NGO Participation Wanted
Full Report of the Second Task Force Meeting on Public Particiaption in International Forums, Geneva, 9 and 10 November 2006
13.12.2006 |Anke Stock
By Anke Stock, European Eco-Forum
9 and 10 November 2006 in Geneva
List of Participants is available on the UNECE website. Besides representatives of Parties and the European Eco-forum, the US Government was also represented as observer.
1. Opening of the Meeting
2. Adoption of the Agenda
The agenda was adopted.
3. Election of New Vice-Chairperson
Ms. Ludmilla Barbaiani from Moldova stepped down as vice-chairperson. Ms. Nino Gokhelashvili from Georgia was elected.
4. Consideration of the Responses Received From International Forums to the Written Questionnaire
The Secretariat presented a synthesis paper summarising the responses to the questionnaire, a statistical paper and a matrix paper including all the replies (can be found on the UNECE’s website).
Many parties indicated that they needed more time to look at the papers and responses in detail. It was decided that the Secretariat is going to prepare a final version of the synthesis paper including factual summaries/conclusions after each paragraph until the end of November 2006. After distribution of the final version to the members of the Task Force the members will have sufficient time (until 26 December 2006) to send written comments to the Secretariat on the paper to be included. It was also agreed to add the statistical overview and the matrix paper as annex to the report of the Task Force to the Working Group next year.
Given the time limit to prepare the report for the next Working Group meeting in May 2007 it was agreed that late responses should be considered until 18 December 2006.
5. Discussion on Further Steps in Implementation of the PPIF Work Plan – Chair’s Paper
The Chair (Laurent Mermet) presented a paper on further steps that have to be taken to implement the work plan.
Even though Eco-Forum pleaded for a further extension of the deadline to receive responses from international forums, it was agreed to start the direct consultation now and to take notice of late replies until 18 December 2006. A longer period was not acceptable for the parties and the Secretariat since otherwise these replies could not any more be reflected in the report to the meeting of the Working Group in 2007.
Parties stressed that the consultation process should be a voluntary process and therefore it was agreed that only those forums that have shown interest in the consultation process are going to be asked to take part in the direct consultation and the workshop. Furthermore, it was agreed to include a small number of category 1 forums that did not reply to the questionnaire, but which are important for the Aarhus region (e.g. UNECE conventions, suggested by Eco-Forum ).
It was decided to have a workshop with the title “Involving the Public in International Forums Dealing with Matters Relating to the Environment” during the time between April and June 2007. Sweden was keen on having the workshop as early as possible. The workshop will be taking place in Geneva for 2 days. About 80-100 participants shall be invited, including participants from 20-30 international forums and PPIF Task Force members and interested Aarhus Parties’ representatives. Languages of the workshop will be English, French and Russian. It was agreed to have not only prominent experts on public participation in international forums from IGOs and academics, but also a speaker from a main NGO with experience in this area.
The format of the workshop will be a mixture of presentations and discussion groups. The Secretariat suggested 6 different discussion groups, but it was agreed to have only 4 discussion/work groups. The Task Force agreed on the following four broad themes:
- Techniques and processes in dissemination information on the environment and on forum’s processes;
- What public, for what participation, in the work of international forums dealing with matters relating to the environment;
- Public participation in projects and in supporting implementation;
- Capacity building, resources and infrastructures.
Part of the report will also be other input received under paragraph 7 of Decision II/4. This is where we, as NGOs, can also provide input. It was agreed that such input will be published on the Secretariat’s website.
We also discussed the countries’ effort in engaging in internal consultation. France, Italy and the European Commission had done some effort in this regard.
6. Adoption of the report
The draft report prepared by the Secretariat was discussed, amended and agreed upon. It will be available shortly on the UNECE’s website
7. AOB and Closing of the Meeting
Eco-Forum warned against the threat that the Convention’s own Protocol, on PRTR, risks not to respect the Aarhus Convention’s principles, in particular in the development of its Rules of Procedure and Compliance system.
What do we need to do now?
1. We received the draft of the revised synthesis paper of the meeting by the Secretariat. We now need to submit comments until 26 December 2006.
2. We need to work on the preparation of the workshop which is likely to take place in June 2007. We should find high-level speakers from NGOs for the plenary sessions as well as for the different discussion groups. We should also think about NGO representatives and others, e.g. academics, who we would like to invite to the workshop.
3. Furthermore, we need to prepare a joint NGO response/input to the results of the consultation process. We should produce a list of NGOs which we are going to approach for such input. We will send each NGO the questionnaire and the reply of the forum that they mainly work with and ask them to reply to both of them and comment on the main issues. Then we will collect all replies and compile them in one document that we ideally present at the workshop. In any case the replies and the input of the NGOs will be presented on the Secretariat’s website and they will become part of the final report to the Working Group.
Please be so kind as to provide me with input on which NGOs to approach or if your NGO is in the position to provide replies please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you! (Anke Stock, Email: anke.stock@wecf.org)
