Open AccessThe Right of Access to Environmental Information in the Aarhus Convention Paradigm: Implementation Experience in Some States
Author(s) -
Elena D. Makritskaia
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
sibirskij ûridičeskij vestnik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2071-8144
pISSN - 2071-8136
DOI - 10.26516/2071-8136.2020.4.116
Subject(s) - convention , legislation , political science , access to information , work (physics) , law , environmental law , business , right to know , information access , internet privacy , environmental planning , computer science , engineering , geography , world wide web , mechanical engineering
The study analyzed some provisions of the Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters directly related to the right to access to environmental information (in particular, articles 4 and 5 of the Convention, which regulate directly access to environmental information and the collection and dissemination of environmental information, respectively). The components of this right have been studied and described, as well as the main legal terms relating to the law in the text of the Aarhus Convention, such as “environmental information”, “as short as possible”. The work also analyzed and identified those types of information that, based on the provisions of the Convention, relating to environmental information. The paper provides examples of the impact of the Aarhus Convention on the national legislation of some States, as well as a mechanism for implementing the right of access to environmental information in the Republic of Belarus. Based on the study, general provisions on the right of access to environmental information are described, as well as the fact that the language of the Aarhus Convention is widely used in the legislation of States parties to the convention, and the right of access to environmental information itself is integral and multidimensional.