A/HRC/9/22 page 3 Introduction 1. The present report is submitted in accordance with General Assembly resolution 60/251 and Human Rights Council resolution 5/1. 2. The Commission on Human Rights adopted its first resolution on “the adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights” in 1995. Resolution 1995/81 affirmed that the illicit traffic and the dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes constituted a serious threat to the human rights to life and health, and established the mandate of the Special Rapporteur to analyse the adverse effects on human rights of such phenomena. The Commission adopted yearly resolutions on this issue, with resolution 2004/17 extending the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for an additional three years. 3. In his first report as mandate-holder (E/CN.4/2005/45), Mr. Okechukwu Ibeanu informed the Commission that he intended to adopt a thematic focus in his subsequent reports. The Special Rapporteur identified criteria such as the extent and gravity of the actual or potential human rights violations arising from a particular issue, and whether an analysis from the perspective of victims of human rights violations could add impetus to international efforts to address a particular issue, to be applied when choosing the themes on which to focus his reports. 4. In his last report to the Human Rights Council on 18 February 2008 (A/HRC/7/21), the Special Rapporteur chose to focus on the right to information and its relevance to his mandate. He noted that access to and communication of information about toxic and dangerous products and wastes and their effects on the environment are essential to the promotion and protection of other internationally guaranteed rights, such as the right to life, the right to health and the right to food amongst others. 5. This will be the second report that the Special Rapporteur presents to the Human Rights Council in 2008 due to the Council’s wish to have a number of special procedures submit their annual reports to its autumn session in the future. It thus reflects the activities undertaken by the mandate during an unusually brief period. 6. In view of the review of the mandate that the Council will conduct at its ninth session, the Special Rapporteur has provided some points for discussion, for the deliberation of the Council, on challenges he has faced in the discharge of his mandate. He also provides some suggestions on how to strengthen the mandate. 7. The Special Rapporteur also provides an overview of his participation in the ninth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (the Basel Convention) in Bali, Indonesia.