 |
Aarhus Convention Starts Count-Down to Entry Into Force
The Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters will come into effect on October 30 this year, a press release issued by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Thursday in Geneva.
This comes as a result of the recent ratification of the Convention by Armenia and Estonia, which became the sixteenth and seventeenth countries to do so.
The Aarhus Convention was negotiated by the UNECE as part of its pan-European environmental secrecy and strengthen citizens' environmental rights.
According to the press release, recent ozone peaks have again highlighted the need for people to have timely information about the environment so that they can take precautions and keep their vulnerable children indoors.
A UNECE expert said that the Aarhus convention aims to ensure that everyone has access to this type of information and to prevent Governments from covering up environmental disasters. This should prevent any repetition of the denials and confusion that followed the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
The expert said the Convention also gives ordinary citizens a voice in any decision-making that affects their environment.
Jeremy Wates, Secretary to the Convention, said that the Convention is the most far-reaching instrument promoting environmental democracy under the auspices of the United Nations. Its entry into force could prove to be an important input to the so-called Rio+10 conference in Johannesburg in 2002, he added.
In This Section
|