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THE AARHUS CONVENTION: Its history, content and ratification

THE AARHUS CONVENTION: Its history, content and ratification. Ralph Hallo European Environmental Bureau (EEB). THE AARHUS CONVENTION. UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. AN UNCONVENTIONAL CONVENTION.

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THE AARHUS CONVENTION: Its history, content and ratification

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  1. THE AARHUS CONVENTION:Its history, content and ratification Ralph Hallo European Environmental Bureau (EEB)

  2. THE AARHUS CONVENTION UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  3. AN UNCONVENTIONAL CONVENTION • Subject matter is citizen’s rights • Unique role for citizen’s groups Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  4. ORIGIN OF THE CONVENTION (1) Pre-history: • U.S. administrative and environmental law • Information – FOIA • Public participation – NEPA • Access to justice – citizen’s suits • (Clean Air, Clean Water Acts) Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  5. ORIGIN OF THE CONVENTION (2) Pre-history: • Netherlands and Norway’s effort • Charter on Environmental Rights and Obligations • Bergen Ministerial Conference on Sustainable Development, 1990 Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  6. ORIGIN OF THE CONVENTION (3) Run-up to the Negotiations; June 1992Principle 10 of Rio Declaration  taken up within Environment for Europe process Oct 1995 UNECE Guidelines on Access to Environmental Information and Public Participation in Decision-making (Sofia Guidelines) adopted. Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  7. ORIGIN OF THE CONVENTION (4) Negotiations and Adoption; 1996 – 1998 Negotiation of the draft Convention 25 June 1998Adoption of the Convention at the 4th Ministerial “Environment for Europe” Conference, Aarhus Denmark. Signed by 39 countries and the European Community Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  8. CONTENT OF THE CONVENTION • Objective, definitions, general features (arts. 1-3) • ACCESS TO INFORMATION (arts. 4-5) • PUBLIC PARTICIPATION (arts. 6-8) • ACCESS TO JUSTICE (art. 9) • Final clauses (art. 10-22) • Annexes Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  9. OBJECTIVES, DEFINITIONS, GENERAL PROVISIONS • Recognition of citizens' rights Procedural rights to information, participation, justice  Substantive rights of present and future generations to live in an environment adequate to health and wellbeing • Broad definition of 'the public‘ Any natural or legal person, plus informal groups • Broad definition of public authorities All sectors and levels of government, excluding bodies acting in legislative or judicial capacity Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  10. OBJECTIVES, DEFINITIONS, GENERAL PROVISIONS (2) • European Community to become a Party  EU institutions to be covered • Anti-harassment, non-discrimination provisions Rights to be enjoyed irrespective of citizenship, nationality, domicile etc • Compliance review arrangements • Open to non-ECE countries Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  11. FIRST PILLAR:ACCESS TO INFORMATION Passive (art. 4) • Any person has access (no need to prove or even state an interest) • Broad definition of environmental information (art. 2) • Time limit: ‘as soon as possible’, max 1 month, plus 1 more month. • Charges not to exceed reasonable amount • Finite set of exemptions, with restrictive interpretation: • public interest to be taken into account • Potential effects of disclosure must be adverse Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  12. FIRST PILLAR:ACCESS TO INFORMATION (2) Active (art. 5) • Transparency and accessibility of information systems • Immediate dissemination of information in cases of imminent threat to health or environment • 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) Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  13. SECOND PILLAR:PUBLIC PARTICIPATION Specific Projects or Activities (art. 6) • list of types of activity covered (Annex I) • timely and effective notification • reasonable timeframes • free inspection of relevant information by public concerned • comments in writing or public hearing • due account to be taken of outcome of public participation Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  14. SECOND PILLAR:PUBLIC PARTICIPATION (2) Programmes and Plans (art. 7) • “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 Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  15. SECOND PILLAR:PUBLIC PARTICIPATION (3) Policies (art. 7) • General obligation to endeavour to provide opportunities in the preparation of policies relating to the environment “to the extent appropriate” Rules and regulations (art. 8) • Obligation to strive to promote effective public participation in rules/regulations and other legally binding instruments that may have a significant effect on the environment Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  16. THIRD PILLAR: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 law relating to the environment (standing may be established by Parties) Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  17. THIRD PILLAR:ACCESS TO JUSTICE (2) • 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 Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  18. STATUS OF RATIFICATION • UN ECE – 55 member countries • 35 have ratified (plus European Community) • 9 have signed but not ratified • 11 have not signed Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  19. STATUS OF RATIFICATION (2) Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lithuania Malta Moldova Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Slovenia Spain Sweden Tajikistan Turkmenistan Ukraine United Kingdom European Community Albania Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland Former Yugoslav Rep. of Macedonia France Georgia Hungary Italy Kazakhstan TOTAL: 36 PARTIES Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  20. STATUS OF RATIFICATION (3) • Who has not yet ratified? • 4 EU member states • Germany, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg • Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Switzerland Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  21. STATUS OF RATIFICATION (4) • Who has not signed? • Canada and the U.S. (not involved in negotiations) • Russia and Turkey (active in negotiations) • Israel • Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro • Andorra, San Marino • Uzbekistan • Slovakia Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  22. RAPID RATIFICATION 30 Oct 2001 Entry into force of the Convention Oct 2002 1st meeting of the Parties (Lucca, Italy) 25-27 May 2005 2nd meeting of the Parties (Almaty, Kazakhstan) Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  23. EVOLVING, LIVING INSTRUMENT • Protocol on pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTR): adopted at EfE-5 (Kiev, May 2003), signed by 36 States and EC • Genetically modified organisms: guidelines adopted at MoP-1, amendment adopted at MoP-2 • Access to justice: task force set up toexchange of info on good practices, prepare recommendations • Electronic information tools: task force set up to exchange information on good practices, prepare recommendations. • Financial arrangements: exploration of longer term financial mechanism under Convention Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  24. EVOLVING, LIVING INSTRUMENT (2) • Compliance mechanism: Compliance Committee established, mandated to consider communications from the public • Public participation in international forums: guidelines adopted at MoP-2 on implementation of article 3, paragraph 7 • Capacity building: diverse activities, loose co-operation framework for regional and international organizations, co-ordinated by secretariat • Clearinghouse mechanism: launched July 2004 at http://aarhusclearinghouse.org • 2nd meeting of the Parties: Almaty, Kazakhstan, 25-27 May 2005 Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  25. 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 Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  26. GLOBAL RELEVANCE OF THE CONVENTION:PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL FORUMS • Art. 3.7: Parties required to ‘promote the application of the principles of [the] Convention in international environmental decision-making processes and within the framework of international organizations in matters relating to the environment’ • Working Group of the Parties agreed to establish Expert Group to explore issue • Expert Group held first meeting 3-4 June 2004, agreed on some elements for possible guidelines Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

  27. MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE AARHUS CONVENTION WEBSITE: http://www.unece.org/env/pp Colloquium on 'A Citizen's Right to a Clean Environment' Montreal, 29-30 September 2005

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