The subregional meeting for Central Asian countries “Implementing the Aarhus Convention today: Paving the way to a better environment and governance tomorrow” was organized jointly by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The meeting was a response to the call made by the Parties to the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) at their fourth session (Chisinau, 29 June–1 July 2011), which highlighted various needs for capacity-building. While ensuring access to justice was acknowledged to be the most challenging issue facing States Parties, a lack of expertise related to the procedural requirements for the Convention’s proper implementation was also highlighted in this context.

This subregional meeting comprised two parallel workshops with several joint sessions:

(a) The first workshop "Greening Justice and the role of the Judiciary in this process" brought together senior judges and representatives from judicial training institutions, as well as environmental law experts, to discuss the legal aspects of access to justice and the role of the judiciary in implementing and enforcing the Convention;

(b) The second workshop "How to implement the Aarhus Convnetion: learning practical experiences" provided a platform for dialogue between representatives from Aarhus Centres and governmental, non-governmental and international organizations to discuss challenges in the practical implementation of the three pillars of the Aarhus Convention and to learn good practices.