Thirty national and international experts will gather to discuss how Armenia can meet the requirements of the UNECE Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR) to the Aarhus Convention, on 6-8 November 2007, in Yerevan, Armenia. The meeting is being hosted by the Armenian Ministry of Environment and is supported by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) through the Environment and Security Initiative.
The Aarhus Convention secretariat will participate in the workshop along with officers from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the Estonian Mission to the European Community, in Brussels.
The meeting is the first capacity-building effort for PRTR organized since the adoption of the Guidance on Implementation of the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers, adopted by the Convention's Working Group on PRTR at its fifth meeting, in February 2007.
The three-day workshop will conclude with an exchange of experience among Armenia National Focal Points to the regional and global Multilateral Environmental Agreements, such as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and Basel Convention, which are expected to benefit from the institution of a national PRTR system.
Armenia signed the Protocol on PRTRs at the time of its adoption at the Extraordinary Meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention in Kiev, Ukraine, in May 2003.
The Protocol currently has five Parties and is expected to enter into force in 2008.
[Source: UNECE]
