In 2003, The Government of Ukraine approved a project to dig a deep-water navigation channel through Ukraine’s portion of the Danube Delta Bilateral Biosphere Reserve. Ecopravo-Lviv (EPL), a Ukrainian public interest environmental law NGO, challenged this decision on both environmental and procedural grounds (including a lack of public participation in the EIA process). In addition to seeking remedies in national courts (see case study under Guideline 41(i)
), EPL filed complaints with a variety of relevant international bodies in late 2003 and early 2004. These include:
- The Compliance Committee of the g[Aarhus Convention] (on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters). Romania also subsequently filed a complaint with the Compliance Committee;
- The Implementation Committee of the Espoo Convention (on EIA in a transboundary context). [The Implementation Committee refused, by a vote of 4-3 in 2004, to consider the complaint.] Romania subsequently filed a complaint with the Implementation Committee;
- A Letter of Emergency Notification filed with the Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species;
- An Emergency Complaint filed with the Permanent Secretariat of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River; and
- A Letter of Notification filed with the Secretariat of the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA).
In addition EPL has raised the issue with the Ramsar Convention and the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme, and both institutions have expressed concern about the channel.
This strategy of seeking relief through multiple domestic courts and international dispute resolution mechanisms can be resource intensive. Also non-state actors that seek recourse from an international mechanism may — but not necessarily — be required to exhaust domestic remedies first. Exhaustion of remedies depends on the terms of the particular MEA or institution, and there often are exceptions for specific instances (e.g., emergency or futility).
For more information, see http://www.epl.org.ua/
files/Danube/Danube_EPL_actions.doc or contact Mr. Andriy Andrusevych at aandrus@mail.lviv.ua