AARHUS CONVENTION

Sixth meeting of the Task Force (Geneva, 13-14 December 2007)
The 6th meeting of the task force took place on 13-14 December 2007 in.Geneva. The provisional annotated agenda may be downloaded here.

On the first day of the meeting, the Task Force held a mini-conference, Agenda 21 and the Information Society: Assessing Progress on Closing the Digital Divide, Access to Environmental Information and ICT for Sustainable Development in the ECE Region.

On day two of the meeting, the Task Force discussed possible elements for the Convention's 2009-2011 work programme and implementation of the Recommendations for the.More Effective Use of Electronic Information Tools to Provide Public.Access to Environmental Information.

Upgrades implemented to the Aarhus Clearinghouse were also.presented by the secretariat.

Documents for the sixth meeting:

Title	English	French	Russian
Provisional annotated agenda		-	-
Final programme of the mini-conference "Agenda 21 and the Information Society", held on 13 December 2007
Report of the sixth meeting of the Task Force on Electronic Information Tools (ECE/MP.PP/WG.1/2008/4)
Addendum to the Report of Task Force on Electronic Information Tools (Questionnaire on implementation of Decision II/3) (ECE/MP.PP/WG.1/2007/L.3/Add.1)
Addendum to the Report of Task Force on Electronic Information Tools (Summary of Responses to Questionnaire) (ECE/MP.PP/WG.1/2007/L.3/Add.2)
List of Participants		-	-

Informal documents

Title	English	French	Russian
CENN intervention	pdf	-	-

Fifth meeting of the Task Force (Geneva, 23-24 November 2006)
The 5th meeting of the task force took place on 23-24 November 2006 in.Geneva. The provisional annotated agenda may be downloaded here.
...
The meeting discussed implementation of the Recommendations for the.More Effective Use of Electronic Information Tools to Provide Public.Access to Environmental Information, including responses to the.questionnaire circulated to national delegations on this topic. Delegates.were invited to review the prospectus for the first capacity-building workshop on the Aarhus Clearinghouse and Electronic Information Tools.

Upgrades being implemented for the Aarhus Clearinghouse were also.presented by the secretariat.

The Task Force agreed to extend the deadline for submittal of responses.to the questionnaire to 20 December 2006. The secretariat will prepare a..draft of a summary report on the responses and circulate this to.members of the Task Force in early January 2007, allowing two weeks for.submission of comments.

Documents for the fifth meeting:

Title	English	French	Russian
Provisional annotated agenda	pdf
Report of the fifth meeting of the Task Force on Electronic Information Tools (ECE/MP.PP/WG.1/2007/L.3)	pdf	pdf	pdf
Addendum to the Report of Task Force on Electronic Information Tools (Questionnaire on implementation of Decision II/3) (ECE/MP.PP/WG.1/2007/L.3/Add.1)	pdf	pdf	pdf
Addendum to the Report of Task Force on Electronic Information Tools (Summary of Responses to Questionnaire) (ECE/MP.PP/WG.1/2007/L.3/Add.2)	pdf	pdf	pdf
Prospectus for the first sub-regional workshop on Capacity Building for the Aarhus Clearinghouse and Electronic Information Tools (Szentendre workshop)	pdf
Questionnaire to assess implementation of the Recommendations on Electronic Information Tools (decision II/3) - original unedited MSWord version	word
Questionnaire to assess implementation of the Recommendations on Electronic Information Tools (decision II/3) - original unedited Acobe PDF version	pdf
Draft guidance for national nodes of the Aarhus Clearinghouse Mechanism (ECE/MP.PP/WG.1/2006/5/Add.1)	pdf	pdf	pdf
List of Participants	pdf

Fourth meeting of the Task Force (Geneva, 7-8 November 2005)

The 4th meeting of the Task Force took place on 7-8 November 2005 in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr. Chris Jarvis (UK) was elected chairman of the task force. The task force reviewed decision II/3 on Electronic Information Tools and the Clearing-house Mechanism (English French Russian), discussed preparation of a programme of capacity-building workshops and reviewed draft guidance for national nodes of the Clearinghouse.

The Task Force asked the secretariat to develop and circulate a questionnaire to assist with monitoring implementation of the Recommendations on the More Effective Use of Electronic Information Tools to Provide Public Access to Environmental Information, annexed to.decision II/3, before the fifth meeting.

The Task Force agreed to amend the draft guidance for national nodes and requested the secretariat to prepare a new, shortened version based on comments received at the meeting and through a follow-up electronic consultation.

As the report of the meeting and the draft guidance for national nodes are input documents to the sixth meeting of the Working Group of the Parties, these are available in English, French and Russian language verisions.

You can download copies of the documents from the fourth meeting of the Task Force:

Title	English	Francais	Russian
Provisional Agenda	word
Report of the fourth meeting of the Task Force on Electronic Information Tools	pdf	pdf	pdf
Draft guidance for national nodes of the Aarhus Clearinghouse Mechanism (post-session version)	pdf	pdf	pdf
List of Participants	word

Informal documents

The Access Initiative and Partnership for Principle 10 - Presentation by Ms. Nathalie Eddy, World Resources Institute	pdf
Aarhus Clearinghouse Progress Report - Presentation by the Aarhus Convention secretariat	pdf
EEA Neighbourhood Project - Presentation by Mr. Tim Hague, European Environmental Agency	pdf
Draft guidance for national nodes of the Aarhus Clearinghouse Mechanism (pre-session version)	word
UNECE activities reported to WSIS-II (Tunis), including adoption of Recommendations on the more effective use of electronic tools to provide public access to environmental information	word

Third meeting of the Task Force (Geneva, 1-2 July 2004)

The 3rd meeting of the Task Force took place on 1-2 July 2004 in Geneva, Switzerland. The task force had amended the text of Recommendations.on the More Effective Use of Electronic Information Tools and proposed elements for inclusion in a future work programme of the task force.

Subsequently, these recommendations and proposed elements were combined into a draft decision and transmitted to the Working Group of the Parties. The final text was adopted as Decision II/3 on Electronic Information Tools and the Clearing-House Mechanism (ECE/MP.PP/2005/2/Add.4) at the second Meeting of the Parties to
the Convention.

You can download these documents from the table below.

Title	English	Francais	Russian
Provisional Agenda	pdf
Report of the third meeting of the Task Force on Electronic Information Tools (MP.PP/WG.1/2004/12)	pdf	pdf	pdf
Draft decision on Electronic Information Tools (MP.PP/WG.1/2004/12/Add.1)	pdf	pdf	pdf
List of Participants	pdf

Second meeting of the Task Force (Geneva, 26-27 January 2004)

The 2nd meeting of the Task Force took place on 26-27 January 2004 in Geneva. In order to prepare for the meeting, delegations had been asked to submit responses to a questionnaire on the use of electronic tools to promote the implementation of the Convention in their countries.

The Task Force had continued with exchange of experiences on good practices (for more details, please see presentations prepared by Belgium (Flanders region), Hungary and REC Russia).

The Environment Agency of England and Wales (UK) had presented latest developments in a capacity-building project implemented in cooperation with UNEP.

You can also see a presentation on e-government prepared for the meeting by Alexander Ntoko, Head of ITU's E-Strategy Unit.

Title	English	Francais	Russian
Preliminary agenda for 2nd meeting of the Task Force (Geneva, 26-27 January 2004)	word
List of Participants	word
Report of the second meeting of the Task Force (MP.PP/WG.1/2004/4)	pdf	pdf	pdf

 

First meeting of the New Task Force on Electronic Information
.Tools (Sofia, 23-24 June 2003)

The first meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention established a new task force to facilitate the implementation of the Convention by.preparing draft recommendations on the more effective use of electronic.information tools to provide public access to environmental information.(see decision I/6 E F R). The Task Force, led by Bulgaria, held its first.meeting on 23-24 June 2003 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Before the meeting, participants were invited to submit questionnaires on the use of electronic tools in their countries and regions. The following delegations submitted their responses:

Armenia Austria Belarus Denmark Kyrgyzstan Malta Serbia and Montenegro

Romania Sweden Tajikistan Uzbekistan Hendrikson & Ko IHEAL REC

he new task force had continued to examine good practice examples in this field and further explored the mechanisms for dissemination of environmental information to the public in electronic form. Please follow the links to find out more about the Biodiversity Clearing-House (Bulgaria), eCommunities Project (Estonia), E Governance Initiative (Estonia), Aarhus Convention National web page (Romania), EnviroNet (Sweden), What's In Your Backyard (United Kingdom) and Electronic Networking for Environmental NGOs in.Southeast Europe.

Relevant developments and processes in the area of electronic tools were presented by representatives of UNEP, GRID-Arendal and The World Bank.

Title	English	Francais	Russian
Preliminary agenda for 1st meeting of the Task Force (Sofia, Bulgaria, 23-24 June 2003)	word
List of Participants	word
Report on the first meeting of the Task Force on Electronic Information Tools (MP.PP/WG.1/2003/4)	pdf	pdf	pdf