AARHUS MEMBERSHIP CLIMBS TO FORTY:
Germany to become 40th Party
to environmental rights treaty
Geneva, 18 January 2007 -- Germany has become the latest country
to ratify the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation
in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters of the
United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Germany’s action, which took
place on 15 January
2007, will raise the total number of Parties to the Convention to 40.1 Germany
follows Sweden, which became a Party to the treaty in 2005, and Greece,
Luxembourg and Slovakia, which became Parties in 2006.
The Aarhus Convention is the world’s most far-reaching treaty on environmental
rights. It seeks to promote greater transparency and accountability among
government bodies by guaranteeing public rights of access to environmental
information, providing for public involvement in environmental decision-making
and requiring the establishment of procedures enabling the public to challenge
environmental decisions.
The Convention was adopted in Aarhus, Denmark, in June 1998 and signed by
39 European and Central Asian countries and the European Community. It entered
into force in October 2001. Its Parties now include most of the countries
of Central and Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia and nearly all EU
member States. 2
Mr. Kaj Bärlund, Director of the UNECE Environment, Housing and Land
Management Division, expressed satisfaction with the progress enjoyed by the
Convention: “With the latest ratifications, the Convention moves much
closer to creating a means by which citizens from across the entire region
can enforce their rights to protect and enhance the environment. With the
number of Aarhus Parties rising to 40, attention may now shift to deepening
implementation of the agreement, while countries outside our region stand
to gain from the valuable lessons of UNECE’s experience with environmental
democracy.”
For further information, please visit www.unece.org/env/pp or
contact:
Mr. Jeremy WATES, Secretary to the Aarhus Convention
UNECE Environment,
Housing and Land Management Division
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)22 917 2384
Fax: +41 (0)22 917 0634
E-mail: [email protected]
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1 The Parties are: Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia,
Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania,
Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan, The former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and the European Community.
Article 20 of the Convention states that the Convention enters into force
for a State on the ninetieth day after the date of deposit of the State’s
instrument of ratification, at which point it becomes a Party.
2 The UNECE region encompasses the whole of Europe and five Central Asian
countries, as well as Canada, Israel and the United States. Ireland remains
the sole European Union country that has not ratified the Convention.
Ref: ECE/ENV/07/P03