THE AARHUS CONVENTION UNECE Convention on Access to

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

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

ORIGIN OF THE CONVENTION June 1992 Rio Declaration principle 10 October 1995 UNECE Guidelines on Access to Environmental Information and Public Participation in Decision-making (Sofia Guidelines) January 1996 Special session to establish ad hoc WG for the preparation of a draft convention June ‘ 96 – March ‘ 98 Negotiation of the draft Convention 25 June 1998 Adoption of the Convention at the 4 th Ministerial “Environment for Europe” Conference, Aarhus Denmark. 30 October 2001 Entry into force

CONTENT OF THE CONVENTION • Objective, definitions, general features (art. 1 -3) Pillar 1: Access to information (art. 4 -5) Pillar 2: Public participation in decision-making (art. 6 -8) • Final clauses (art. 10 -22) Pillar 3: Access to Justice (art. 9)

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 • Open to non-ECE countries

STATUS OF RATIFICATION Albania Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Denmark Estonia FYR of Macedonia France Georgia Hungary Italy Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lithuania Malta Moldova Norway Poland Romania Tajikistan Turkmenistan Ukraine TOTAL: 24 PARTIES

1 st MEETING OF THE PARTIES Lucca, 21 -23 October 2002 • Broad participation (ECE states, non-ECE states, IGOs, RECs, NGOs) • Adoption of the Lucca Declaration • Establishment of the compliance mechanism • Adoption of guidelines on genetically-modified organisms

1 st MEETING OF THE PARTIES (2) Lucca, 21 -23 October 2002 • Confirmation of commitment to develop protocol on pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) … PRTR Protocol adopted and signed by 36 states at the Kiev conference, 21 -23 May 2003 • New task forces on access to justice and electronic information tools • New procedural and institutional framework for the Convention

ELECTRONIC INFORMATION TOOLS Article 5, paragraph 3 of the Convention • Decision I/6 on the use of electronic tools adopted by the first meeting of the Parties to the Convention • Task force meets on 23 -24 June 2003 in Sofia, Bulgaria • Main topics on the agenda: – Development of an information clearing-house for the Convention; – Advancing the use of information and communication technology to facilitate implementation of the Convention

ELECTRONIC INFORMATION TOOLS (2) IGO AARHUS ACADEMIC CONVENTION CLEARINGHOUSE: CENTRAL NODE NATIONAL WEB SITE NATIONAL NODE NATIONAL WEB SITE NGO

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