1st meeting of the Task Force on Access to Justice

The 1st meeting of the Task Force on Access to Justice is scheduled for 16-17 February 2006 in Geneva.

The first meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention (Lucca, Italy 21-23 October 2002) decided to establish a task force on access to justice to support the implementation of the third pillar of the Convention by inter alia, examining good practices, sharing experience with implementation of particular paragraphs of article 9 of the Convention and assessing the impact of certain barriers in access to justice such as costs and delay.
At their 2nd meeting (Almaty, Kazakhstan, 25-27 May 2005) the Parties adopted decision II/2 on promoting effetive access to justice (E, F, R) and established a Task Force to carry out further work with practical focus in relation to the elements of that decision.

The Task Force on Access to Justice is expected to:
(a) Continue the analytical work initiated by the previous Task Force, making full use of the information gathered;
(b) Develop information and training or analytical material and activities at appropriate levels, and organize this work within the framework of the Convention’s overall capacity building programme;
(c) Consider, based on the experiences the effective contribution of remedies available under different legal systems to the achievement of the Convention’s objectives, including the relevance of interim and permanent injunctive relief;
(d) Further examine the issue of the establishment of appropriate assistance mechanisms to remove or reduce financial and other barriers;
(e) Explore the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and consider how these approaches might contribute towards the achievement of the objectives of the Convention;
(f) Consider and share relevant expertise, experience and examples of good practice;
(g) Share and disseminate its findings through appropriate means, including the clearing-house mechanism;
(h) Take into consideration the work being undertaken in other fora in order to benefit from it and avoid duplication; and
(i) Present the results of its work for consideration and appropriate action by the Working Group of the Parties.

See also the website of the UNECE