The Aarhus Convention, adopted in 1998, guarantees rights of access to information, public participation, and access to justice in environmental matters. All provisions of the Aarhus Convention are applicable to GMO matters. To reinforce implementation of the Convention in this field, Parties adopted the Amendment to the Convention aimed at promoting public participation in decisions on the deliberate release into the environment and placing on the market of GMOs (the GMO Amendment), which entered into force on 20 April 2025 pursuant to its ratification by Ukraine. This achievement complements the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which promotes safe handling of living modified organisms (LMOs) and calls for public awareness and participation (Article 23). Together, these instruments advance Rio Principle 10 and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, particularly targets on biosafety and access to justice.

The side event provided a possibility to share relevant experiences from Governments and other stakeholders representing the private sector and non-governmental organizations. These include:

• Celebrate the entry into force of the GMO Amendment; • Raise awareness of the Amendment’s provisions and their role in promoting transparency and participatory approaches to biosafety-related decision-making;
• Highlight synergies between the Aarhus Convention and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in promoting transparency and public engagement;
• Showcase best practices and lessons learned from Parties and other Member States, including on ratification and implementation of the GMO Amendment, and Article 23 of the Protocol and any upcoming plans/recommendations for the GMO Amendment and Article 23 of the Protocol (e.g. making use of the Implementation Plan and Capacity building Action Plan for the Protocol);
• Build expert capacity of Parties and interested Member States and to increase their understanding of benefits of transparency and participatory approaches to biosafety-related decision-making; and
• Encouraged Parties to develop and implement comprehensive action plans to further implementation of the Aarhus Convention in the context of GMOs, also taking into consideration, as appropriate, relevant and related activities under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The event was organized by the secretariats of the Convention on Biological Diversity and of the Aarhus Convention under the leadership of Austria.

More information and registration for online participation is at Provisional agenda for joint Aarhus Convention-Cartagena Protocol workshop 16-17 October 2013.docx.docx

Photos are available at https://x.com/BCHCPB

The video recoding of the event is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gFLmAFWvtk&feature=youtu.be