THE AARHUS CONVENTIONTHE AARHUS CONVENTION

UN ECE 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...."

THE ÅRHUS CONVENTIONTHE 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 Community16 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

ORIGIN OF THE CONVENTION

Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration (1992)

Sofia Guidelines (1995)

Convention negotiated 1996-98, with active NGO involvement

GENERAL FEATURESGENERAL FEATURES

Recognition of citizens' rights Convention is 'floor' not 'ceiling’Broad definition of 'the public'Broad definition of public authoritiesEuropean Union institutions to be coveredNon-discrimination provisionsCompliance review arrangements to be

establishedAarhus principles to be promoted internationallyOpen to non-ECE countries

ACCESS TO INFORMATION – PASSIVEACCESS 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’

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

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

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

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

Right to appealRight 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

ACCESS TO INFORMATION – ACTIVEACCESS 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)

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

MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE ÅRHUS

CONVENTION WEBSITE:

http://www.unece.org/env/pp