On 10 May 2018, the UN General Assembly (the Assembly) adopted, resolution 72/277 entitled “Towards a Global Pact for the Environment”.
According to the resolution’s text, the Assembly decided to establish an ad hoc open‑ended working group to consider a technical and evidence-based report that identifies and assesses possible gaps in international environmental law and environment-related instruments with a view to strengthening their implementation. The Assembly decided that the ad hoc open-ended working group shall hold the following sessions, in accordance with established practice:
(a) An organizational session, to be held for a duration of three working days, by the end of the seventy-second session of the General Assembly, in New York, to examine matters related to the organization of the work of the ad hoc open-ended working group, including the duration and number of its substantive sessions; and
(b) Substantive sessions, to be held in Nairobi, the first of which at least one month after the submission of the report of the Secretary-General.
Attendance at the sessions of the ad hoc open-ended working group as observers is open to relevant non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, as well as to those that were accredited to relevant conferences and summits. The first substantive session of the working group shall meet in Nairobi, between 14-18 January 2019.
If you would like to submit your written observations and comments on the gap report to be shared online, please email Angela Kariuki at angela.kariuki@un.org
