In preparation for the upcoming Conference of Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (Geneva, 9-13 December 2002), the United Nations Environment Programme released, along with other pre-session documents, a document entitled Legal Aspects of the Full and Partial Dismantling of Ships http://www.unep.ch/basel/COP6/cop6_17e.pdf. The document discusses, among other things, when a ship ceases to be a ship.

Also released was the document Technical Guidelines for the Environmentally Sound Management of the Full and Partial Dismantling of Ships http://www.unep.ch/basel/COP6/cop6_23e.pdf.