To assist in the effective implementation of the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decisionmaking and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (or the “Aarhus Convention”), the UNECE, the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), the Environmental Law Institute, and the Danish Environmental Protection Agency collaborated to produce an Implementation Guide to the Aarhus Convention. It was aimed simultaneously at policymakers and politicians responsible for transposing the Convention into national systems, in the context of varying national legal systems, as well as at public authorities and their advisers faced with carrying out the Convention’s obligations.
The Implementation Guide provides both a general overview and a detailed article-by-article analysis of the Convention [in fact, the Implementation Guide inspired format of the current UNEP Manual]. The general overview gives the policy background and describes the Convention’s structure, its main obligations, and options for implementation. To help policymakers, public authorities, and members of the public, the Guide analyses each provision to help understand the clearly fixed obligations of the Convention, as well as the obligations that allow some flexibility and options for implementation in each case. The Guide is also meant to serve as a reference for the public authority or adviser faced with a specific problem of implementation or interpretation. It may also be useful to others, including the various stakeholders who may wish to use the rights found in the Convention to participate actively in environmental protection.
The Guide can be found in English and Russian at http://www.unece.org/env/pp/acig.htm