THE AARHUS CONVENTION UN ECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decisionma

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THE AARHUS CONVENTION UN ECE Convention on
Access to Information, Public Participation in
Decision-making and Access to Justice in
Environmental Matters
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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...."

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THE ÅRHUS CONVENTION UN ECE Convention on Access
to Information, Public Participation in
Decision-making and Access to Justice in
Environmental Matters (ECE/CEP/43) Adopted at
4th Ministerial Conference 'Environment for
Europe', Århus, Denmark, 25 June 1998 Signed by
39 countries and the European Community 16
countries required to ratify, accept, approve or
accede to the Convention for entry into force (10
by December 2000 with 2 pending) Expected date
of entry into force 2001
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ORIGIN OF THE CONVENTION

• Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration (1992)
• Sofia Guidelines (1995)
• Convention negotiated 1996-98, with active NGO
  involvement

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• GENERAL FEATURES
• Recognition of citizens' rights
• Convention is 'floor' not 'ceiling
• Broad definition of 'the public'
• Broad definition of public authorities
• European Union institutions to be covered
• Non-discrimination provisions
• Compliance review arrangements to be established
• Aarhus principles to be promoted internationally
• Open to non-ECE countries

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• ACCESS TO INFORMATION PASSIVE
• Presumption in favour of access
• Any person has access (no need to prove or even
  state an interest)
• Time limit as soon as possible, max 1 month,
  plus 1 more month where justified by volume or
  complexity
• Charges not to exceed a reasonable amount

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• Broad definition of environmental information
• non-exhaustive list of environmental elements
  air and atmosphere, water, soil, land and
  landscape, biodiversity (incl. GMOs), and their
  interaction
• covers policies, plans, programmes,
  legislation, environmental agreements likely to
  affect environment, and economic analyses used in
  environmental decision-making
• - covers environment-related human health and
  safety

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• Finite set of exemptions
• - confidential proceedings of public
  authorities
• - international relations
• - national defence
• - public security
• - course of justice
• - commercial confidentiality
• - intellectual property
• - personal confidentiality
• - voluntarily supplied information
• - disclosure could threaten environment
• - unfinished material
• - internal communications
• - unreasonable or poorly formulated requests

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• Factors concerning use of exemptions
• - most standard categories included, with
  minor adjustments, e.g. commercial
  confidentiality exemption not generally to apply
  to emissions data
• - restrictive interpretation, public interest
  to be taken into account, effects of disclosure
  must generally be adverse
• - separation of exempt from non-exempt
  material

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• Other features
• Qualified obligation to provide information in
  form requested (electronic, paper etc)
• 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

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• Right to appeal
• Available to any person exercising right to
  information
• Refusals, delays, failure to respond,
  over-charging
• Access to court of law or 'independent and
  impartial body established by law (e.g.
  Ombudsman)
• If court of law, must also provide access to
  expeditious review procedure which is free of
  charge or inexpensive
• Final decisions binding, refusals in writing
• 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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• 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
• Pollutant release and transfer registers
• Increased access to information through Internet
• State of environment reports (max 4-year interval)

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ACTIVITIES UNDER THE CONVENTION

• Task forces established on
• 1. Compliance mechanism
• 2. Pollutant release and transfer registers
  (PRTRs)
• - negotiation of new legally binding ECE
  instrument on PRTR, for Environment for Europe
  conference (Kiev, 2003)
• 3. Genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
• 4. Electronic information tools regional
  workshop planned (Arendal, Norway, 8-9 March
  2001)
• 5. Access to justice

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