AARHUS CONVENTION

International workshop on access to information, public participation and access to justice regarding GMOs (New)

Working Group on GMOs:
Fourth meeting of the Working Group
Third meeting of the Working Group
First and Second meetings of the Working Group

UN Office of Legal Affairs advises on ratification of GMO amendment (New)

International workshop on access to information, public participation and access to justice regarding GMOs, 19-20 May 2008

On 19-20 May 2008 in Cologne, Germany, Parties to the Aarhus Convention will hold an international workshop on access to information, public participation and access to justice with respect to GMOs.

The workshop is intended to bring interested governments, international organizations, NGOs, industry and academia together to identify the most pressing needs and challenges regarding access to information, public participation and access to justice with respect to GMOs and to facilitate exchange on good practices to address them. The workshop will have a particular focus on the needs and challenges facing countries in transition (especially those from Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia) and developing countries.

The date and location of the workshop has been chosen in order to coincide with the fourth meeting of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety's Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties (CoP/Mop-4) which will be held in nearby Bonn the week before. It is hoped that a number of experts attending CoP/MoP-4 will stay on to take part in the workshop.

The workshop has been designed to be as interactive as possible and to consider the issues from a variety of perspectives. As well as hearing presentations by prominent experts, participants will have the opportunity to take part in interactive issues-based discussion groups. The workshop will be conducted in English with French and Russian interpretation provided during most of the sessions. Some limited financial assistance will be available to assist the attendance of a number of participants from developing and economies-in-transition countries and NGOs.

The provisional programme, registration form and other relevant documentation are available in the table below. The deadline for registration is 5 May 2008. The deadline for requesting financial support was 14 April 2008.

Documents	English	French	Russian
Provisional programme	pdf	-	-
Registration form	Word	-	-
Aarhus Convention GMO Amendment	pdf	pdf	pdf
Lucca Guidelines	pdf	pdf	pdf
Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Article 23	pdf	-	-

 

Working Group on Genetically Modified Organisms

At their Second meeting, the Parties noted the activities and reports of the Working Group and adopted decision II/1 (ECE/MP.PP/2005/2/Add.2) on Genetically Modified Organisms (E F R), and the amendment to the Convention set out in the annex to this decision. A review of implementation of the GMO Guidelines (E F R) was prepared for the same meeting, based on the results and conclusions of a survey carried out among Parties. The Parties agreed to review progress in the ratification, acceptance and approval of the amendment and the implementation of the Guidelines at their third meeting.

Background
The first meeting of the Parties to the Convention (Lucca, Italy 21-23 October 2002) adopted decision (I/4) and the Guidelines on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice with respect to Genetically Modified Organisms (for the full text of the Guidelines in three languages, please see the table below). A new Working Group was established to examine and build upon the preparatory work undertaken by a previous Working Group on GMOs established by the Committee on Environmental Policy (the first Working Group).

The task of the Working Group was to explore the options for a legally binding approach to further developing the application of the Convention in the field of GMOs, including through possible instruments and to develop selected options for consideration and possible decision or adoption by the Parties at their second meeting. As a result of this work, the decision II/1 was adopted by the Parties at their Second meeting.

E

F

R

Decision II/3 containing the amendment to the Convention: Public participation in decisions on the deliberate release into the environment and placing on the market of genetically modified organisms

Fourth meeting of the Working Group
The fourth meeting of the Working Group took place on 18-20 October 2004. Please find provisional agenda, report and draft decision prepared for the meeting in the table below.

The amended draft decision (E F R) is submitted to the fourth meeting of the Working Group of the Parties (1-4 February 2005) for further consideration.

At the third meeting, delegations were asked to provide comments on the legally binding options annexed to the meeting's report, including expressing preferences for one or several of these options and putting forward ideas on how to combine different options. Comments were received from Azerbaijan.

Third meeting of the Working Group
The third meeting of the Working Group took place on 24-26 March 2004. Discussions continued on possible legally binding options (for more details on some proposed options, please see comments submitted in advance of the meeting) and the applicability of public participation provisions in article 6, paragraphs 2-10 of the Convention to certain activities with GMOs (deliberate release, placing on the market and contained used).

To facilitate discussion, delegations were invited to provide written comments on the reasons for and possible procedures for a differentiated approach to the development of a legally binding option, possible elements of legally binding public-participation procedures and proposals for elements of preferred legally binding options.

Here you can find links to submissions received by the secretariat:

Comments submitted in advance of third meeting

Bulgaria

European Union (including Accession States)

Republic of Moldova

Romania

CropLife International

ECO Forum/Letter to EU Ministers

Globe Europe

In the context of discussions on legally binding options, the Working Group heard the presentation of UNEP-GEF Biosafety Unit's projects on the development and implementation of national biosafety frameworks and the Environment for Europe process.

Documents	English	French	Russian
Report of the third meeting (MP.PP/AC.2/2004/2)	pdf	pdf	pdf
Provisional agenda for the third meeting (MP.PP/AC.2/2004/1)	pdf	pdf	pdf
List of Participants (24-26 March 2004)	word

First and Second meetings of the Working Group

The first two meetings of the Working Group took place in Geneva on 9-11 April 2003 and 1-3 October 2003. For more details on the outcome of these meetings, please refer to the reports available here. Also available are comments submitted by delegations in advance of the second meeting on preferred legally binding options and reports on national experiences with the application of public participation procedures to activities with GMOs and the Guidelines on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice with respect to GMOs.

General documents
Decision I/4 on Genetically Modified Organisms	pdf	pdf	pdf
Guidelines on Access to Information, Public Participation and access to Justice with respect to Genetically Modified Organisms	pdf	pdf	pdf
Report on the first meeting of the Parties (ECE/MP.PP/2)	pdf	pdf	pdf