The Aarhus Convention in Cyprus: Access to Information, Public Participation & Access to Justice
What is the Aarhus Convention?
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (“Convention”) was adopted on 25 June 1998 at Aarhus, Denmark during the Fourth Ministerial Conference as part of the “Environment for Europe” process. It entered into force on 30 October 2001. Cyprus ratified the Convention in 2003.
The Convention was adopted following the 1992 World Summit where governments adopted the Rio Declaration Principle 10 which provides that “Environmental issues are best handled with participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level.” However, all citizens and organised groups have the right to access environmental information, without having to invoke or prove any interest. In turn, every public authority is obligated to provide environmental information, subject to certain exceptions where public authorities may refuse to do so.
The Convention establishes a number of rights of the public (individuals and their associations) with regard to the environment. The Parties to the Convention are required to make the necessary provisions so that public authorities will contribute to these rights to become effective.
- Access to Information: the right of everyone to receive environmental information that is held by public authorities
- Public Participation in Environmental Decision-making: the right to participate in environmental decision-making
- Access to Justice: the right to review procedures to challenge public decisions that have been made without respecting the two aforementioned rights or environmental law in general.
EU Level
On 10 October 2019 the Commission published a report on EU implementation of the Convention in the area of access to justice in environmental matters. The report delivers a key part of the Commission’s commitment to developing a response to critical positions taken by an international body, the Convention Compliance Committee and the EU. These critical positions are to the effect that the EU does not provide members of the public, including environmental associations, with enough possibilities through administrative or judicial review to legally challenge acts of the EU institutions for violations of EU Environmental Law. You can view the full report here.
Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 regulates public access to environmental information and, for its purposes, defines “Environmental Information.”
National Level
As a member of the European Union since 2004, Cyprus aligned this Directive through implementation on the Law on Public Access to Environmental Information (Law 119(I)/2004). The environmental legal framework must be strategically used to combat critical environmental problems, in the best interest of current and future generations.
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