1) What will I find when using the Clearinghouse's search engine?
The search engine gives you access to the Clearinghouse’s Resources, an electronic database with more than 1,800 entries covering the main topics addressed by the Aarhus Convention. Each entry has:
- a brief description of the resource
- a link to the original source of the resource
- the language(s) in which the resource appears
- the name of the author/publisher
- the year of publication
- the country or region this resource is related to
- a list of key words related to the resource content
2) How are resources organized in the Clearinghouse?
Entries to the Resource database are found under Convention-related topics. The search is divided into a “Basic search” by one search criterion and an “Advanced search” which allows a simultaneous search in several categories.
The Convention-related topics are classified by type of resource (for example, as "Legislation", "Policy", "Training materials") and according to their thematic purpose (including “Convention Compliance”, “Electronic tools” and “Genetically modified organisms”).
Resources can also be found based on the type of publisher of the resource (for example "Academia", "Government", “Courts”, "Intergovernmental Organizations" or "Nongovernmental Organizations") and the sector they are relevant for (for example “Agriculture”, “Energy” or “Transport and infrastructure”).
Resources of special relevance to one country are also found under the country name. Resources spanning several countries are generally classified by continent (for example, "AFRICA"). Resources published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) are found under "EUROPE". Resources published by the European Union appear under "European Union".
A quick way of obtain all available resources related to one Party to the Aarhus Convention is by accessing the sub-page “National nodes” and clicking on “Show all resources on this Party” next to the country’s name.
Advanced Search
The “Advanced search” includes additional search categories. It also provides the option to browse the resource database on more than one element of a specific search category. Moreover, several search categories can be combined for a more specific search.
As part of the additional search categories in the “Advanced search”, it is possible to find resources relevant to one (or more) pillar of the Convention (i.e. “Access to Information”; “Access to Justice” and “Public Participation” as well as those resources relevant to a specific Convention article.
In addition, it is possible to search the resource database by affected element or factor of the environment. These include elements affected by environmental pollution, such as “Air and atmosphere”, “Forests” and “Water” as well as factors affecting the environment, such as “Agriculture”, “Emissions”, “Industrial sites” or “Substances”.
Please note that the search options by affected element or factor of the environment, sector and Convention pillar have been added during the 2016 update of the Aarhus Clearinghouse website only. Resources entered before 2010 have not been tagged according to these search categories and, therefore, will not be shown when a parameter of these search categories has been selected.
3) How can I find a resource on a specific topic?
To find a resource from the Clearinghouse's Homepage, click on a small blue arrow to open one of the drop-down lists ("Which", "What", "Who", "Where" or “What”) and scroll over the desired term and click your mouse to select it. A list of resources falling under the selected term will appear in the Resources page. Selecting additional terms from the drop down lists on top of the page will further narrow the list of resources.
The result list shows the resources by the date of entry.
To select more than one type, topic etc. of resources and then execute a simultaneous search, go to the “Advanced search” page and tick off the desired boxes.
4) Can I search for National Implementation Reports in the Clearinghouse?
Governments prepare National Implementation Reports for the Meetings of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention based on a set of questions agreed by the Parties. They are published as official UN documents in English, French and Russian. The National Implementation Reports are not part of the Resources database of the Aarhus Clearinghouse. However, they can be accessed by clicking on “National Reports”, a menu item included on the very top of every page of the Clearinghouse.
To access a Party’s implementation report, you will be navigated to the National Reports page, a separate website from the Clearinghouse. Select the language, year of publication, country name and question or questions you wish to retrieve from the database. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the "Submit" button. The selected question(s) and response will appear.
You may select from all questions to see the full National Implementation Report or select a subset of the questions.
To select questions from more than one country, hold down the control key and click on the names of the desired countries.
5) How do I search for a News item in the Clearinghouse?
The most recent News items are found on the Home page under "Latest News & Resources". The 10 most recent News items appear on page one of the “News” page, where the items are organized chronologically with the latest news on top. You can access more (but older) news items by navigating to page 2, 3, 4 etc. on the bottom of the page. Or select the year of publication to access all items appearing for that year.
