Aarhus Convention
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The UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, usually known as the Aarhus Convention, was signed on June 25, 1998 in the Danish city of Aarhus. It entered into force on 30 October 2001. As of November 2005, it has been signed by 40 (primarily European) countries and ratified by 37. It has also been ratified by the European Union, which has begun applying Aarhus-type principles in its legislation, notably the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC).
The Aarhus Convention grants the public rights regarding access to information and public participation and access to justice. It focuses on interactions between the public and public authorities.
The Kiev Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers to the Aarhus Convention was adopted at an extra-ordinary meeting of the Parties on 21 May 2003, in Kiev, Ukraine. 36 States and the European Community signed the Protocol.
The Kiev Protocol is the first legally binding international instrument on pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs). PRTRs are inventories of pollution from industrial sites and other sources such as agriculture and transport. The objective of the Protocol is "to enhance public access to information through the establishment of coherent, nationwide pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs)..." The Protocol places indirect obligations on private enterprises to report annually to their national governments on their releases and transfers of pollutants.
Parties to the Protocol need not be Parties to the Convention. The Protocol is in this sense a free-standing, international agreement. The Kiev Protocol on PRTRs will enter into force 90 days after the sixteenth State ratifies or accedes to the agreement.
An amendment to the Aarhus Convention on 'Public Participation in Decisions on Deliberate Release into the Environment and Placing on the Market of Genetically Modified Organisms' was adopted at the Second Meeting of the Parties on 27 May 2005, in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The GMO amendment will enter into force 90 days after at least three-quarters of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention ratify it.
Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan has said, "Although regional in scope, the significance of the Aarhus Convention is global. It is by far the most impressive elaboration of principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, which stresses the need for citizen's participation in environmental issues and for access to information on the environment held by public authorities. As such it is the most ambitious venture in the area of environmental democracy so far undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations."
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