The purpose of this study is to identify the impediments faced by the Parties to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice inEnvironmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention) and other EECCA countries in ensuring public access to justice in environmental matters, especially concerning costs and remedies (see Article 9, paragraph 4 of the Aarhus Convention), and to make recommendations to eliminate them.The study is focused on the national legislation and law enforcement practice (as of February the1st, 2011) in 12 EECCA countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.This study is primarily based on analysis of the existing legislation, itsimplementation, as well as examples provided by the national experts as part of the questionnaire. The study used the results of the similar studies on legislation and practice of EECCA countries, the legislation of the countries, decisions of the Compliance Committee, as well as existing case-law of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of the countries.
