3 May 2021 (online) and 7 and 8 June 2021 (hybrid), Geneva, Palais des Nations

Due to restrictions associated with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the availability of facilities for remote interpretation, the twenty-fifth meeting of the Working Group of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention was held in two slots:

(a) items of an informational nature were considered in an online format on 3 May 2021, with no decision-making except the adoption of the agenda for the meeting; and

(b) items requiring decision-making were considered on 7-8 June 2021 in a hybrid format (combining online and in-person participation).

Organization of work for the meeting 

The meeting was held in English, French and Russian. Due to the limited availability of interpretation for remote participation, organization of work was as follows: 

• 3 May - Monday (online), 10.00-12.00 and 14.00-16.00; Lunch break, 12.00-14.00
• 7-8 June – Monday and Tuesday (hybrid), 10.00-13.00 and 15.00-18.00; Lunch breaks, 13.00-15.00

Documents

Agenda for the meeting along with draft outcomes of the Slot I held on 3 May, and other documents and updates, are being made available on this webpage. 

You may recall that to facilitate proceedings of the meeting, Parties and stakeholders were requested to submit possible comments on draft documents that are subject to decision-making before 5 May 2021. All comments received were made available on this webpage, see tab “Comments and Statements”.

You may also recall that the twenty-fourth meeting of the Working Group of the Parties (3 July and 28-29 October 2020) resulted in a number of outcomes, including with regard to preparations of the documents for its twenty-fifth meeting. Pursuant to these outcomes, several draft documents were prepared by the Bureau for consultations. For information on consultations, please see this webpage  Note, that draft documents for the twenty-fifth meeting of the Working Group were prepared by the Bureau taking into account the comments received through these consultations. For your convenience, informal accompanying documents, showing the latest revisions in track changes, are made available on this webpage along with each submitted document.

Slot I: Online session on 3 May

During the online session on 3 May, the Working Group of the Parties: (a) considered items that would require provision of information by the Chairs of the Tasks Forces, by the secretariat or other organisations; and (b) convened thematic session on promoting the Convention’s principles in international forums. 

No decisions were taken during the online session except of adoption of the meeting’s agenda. The sessions resulted in draft outcomes that will be considered at the hybrid meeting in June.

Slot II: Hybrid session on 7 and 8 June

During the hybrid session on 7 and 8 June (combining online and in-person participation), the Working Group of the Parties considered items that were subject to decision-making, including draft decisions in preparation of the seventh session of the Meeting of the Parties and outcomes of the online session held in May. The session was held on Interprefy platform.