Capacity Building

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Capacity Building

• Michael Ewing

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The Aarhus Convention

• Article 3. General provisions
• 1. Each Party shall take the necessary
  legislative, regulatory and other measures,
  including measures to achieve compatibility
  between the provisions implementing the
  information, public participation and
  access-to-justice provisions in this Convention,
  as well as proper enforcement measure to
  establish and maintain a clear, transparent and
  consistent framework to implement the provisions
  of this Convention

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The Aarhus Convention

• 2. Each Party shall endeavour to ensure that
  officials and authorities assist and provide
  guidance to the public in seeking access to
  information, in facilitating participation in
  decision-making and in seeking access to justice
  in environmental matters.

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The Aarhus Convention

• 3. Each Party shall promote environmental
  education and environmental awareness among the
  public, especially on how to obtain access to
  information, to participate in decision-making
  and to obtain access to justice in environmental
  matters.

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The Aarhus Convention

• 4. Each Party shall provide for appropriate
  recognition of and support to associations,
  organizations or groups promoting environmental
  protection and ensure that its national legal
  system is consistent with this obligation.

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Findings

• Legal Framework
• 75 of indicators scored as average to strong
• Building Government Capacity
• 8 strong/43 weak
• No Access Training for c.60 of Judicial
  Officials.

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Findings

• Government Efforts to Build the Capacity of the
  Public
• Guidelines on how to access information
• Guidelines on how to access participation
• Both rated badly, 57 56 weak
• Guidelines on how to bring a complaint
• 53 weak

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Findings

• NGO support. 54 Strong 23 weak
• Environmental education 28 weak/strong
• Curriculum 47 provision
• Legal aid provision average
• Guidelines on how to use legal fora were good in
  Estonia, but non-existent in Ireland
• In Hungary and Lithuania Public awareness of the
  underlying issues played a role in the outcome of
  78 of the cases

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CONCLUSIONS

• 203 indicators
• 78 either insufficient or non-existent
• Black spots
• Training of government judicial officials in
  facilitating access
• Lack of guidelines for the public on gaining
  access to information, participation and justice

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Recommendations

• Increased resources for capacity building
• Training of administrative and judicial staff
• Public awareness campaign
• Incorporation of the access principles into
  education training and curricula.
• Building all these measures around the access
  needs of the public

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Thank You For Your AttentionAny Questions?