[Index]
AARHUS HITS THIRTY:
Finland becomes 30th Party to environmental
rights treaty
Geneva, 7 September 2004 -
Finland 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). Following on the heels of ratifications
by the Czech Republic and Slovenia, this
brings the total number of Parties to
the Convention to thirty.1/
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 countries and the
European Community. It entered into force
in October 2001 and its Parties now include
most of the countries of Central and Eastern
Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia
and slightly more than half of the EU
member States. The European Community
itself is preparing for ratification and
is currently negotiating the necessary
implementing legislation.
Mr. Kaj Bärlund,
Director of the UNECE Environment and
Human Settlements Division, himself a
former Finnish Environment Minister, expressed
satisfaction at the Finnish ratification
and more generally at the rate of progress
in ratification of the Convention: “With
each new ratification, the prospects for
citizens to play a meaningful role in
shaping their environment increase. With
the number of Aarhus Parties hitting the
30 mark, there is now an impressive core
of countries that have made a binding
commitment to environmental democracy.
Indeed, the UNECE countries which are
not yet Parties to the Convention are
now clearly in the minority.” 2/
1/ Albania, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Georgia, Hungary, Italy,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania,
Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic
of Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Tajikistan,
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
Turkmenistan and Ukraine.
2/ The UNECE region
encompasses the whole of Europe and five
Central Asian countries, as well as Canada,
Israel and the United States.
For further information, please visit
www.unece.org/env/pp
or contact:
Mr. Jeremy WATES,
Secretary to the Aarhus Convention
UNECE Environment and Human Settlements
Division
Palais des Nations
CH - 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Phone:+41 (0)22 917 23
84
Fax: +41 (0)22 917 01 07
E-mail: [email protected]
Ref. ECE/ENV/04/P13