The Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee has just released its first set of findings and recommendations with regard to compliance with the Convention by individual Parties. The Committee’s findings came out of its investigation of a number of allegations of non-compliance made by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The compliance mechanism is unprecedented among multilateral environmental agreements in the extent to which it gives the public, including NGOs, a role in triggering a review of a Party’s compliance.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The allegations of non-compliance reviewed by the Committee related to public availability of information on the economic justification for a proposal to import nuclear waste and public participation in decision-making of high-voltage power lines in Kazakhstan; compatibility of a new Hungarian law on motorways with the Convention; possible conflict between Turkmenistan’s new law on public associations and the provisions of the Convention; and public participation in the decision-making on navigation canal through the Danube Delta, an internationally recognized wetland area in southern Ukraine.
The Committee found Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine to be out of compliance with some of the Convention’s provisions and recommended various measures to improve legislative transposition or practical implementation. It considered that while Hungary had weakened rights public participation rights through its new law, it had not done so to a point that conflicted with the requirements of the Convention.
The Committee’s findings and recommendations have now been referred to the Meeting of the Parties, which will be the final arbiter as to whether or not there is a case of non-compliance. The Committee’s conclusions will be considered at the second meeting of the Parties (25-27 May 2005, Almaty, Kazakhstan).
For more information visit www.unece.org/env/pp/compliance.htm or contact Jeremy Wates,
Secretary to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) at [email protected]
