The Irish Environmental Network (IEN) is celebrating 25 years of the UNECE Aarhus Convention with a conference at the King’s Inns Great Hall in Dublin on Friday 29 September, from 3.15pm to 7pm, followed by a reception. 

Registration is now open, along with a full list of speakers and the programme.

‘Aarhus at 25 – a celebration and reflection’ with the IEN will also mark 11 years of the convention in effect in Ireland.

'Environmental democracy'

The Aarhus Convention was described by the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, as the “most ambitious venture in environmental democracy undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations”. 

The event will focus on a positive celebration of the convention and some of its key aspects, and its relevance given environmental challenges today.

It will be chaired by former Chief Justice, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, President of the Law Reform Commission.

Speakers will include:

• Ms Justice Marie Baker (Supreme Court),
• Professor Áine Ryall (UCC School of Law, and Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee chair),
• Dr Tom Ryan (director of the Office of Environmental Enforcement, EPA Ireland),
• Deirdre Gallagher (senior investigator, Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information and Office of the Information Commissioner),
• Tom Flynn SC,
• Gregory Jones KC,
• Sibylle Grohs (senior lawyer, DG-Envi, EU Commission, and
• Michel Forst (Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention). 

Queries to: LawConference@ien.ie.