UN/ECE: Aarhus Convention

Workshop on Involving the Public in International Forums Dealing with Matters Relating to the Environment – Geneva June 20-21, 2007

10.07.2007 |Anke Stock

Two representatives of WECF attended a workshop on involving the public in international forums in Geneva on 20 and 21 June 2007 which was organised by the Aarhus Secretariat. The aim of the workshop was to bring together a number of interested international forums and their stakeholders in order to provide a platform to meet and exchange experiences of practises with respect to the themes of access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice.

Prominent speakers from different international forums, such as the Basel Convention and the World Bank, as well as NGOs, such as WWF and ANPED, and individual experts from the academia and other institutions attended the workshop. Unfortunately, not many parties to the Aarhus Convention took part in the meeting.

The workshop started with an overview over the consultation process on the Almaty Guidelines presented by the Chair of the PPIF Task Force and the consultant to the Task Force (for more information see here.) Then Professor Prieur from the University of Limoges reported on the state of the art on involving the public in international forums (for more information see here.) Afterwards an exchange on good practices took place. Especially, the discussion in smaller groups was fruitful and allowed a better exchange of views and experiences. For the agenda see here.

A detailed report will be published on the UNECE website.