To date, 183 countries have become parties to the Convention. The Basel Convention requires prior informed consent of a state of import and states of transit before an export of waste can take place. Article 4 of the Convention specifies that: 3. The Parties consider that illegal traffic in hazardous wastes or other wastes is criminal. 4. Each Party shall take appropriate legal, administrative and other measures to implement and enforce the provisions of this Convention, including measures to prevent and punish conduct in contravention of the Convention. 5. A Party shall not permit hazardous wastes or other wastes to be exported to a non-Party or to be imported from a non-Party. Improvements to enforcement of multilateral environmental agreements to control international shipments of chemicals and wastes Ning Liu 1 , Vira Somboon 2 , Surichai Wun’gaeo 3 , Carl Middleton 2 , Charit Tingsabadh 4 and Sangchan Limjirakan 1 Abstract Illegal trade in hazardous waste and harmful chemicals has caused severe damage on human health and the environment, and brought big challenges to countries to meet their commitments to related multilateral environmental agreements. Synergy-building, like organising law enforcement operations, is critical to address illegal trade in waste and chemicals, and further improve the effectiveness of environmental enforcement. This article discusses how and why law enforcement operations can help countries to implement chemical and waste-related multilateral environmental agreements in a more efficient and effective way. The research explores key barriers and factors for organising law enforcement operations, and recommends methods to improve law enforcement operations to address illegal trade in hazardous waste and harmful chemicals. Keywords Environmental enforcement, enforcement operation, regime effectiveness, waste crime, combating illegal trade, synergies building, multilateral environmental agreement, chemicals and waste 1 Environment, Development and Sustainability Programme, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 2 Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 3 Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 4 Centre for European Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand Corresponding author: Vira Somboon, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. Email: sbvira@yahoo.com 640927WMR 0 0 10.1177/0734242X16640927Waste Management & ResearchLiu et al. research-article 2016 Original Article by guest on May 26, 2016 wmr.sagepub.com Downloaded from