AGREEMENT REACHED ON AARHUS COVERAGE OF GMOS
BRIDGES Trade BioRes, Vol. 5 No. 11 10 June 2005

Participants in the 25-27 May second meeting of the Parties to the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention) agreed to extend the public's legal right to participate in environmental decision-making, as set out in the Convention, to the release and placing on the market of genetically modified organisms (GMO). Under the Amendment agreed at the meeting held in Almaty, Kazakhstan (ECE/MP.PP/2005/2/Add.2 ), the Parties to the Convention would be required to inform and consult the public in decision-making on the deliberate release and placing on the market of GMOs. The public would have the right to submit comments and the public authorities would be expected to take these into account in the decision-making process. Once made, the decision taken should be publicly available together with the information, reasons and considerations upon which it is based (excepting information protected by commercial confidentiality). However, Parties could not withhold as confidential information on the intended uses of the release or assessment of environmental risk.
When the Aarhus Convention was adopted in 2001, decisions on GMOs were expressly excluded from the binding requirements on public participation set out in Article 6 of the Convention. During subsequent negotiations in the Convention's Working Group on Genetically Modified Organisms, UNECE countries were split on whether to extend the Article's provisions to GMOs (see BRIDGES Trade Biores, 19 November 2004, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/04-11-19/inbrief.htm). Civil society groups thus hailed the agreement on public participation in decision making on GMOs as a breakthrough. "This is a major victory for the public," Juan Lopez, GM Coordinator of Friends of the Earth International, said. "No GMO will be introduced anymore in this region without public scrutiny and adequate information." The amendment replaces Article 6.11 of the Convention and introduces a new Article 6bis and Annex Ibis. It will enter into force once three quarters of the Parties to the Convention ratify it and will be binding on only those countries that have ratified it.
For more information on the meeting, and to access relevant documents, visit
http://www.unece.org/env/pp/mop2.htm

"UNECE agree on public participation in GMO discussion," CROP BIOTECH, 3
June 2005; "Governments reach agreement on public participation in
decision-making on genetically modified organisms," UNECE PRESS RELEASE, 27
May 2005; "Victory For The Public!!" FOE EUROPE PRESS RELEASE, 27 May 2005.