Whatever procedures and format that the Parties to a new MEA choose to govern the negotiating and implementation processes, it is vital that the entire process is transparent and participatory. The importance of ensuring these elements in the MEA process is reflected in the conventions, laws, and policies addressing access to environmental information and participation from a substantive perspective.
A global philosophy of governmental openness with environment information, emphasized by Agenda 21, is beginning to find concrete expressions in States and regions throughout the world. Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, calling for access to information, public participation, and access to justice in environmental matters has been widely acknowledged as an essential element of sustainable development and its importance was further emphasized in the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The most detailed and binding articulation of this principle is the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the “Aarhus Convention”). This agreement, administered by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), guarantees freedom of access to information on the environment, gives citizens a right to participate in environmental decision-making, and provides for recourse to judicial and administrative remedies where these rights are denied by state authorities. Governments of the contracting Parties are mandated to collect and disseminate information on the environment to the public. Similar regional instruments can be found in the Americas, East Africa, and Asia (emerging), as well as specific provisions in numerous regional and global environmental agreements, declarations, and other instruments.
For more information, see Carl Bruch (ed.), The New “Public”: The Globalization of Public Participation (2002).
At the implementation phase, transparency reflects the degree to which knowledge and information about States Parties performance and adherence to their treaty commitments are adequate, accurate, and available for review and evaluation by treaty institutions, other Parties, and civil society as a whole. Accurate knowledge of what others are doing enhances the ability of an agreement’s Parties to coordinate their efforts and more effectively achieve the goals of the agreement. Moreover, it reassures Parties that their own compliance efforts will not be undercut by free riders.