Last September, the partners of the Green Customs Initiative convened at the Headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, Netherlands. Every year the organizations of this 11-members strong Initiative discuss their actions and challenges with regards to capacity-building for customs officers on environmentally sensitive commodities. The meeting is also the opportunity to make plans to work together on training customs officers world-wide and create synergies in related actions.

This was the occasion for the partners to present on important interventions such as INTERPOL’s 30 days at sea action or the Container Control Programme jointly managed by the World Customs Organization and the UN office on Drugs and Crime Representatives of the World Customs Organization, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), OzonAction, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the UN Environment Programme that were present in The Hague as well as INTERPOL and the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions reinforced their commitment to the partnership. The next partner’s meeting is planned to be held in the Fall of 2019.