International Environmental Law

Atty. Rose Liza Eisma-Osorio

1998 Aarhus Convention

Introduction

On the 25th of June 1998, the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public
Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, known as the
Aarhus Convention, was signed in the Danish city of Aarhus, effective on 30 October 2001.

The Aarhus Convention elaborates principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, which emphasizes
participation of all concerned citizens and the duty of the States to facilitate and encourage
public awareness and participation by making environmental information widely available.

Salient Points

The Aarhus Convention grants the public rights regarding access to information, public
participation and access to justice, in governmental decision-making processes on matters
concerning the local, national and transboundary environment. It focuses on interactions between
the public and public authorities.

According to the European Commision the convention has Three Pillars, these are access
to information, public participation and access to justice.

Access to Information

The right of everyone to receive environmental information that is held by public

authorities. This can include information on the state of the environment, but also on policies or
measures taken, or on the state of human health and safety where this can be affected by the state
of the environment. Applicants are entitled to obtain this information within one month of the
request and without having to say why they require it. In addition, public authorities are obliged,
under the Convention, to actively disseminate environmental information in their possession;

Public Participation

The right to participate in environmental decision-making. Arrangements are to be made

by public authorities to enable the public affected and environmental non-governmental
organisations to comment on, for example, proposals for projects affecting the environment, or
plans and programmes relating to the environment, these comments to be taken into due account
in decision-making, and information to be provided on the final decisions and the reasons for it.

Last 14 January 2011, the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee (ACCC) found
Slovakia lacked proper public consultation on the Mochovce 3,4 nuclear power project.
Slovakia also is in breach with EU law and that the European Commission will have to supervise
its implementation. As a result, construction of the Mochovce nuclear power plant will have to
be stopped until a new Environmental Impact Assessment has been carried out.

Access to Justice

The right to review procedures to challenge public decisions that have been made without
respecting the two aforementioned rights or environmental law in general.

The Aarhus Convention helped EcoAlbania achieve justice in relation to a major

hydropower project by giving legitimacy in their legal proceedings in Albanian courts and
communication to Compliance Committee.

Status of Implementation

According to the, Progress Report on the Status of Ratification and Implementation, the
progress of ratification since the Aarhus Conference in 1998 has been swift, bringing about the
entry into force of the Convention 90 days later, i.e. on 30 October 2001, in accordance with
article 20 of the Convention. The convention’s effectivity was marked by numerous statements

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of support from many sources, including the United Nations Secretary-General, the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Executive Director of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), the European Union’s Commissioner for the Environment
and 26 Environment Ministers as well as a number of national and international NGOs.

Further, the report stated the current state of implementation of the Aarhus Convention
that can be discerned from certain activities of party states. Such as harmonizing national
legislation with the provisions of the Aarhus Convention that most signatory States and acceding
Parties have started upon and, in some cases, even completed. In the countries of Eastern Europe,
the Caucasus and Central Asia, the Aarhus Convention is primarily seen as a tool to foster
further democratization, strengthen regional co-operation arrangements and adequately address
their pressing environmental concerns.

Meeting of the Parties

The Meeting of the Parties is the main governing body of the Convention. It comprises all
Parties to the Convention. In its meetings, other Signatories and other States as well as
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations participates as observers. The mandate
of the Meeting of the Parties is to keep under continuous review the implementation of the
Convention and take the necessary measures required to achieve the purposes of the Convention.

Bureau of the Meeting of the Parties (MOP)

The Bureau shall invite a representative of non-governmental organizations established

for the purpose of, and actively engaged in, promoting environmental protection and sustainable
development to attend bureau meetings as an observer.

Working Group of the Parties

The Working Group is established to oversee the implementation of the work programme
and furthermore to prepare the meetings of the Parties; oversee and direct the activities of

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subsidiary bodies established by the Meeting of the Parties; keep under review the need for
amending the Convention; make such proposals and recommendations to the Meeting of the
Parties as it considers necessary for the achievement of the purposes of the Convention; and
undertake any other duties as requested by the Meeting of the Parties.

Compliance Committee

The Compliance mechanism is unique in international environmental law, as it allows

members of the public to communicate concerns about a Party's compliance directly to a
committee of international legal experts empowered to examine the merits of the case (the
Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee).

The Convention has a unique Compliance Review Mechanism, which can be triggered in
four ways:

1. a Party makes a submission concerning its own compliance,

2. a Party makes a submission concerning another Party's compliance,
3. the Convention Secretariat makes a referral to the Committee, or
4. a member of the public makes a communication concerning the compliance of a Party.

Dispute Settlement

Article 16 of the Convention provides for dispute settlement that arises between two or
more Parties in the interpretation or application of the Convention.

1. The Parties shall seek a solution by negotiation or by any other means of dispute
settlement acceptable to the parties to the dispute.
2. When signing, ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding to this Convention, or at any
time thereafter, a Party may declare in writing to the Depositary that, for a dispute not
resolved in accordance with paragraph , it accepts one or both of the following means of
dispute settlement as compulsory in relation to any Party accepting the same obligation:

(a) Submission of the dispute to the International Court of Justice;

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 (b) Arbitration in accordance with the procedure set out in annex II.

3. If the parties to the dispute have accepted both means of dispute settlement referred to in
paragraph above, the dispute may be submitted only to the International Court of Justice,
unless the parties agree otherwise.

Submitted by Mervic Al Tuble-Niala

M2, Saturday 3:00- 5:00 PM