Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, adopted at the 1992 Rio Summit, promotes access to information, public participation, and access to justice in environmental matters. Principle 10 is gaining increasing importance as a growing number of Multilateral Environmental Agreements and other international initiatives promote stakeholder participation in environmental decision-making. Based on positive lessons learned from UNITAR/UNECE supported pilot projects to assist countries to prepare a National Profile on the Implementation of the Aarhus Convention, and following requests from a number of developing countries, UNITAR has initiated a global programme which provides methodological and technical support to countries to strengthen implementation of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration through a country-driven process. Each country project prepares a National Profile and Action Plan, following a standard project methodology. All substantive decisions are made at the country level through collaboration of government with non-governmental stakeholders. Between 2007 and 2010, nine projects have been implemented in Africa and Central America.
