Eight meeting of the Task Force on Public Participation in Decision-making under the Aarhus Convention  was be held in Geneva, October 8 - 9, 2018. The Task Force discussed items of a systemic nature on ensuring effective public participation, namely: (i) meaningful and early public participation; (ii) the availability of all relevant documents to the public; (iii) effective notification and time frames for public participation; and (vi) ensuring that greater account is taken of the comments from the public in the final decisions, and ensuring the appropriate provision of feedback on how the public’s comments have been taken into account in the decisions.

The participants in the twenty-second meeting of the Working Group of the Parties to the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to  Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention), held in Geneva from 19 to 21 June 2018, considered a wide range of issues related to promotion and implementation of the Convention.

On September 27, 2018, fourteen Latin American and Caribbean countries were the first to sign the “Escazú Agreement” on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters, at United Nations headquarters in New York, in the context of the 73rd session of the general debate by the world organization’s General Assembly.

Download this statement in pdf in English and/or Russian.

We, the representatives of civil society from more than 80 non-governmental organisations from countries of Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, agreed the following on 10 September 2017, in Becici/Budva, Montenegro.

On 15 and 16 May 2018 in Rome, Italy, key past and present players, including Government representatives, civil society and other stakeholders, are gathering to discuss main achievements and lessons learned over the last 20 years as well as future challenges and objectives of the Convention’s implementation. The anniversary event is held at Chiostro del Bramante, Via Arco della Pace 5 – 00187 in Rome. Please see for more here.

Representatives of 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries adopted the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin American and the Caribbean at the ninth Meeting of the Negotiation Committee, held in San Jose, Costa Rica, from 28 February to 4 March 2018. The text had been under negotiation since 2014. Throughout the negotiations, the Aarhus Convention secretariat provided advisory support to ECLAC, upon request, and facilitated participation of relevant experts in negotiations. Several Aarhus Parties and partner organizations also supported the process. The Aarhus Convention secretariat stands ready to continue its close collaboration with ECLAC also during the next steps of bringing the Regional Agreement to life. To read more, please follow the link here.