The Aarhus Convention

The convention, which was adopted within the framework for the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), entered into force in 2001 and was ratified by Sweden in 2005. Currently, the convention has 47 parties from Europe and Central Asia. The EU has also ratified the convention.

The convention has three pillars:

• access to information, i.e. the public’s right to access environmental information held by authorities,
• public participation, that is, the right of the public to participate in decision-making processes about the environment, and
• access to justice, i.e. the public’s right to access judicial or administrative recourse procedures in environmental matters.

There are working groups for each of the convention’s pillars: the working group on access to information, the working group on public participation in decision-making and the working group on access to justice in environmental matters. The Aarhus Convention has an amendment regarding public participation in decisions on genetically modified organism, which Sweden has ratified.

The convention is based on principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration, which brings together questions about the environment and human rights. The convention is fundamentally about the relationship between citizens and their governments and thus also an agreement on the obligations of authorities, on requirements for openness, participation and the ability to have environmental decisions, actions and omissions by authorities reviewed.

Environmental issues are best handled when all concerned citizens participate at the appropriate level. At the national level, every individual should have reasonable access to the environmental information held by public bodies, including information about hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and they should be given the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes.

States are to facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by ensuring that information is easily accessible. The public is to have access to effective legal and administrative procedures, including remedies for recourse and redress.

In the convention, the concept of environmental information is defined as all information in written, visual, aural, electronic or any other material form on:

1. the state of elements of the environment, such as air and atmosphere, water, soil, land, landscape and natural sites, biological diversity and its components, including genetically modified organisms, and the interaction among these elements;
2. factors, such as substances, energy, noise and radiation, and activities or measures, including administrative measures, environmental agreements, policies, legislation, plans and programme affecting or likely to affect the elements of the environment within the scope of subparagraph (a) above, in point 1, as well as cost and benefit analysis and other economic and cost-benefit and other economic analyses and assumptions used in environmental decision-making;
3. the state of human health and safety, conditions of human life, cultural sites and built structures, inasmuch as they are affected or may be affected by the state of elements of the environment or, through these elements, by the factors, activities or measures referred to in subparagraph (b) above.

The Aarhus Convention’s first pillar is the public’s right to access to environmental information held by public authorities. This includes provisions on the public’s right to access environmental information on request, on how public authorities are to handle such a request and on grounds for refusal. There are also provisions on the obligations of authorities to retain and regularly share environmental information in electronic form so that it is easily accessible to the public.

The Aarhus Convention’s second pillar deals with the public’s right to participate in decision-making processes. The public’s ability to influence decision-making processes is ensured through provisions on the public’s right to participate in decisions concerning permits for conducting certain activities. The public is also given the right to receive certain information and practical opportunities to influence a decision.

Additionally, appropriate measures are to ensure that the public can exercise influence when drawing up plans and programmes that have an impact on the environment and, to an appropriate extent, the opportunity to participate in drafting statutes. The public consists of both natural and legal persons.

The third pillar stipulates that the public has the right to judicial or administrative recourse procedures held by an independent body. If a person who has not received the information they have asked for or believes that the request for information has not been correctly handled, they have the right to appeal to a court or other independent and impartial body.

Similarly, decisions or omissions concerning the application of the provisions on the right to participate in decision making are to be reviewable. In addition, the public has the right, under certain conditions, to use judicial or administrative review to challenge actions and omissions by public authorities or private persons that contravene provisions national law relating to the environment.

This means that the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is to convey both legal and practical information on matters linked to the convention and its implementation at the national level. This can involve disseminating information about the three pillars, about news, experience, good examples, court cases that set precedent and reports about how Sweden has implemented the convention and the protocol.

Another important function is to convey information about where environmental data/information is available to the public.

The convention’s Kyiv Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers entered into force in 2009.

The PRTR Protocol aims to introduce national public registers of pollutant releases to air, water and land and pollutant transfers via wastewater and transfers of waste quantities. The goal is that improved access to environmental information will facilitate for the public in participating in decision-making processes related to environmental issues and thereby contribute to preventing and reducing pollution of the environment.

Sweden ratified the protocol in 2008 and the Swedish register is made available through the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency’s webpage “Swedish Pollutant Release and Transfer Register” (utslappisiffror.naturvardsverket.se). The EU has also ratified the protocol, and to meet its commitments, it has adopted the E-PRTR Regulation on the establishment of a European register. The European register is made available by the European Environment Agency (EEA) via the “European industrial emissions portal” (formerly E-PRTR).

Every four years, the Meeting of the Parties decides how to conduct and develop their work in the coming period. The parties strive to make decisions by consensus. The parties also meet annually in a separate Working Group of the Parties to evaluate implementation and to develop the work.

In addition, there are two Compliance Committees , which handle matters relating to compliance with the convention and the protocol. A difference from the Compliance Committees of other conventions is, simply put, that anyone can report non-compliance to the committee.

At the most recent meeting of the parties to the Aarhus Convention, a new compliance mechanism (a rapid response mechanism for the protection of environmental defenders) was approved in the form of a Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention. Michel Forst has been appointed special rapporteur. As with the Compliance Committee, anyone can report complaints to the Special Rapporteur.