At its fourth and last meeting (18-20 October 2004), the Working Group on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), which had been evaluating options to strengthen citizens’ right to participate in decision-making on activities involving GMOs, narrowed the number of options to four before concluding its work. The Working Group, established under the meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention, had been mandated to develop possible options for the application of the Convention to activities involving GMOs.
The progress in negotiations on this contentious issue has been slow. Different proposals for an amendment to the Convention focussed on the need to develop a specific public participation procedure for activities involving GMOs, including possibilities for exemptions of certain activities from a public participation requirement, while others focused on developing a differentiated approach to this issue, whereby a legally binding instrument would be developed only for the states that do not already have comprehensive national biosafety frameworks in place.
The four options will be submitted for consideration to the Working Group of the Parties in February 2005. It is hoped that the options might be further streamlined at that meeting following further consultations by delegations back in their capitols.
For more information, see: www.unece.org/env/pp/gmo.htm
