On the opening day of the sixth meeting of the Task Force, the Task Force hosted a mini-conference entitled, "Agenda 21 and the Information Society: Assessing Progress on Closing the Digital Divide, Access to Environmental Information and ICT for Sustainable Development in the ECE Region."
The event marked the 15th anniversary of the adoption of Agenda 21 and principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development by the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. These agreements prefigured the development of the Aarhus Convention.
Mr. Charles Geiger, Special Advisor for the UNCTAD Secretariat on the Commission on Science and Technology for Development and former Executive Secretary to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), served as Chairperson of the conference.
The conference opened with a session examining the growth of the Information Society in the UNECE region in light of the implementation of principle 10 and the Aarhus Convention and initiatives to build the region's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capacity.
Session One: Regional benchmarking and capacity-building
Session Two: Making environmental information accessible: collaboration, networking and partnerships on clearing-house mechanisms
Session Three: E-environment, E-commerce and E-democracy