THE AARHUS CONVENTION UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decisionmak

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THE AARHUS CONVENTION UNECE Convention on
Access to Information, Public Participation in
Decision-making and Access to Justice in
Environmental Matters

• Jeremy Wates, Secretary to the Convention
• Environment and Human Settlements Division
• UN Economic Commission for Europe

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GLOBAL RELEVANCE OF THE CONVENTION

• " The adoption of the Aarhus Convention was a
  giant step forward in the development of
  international law in this field. ... Although
  regional in scope, the significance of the Aarhus
  Convention is global. It is by far the most
  impressive elaboration of principle 10 of the Rio
  Declaration... As such it is the most ambitious
  venture in the area of environmental democracy
  so far undertaken under the auspices of the
  United Nations...."
• Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations

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ORIGIN OF THE CONVENTION

• June 1992 Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration
• October 1995 UN/ECE Guidelines on Access to
  Environmental Information and Public
  Participation in Environmental Decision-making
  (the Sofia Guidelines)
• June 1996 March 1998 Negotiation of the
  Convention
• 25 June 1998 Convention adopted at 4th
  Ministerial Conference 'Environment for Europe',
  Aarhus, Denmark, signed by 39 countries and the
  European Community
• 30 October 2001 Entry into force of the
  Convention

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CONTENT OF THE CONVENTION

• General Features
• Access to Information
• Public Participation
• Access to justice

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GENERAL FEATURES

• Recognition of citizens' rights
• rights to information, participation and justice
• ? right to an environment adequate to health and
  well-being
• Convention is a 'floor' not a 'ceiling
• Broad definition of 'the public
• to include any natural or legal person thereby
  reinforcing the global dimension
• Broad definition of public authorities
• including all sectors, all levels, some
  privatized bodies bodies acting in legislative
  or judicial capacity excluded

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GENERAL FEATURES

• European Union institutions to be covered
• Non-discrimination, anti-harassment provisions
• Compliance review arrangements with appropriate
  public involvement
• Aarhus principles to be promoted in international
  environmental bodies
• Open to non-ECE countries

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ACCESS TO INFORMATION

• Passive
• Presumption in favour of public access to any
  environmental information held by any public
  authority, with exceptions
• Any person has access (no need to prove or even
  state an interest)
• Broad definition of environmental information
• Time limit as soon as possible, max 1 month,
  plus 1 more month in exceptional circumstances.
• Qualified obligation to provide information in
  form requested (electronic, paper etc)

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ACCESS TO INFORMATION

• Finite set of exemptions, with restrictive
  interpretation
• - public interest to be taken into account
• - effects of disclosure must be adverse
• Non-exempt material held with exempt material to
  be separated out and supplied
• If information requested is not held, public
  authority is obliged to forward request or
  re-direct requester
• Right to written, reasoned refusal within time
  limit informing of appeals procedure
• Charges not to exceed 'reasonable amount'

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ACCESS TO INFORMATION

• Active
• Transparency and accessibility of info systems
• Public dissemination of international agreements,
  laws, policies, strategies, programmes and action
  plans relating to the environment
• Sufficient product information to ensure informed
  environmental choices
• Pollutant release and transfer registers
• Increased access to information through Internet
• State of environment reports (max 4-year
  interval)

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

• Specific Projects or Activities
• types of activity covered
• those on annex I mandatory
• other activities having a significant effect on
  the environment some discretion to Parties
• exemption of defence-related activities
• flexible application to deliberate release of
  GMOs
• timely and effective notification
• reasonable timeframes, early participation
• pre-application consultation encouraged

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION contd

• Specific Projects or Activities contd
• free inspection of relevant information by public
  concerned
• comments in writing or at public hearing
• due account to be taken of outcome of public
  participation
• public to be promptly notified of the decision
• decision and reasons for it made publicly
  accessible

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION contd

• Programmes and Plans
• appropriate practical and/or other provisions
  for the public to participate during the
  preparation of plans and programmes relating to
  the environment
• reasonable timeframes, early participation
• due outcome to be taken of the outcome of public
  participation

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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION contd

• Policies
• General obligation to endeavour to provide
  opportunities in the preparation of policies
  relating to the environment, but only to the
  extent appropriate
• Rules and regulations
• Obligation to strive to promote effective public
  participation in rules/regulations that may have
  a significant effect on the environment

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ACCESS TO JUSTICE

• Review procedures to challenge the handling of
  information requests (any person)
• Review procedures to challenge legality of
  project-level decisions requiring public
  participation (restricted to concerned public)
• Review procedures to challenge general violations
  of national environmental law (standing may be
  established by Parties)

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ACCESS TO JUSTICE contd

• Procedures to be fair, equitable, timely and not
  prohibitively expensive
• Decisions in writing, court decisions publicly
  accessible
• Injunctive relief 'as appropriate
• Mechanisms to remove financial barriers to be
  considered

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PROGRESS SINCE ADOPTION

• Two meetings of the Signatories held
• Chisinau, Moldova, April 1999
• Dubrovnik, Croatia, July 2000
• Working groups established on
• pollutant release and transfer registers,
  preparing protocol for 5th Environment for Europe
  Ministerial conference (Kiev, May 2003)
• compliance mechanism and rules of procedure
• genetically modified organisms
• Task forces established on
• access to justice
• electronic information tools

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ENTRY INTO FORCE

• 16 countries required to ratify, accept, approve
  or accede to the Convention for entry into force
• 16th country on 1st August 2001
• ? entry into force on 30th October 2001
• First meeting of the Parties to be hosted by
  Italy
• on 21-23 October 2002

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RATIFICATION STATUSat the beginning of June 2002

• Ratified Albania, Armenia, Estonia, Georgia,
  Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malta,
  Moldova, Poland, Romania, Ukraine (13)
• Approved Belarus, Denmark (2)
• Acceded Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Former Yugoslav
  Republic of Macedonia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
  (5)
• TOTAL 20 PARTIES

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NGO PARTICIPATION

• An unusual MEA not so much a contract between
  governments as a contract between governments and
  the people (the rights factor)
• Environmental NGOs, as clients, played a key
  role in initiating, negotiating and implementing
  the Convention
• NGO participation in all levels, including the
  (informal) Bureau of the Meeting of the
  Signatories
• Issues stakeholder participation vs NGO
  participation, legitimacy (formal vs practical),
  coalition-building, etc.

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• MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE AARHUS
  CONVENTION WEBSITE
• http//www.unece.org/env/pp