After Ukraine ratified the amendment to the Aarhus Convention on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and reached the required number of states for the amendment to enter into force, the amendment will enter into force in Lithuania on 20 April.

This amendment had to be ratified by 33 countries to enter into force. The Lithuanian Seimas ratified the amendment in 2007.

Lithuania will not be significantly affected by the amendment to the Aarhus Convention on GMOs, as the country has more stringent requirements than those set out in the Convention. Public participation in decision-making on the deliberate release and placing on the market of GMOs is regulated by the GMO Law and its implementing legislation transposing the provisions of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 March 2001 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms. For more information, please visit the GMO Database of the Biodiversity Information Platform of the Ministry of the Environment here.

The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Convention on Access to Environmental Information, Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters was adopted on 25 June 1998 by the Fourth European Ministerial Conference "Environment for Europe" in Aarhus, Denmark, and is therefore commonly referred to as the Aarhus Convention. It entered into force in 2001 and is in force in 47 countries.

In 2005, the Second Meeting of the Parties to the Convention, held in Almaty, adopted an amendment to the Convention, which sets out more specific provisions on public participation in decisions on the deliberate release and placing on the market of GMOs.

The purpose of the Aarhus Convention is to protect the right of every human being of present and future generations to live in an environment conducive to his or her health and well-being, by guaranteeing the right to information, the right to participate in decision-making, and the right to have access to justice in environmental matters.