THIRD ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PARTNERSHIP FOR PRINCIPLE 10 (PP10)
Preliminary Report Only
(A final report will be posted shortly)
The third annual meeting of the Partnership for Principle 10 (PP10) was held from October 4-5, 2005 at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. The meeting was hosted by Capacity Global UK and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, UK (FCO). WRI serves as the Secretariat for PP10. The meeting was well attended with approximately 50 participants from governments and civil society organizations representing some two dozen countries. Several international organizations including the four that are partners were also represented. For the first time, the Aarhus Convention Secretariat attended as an invitee. The meeting was energized by partners sharing their successes and challenges. Steve Waddell, a consultant brought in by the PP10 Secretariat, presented his report on ways to improve PP10.
The meeting was unanimous that PP10 should be the global, regional and national platform for the implementation of Principle 10 of the Rio declaration. Principle 10 of the Rio declaration recognizes the right of people to have access to environmental information, participate in decision-making affecting the environment and have access to environmental justice. Participants wanted to ensure that the access initiative (TAI) remains an important contributor to PP10. However, the meeting emphasized that the Partnership should go beyond TAI activities and develop collective products such as guidelines, best practices and model laws.
The meeting also resolved that PP10 should continue to have a Secretariat and mandated the Advisory Committee to study and recommend ways to make the membership of PP10 more inclusive. To this end, the Advisory Committee was required to consider the nature of commitments made by partners and the current membership structure.
The meeting also took important decisions concerning the establishment of a global PP10 database that would track commitments and their implementation and mandated the Advisory committee to consider and recommend whether PP10 needed a Steering Committee to transact business between annual meetings.
For general information about the 2005 PP10 Committee of the Whole meeting and supporting documents, click here.
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