CYIL Vol. 7, 2016

CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ DO THE EUROPEANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO GET INFORMATION ABOUT… Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, which was adopted on 25 June 1998 in the Danish city of Aarhus (Århus) at the Fourth Ministerial Conference as part of the “Environment for Europe” process. 55 The Aarhus Convention entered into force in 2001. “The Aarhus Convention is the first multinational environmental treaty or convention that focuses exclusively on obligations of nations to their citizens and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).” 56 The so-called “three pillars” of the Convention are dedicated to the following rights: to know, to participate, and to go to court. 57 The first pillar – the right of the public to access the environmental information in the Aarhus Convention – includes both “passive access” (that is, the right to seek information from public authorities, under Article 4 of the Convention), and “active access” (the duty of the government to collect, disclose and disseminate information about the environment regardless of the requests of the public, under Article 5 of the Convention). 58 The second pillar ensures public participation, whereby the “public concerned” is to be given the right to participate in environmental decision-making by having the opportunity to submit its views before decisions are made. The last pillar deals with access to justice, whereby a court or other similar body is allowed to review decisions that concern the first two pillars. 59 Article 4 of the Aarhus Convention obliges every state to ensure that “public authorities, in response to a request for environmental information, make such information available to the public, within the framework of national legislation, including, copies of the actual documentation containing or comprising such information: (a) Without an interest having to be stated; (b) In the form requested unless: (i) It is reasonable for the public authority to make it available in another form, in which case reasons shall be given for making it available in that form; or (ii) The information is already publicly available in another form.” 60 Furthermore, Article 4 sets out the term for the provision of information as one month, extendable to two months when the information is voluminous and complex. The grounds of refusal for submitting the information needed are set out 55 Aarhus Convention (supra n 31). 56 SVITLANA KRAVCHENKO ‘The Aarhus Convention and Innovations in Compliance with Multilateral Environmental Agreements’(2007) 18 Colo.J.Int’l Envtl.L.& Pol’y 1, 2. 57 PAVIA BEJFKOVD ‘The Aarhus Convention and the Right to Know’ (2010) 11 Common L. Rev. 44, 45. 58 PETER SAND ‘The Right to Know: Freedom of Environmental Information in Comparative and International Law’ (2011–2012) 20 Tul. J. Int’l & Comp. L . 203, 217. 59 BEJFKOVD (supra n 57) 45. 60 Aarhus Convention (supra n 31), Article 4, para 1.

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