The World Summit on the Information Society opened in Geneva on 10 December 2003. The Aarhus Convention secretariat, on behalf of UNECE, organised a side-event on the opening day.

During the preparatory process for WSIS, on 29 April 2002, UNECE helped organise the European Regional Expert Meeting on Information and Communication Technologies in preparation for the Pan-European Conference (7-9 November 2002, Bucharest). One of the panel discussions focused on democracy and participation in the Information Society, and a presentation on the potential of the Aarhus Convention to use electronic tools to promote environmental democracy was delivered by Jeremy Wates on behalf of Kaj Barlund.