The Meeting of the Parties is the main governing body of the Convention. It comprises all Parties to the Convention. It its meetings, other Signatories and other States as well as intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations participates as observers. The mandate of the Meeting of the Parties is to keep under continuous review the implementation of the Convention and take the necessary measures required to achieve the purposes of the Convention.

A Working Group of the Parties has been established to oversee the implementation of the work programme for the Convention between meetings of the Parties. It has the same composition as the Meeting of the Parties itself but meets more regularly.

The Meeting of the Parties held its first session  on 21–23 October 2002 in Lucca, Italy and its second session on 25–27 May 2005 in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

An extraordinary session of the Meeting of the Parties took place in Kiev, Ukraine on 21 May 2003.

The third session of the Meeting of the Parties was held in Riga, Latvia, from 11 to 13 June 2008.

 An extraordinary session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Convention was held on 19 and 22 April 2010 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, back to back with the first session of the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (20-22 April 2010).

The fourth session of the Meeting of the Parties was held in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova from 29 June to 1 July 2011.

The rules of procedure of the Meeting of the Parties are available in English, French and Russian.