[Index]
Environmental rights treaty
body pushes forward
environmental democracy agenda
Geneva, 27 May 2005 - On the
concluding day of the second meeting of
the Parties to the Aarhus Convention on
Access to Information, Public Participation
in Decision-making and Access to Justice
in Environmental Matters, United Nations
Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, highlighted
the way in which the Convention’s
principles “empowered citizens to
hold governments accountable and to play
a greater role in promoting more sustainable
forms of development.” The Secretary-General’s
remarks were delivered before the high-level
session of the meeting by Mrs Brigita
Schmögnerová, Executive Secretary
of the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE).
The Meeting concluded
three days of deliberation with the adoption
of decisions aimed at breathing new life
into the global environmental democracy
movement. Among its key outcomes are:
- Adoption of an amendment
to the Convention extending the rights
of the public to participate in decision-making
on genetically modified organisms
(GMOs).
- The adoption of Guidelines on how
Parties should apply the principles
of the Aarhus Convention in other
international environment-related
forums. The Guidelines are
expected to lead to greater transparency
and accountability in a wide range
of international bodies and processes
dealing with environmental issues
in which the Parties to the Convention
have a strong influence.
- Implementation and compliance:
the Meeting reviewed the first set
of national reports on implementation
to see whether and how the goals of
the Convention are applied in practice.
The reports reveal that the Parties
have made important progress in applying
the Convention but also that significant
obstacles to implementation remain,
especially in Eastern Europe, the
Caucasus and Central Asia, and South
Eastern Europe.
- In the first test of the Convention's
compliance mechanism, the findings
of its Compliance Committee that three
countries -- Turkmenistan, Ukraine
and the host country Kazakhstan --
had failed to comply with certain
provisions of the Convention were
upheld by the Parties. The compliance
mechanism is unique in that any member
of the public having concerns about
a Party’s compliance with the
Convention may communicate their concern
to the Compliance Committee.
- Continuation of work on the Convention’s
access to justice pillar:
the Meeting renewed the mandate of
the task force on access to justice,
having identified this ‘pillar’
of the Convention as the one posing
the greatest challenges.
- Adoption of recommendations
on electronic information tools
to increase public access to environmental
information.
- Promotion of the Aarhus
principles globally: the
Parties pledged their support for
the drawing up of appropriate regional
instruments on access to information,
public participation in decision-making
and access to justice in other regions,
as well as extending an invitation
to States outside the UNECE region
to accede to the Convention.
The high-level session,
which was chaired by Ms. Aitkul Samakova,
Minister of Environmental Protection of
Kazakhstan, opened with a panel on "Successes,
failures and lessons learned: key challenges
in implementing the Convention.”
Participants debated ways to overcome
political, institutional and cultural
barriers to the successful application
of the Convention and the role of civil
society in promoting its implementation.
In his message of support to the Meeting,
the Secretary-General welcomed the active
participation of civil society organizations
in the Aarhus processes, stating that
their involvement “would ensure
that the Convention remains a living,
evolving instrument.”
For further information, please visit
www.unece.org/env/pp
or contact:
Michael STANLEY-JONES
Environmental Information Management
Officer
Aarhus Convention Secretariat
UNECE Environment and Human Settlements
Division
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0) 22 917 23 84
Mobile: +41 (0) 79 477 08 42
Fax: +41 (0) 22 917 01 07
E-mail: [email protected]
Ref: ECE/ENV/05/P07