The Access to Justice Task Force meeting within the Aarhus Convention took place in Geneva from 15 till 17 June. Besides representatives of governments of countries that are Parties to the Aarhus Convention, the meeting was attended by numerous representatives of civil society, academic institutions and international non-governmental organizations.Regrettably, Ukraine was not represented by an official representative of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of Ukraine. The meeting was attended by three representatives of International charitable organization “Environment-People-Law” (EPL): John Bonine (Chair of EPL Executive Board), Iryna Voytiuk (member of EPL Executive Board) and Olha Melen-Zabramna (Head of EPL Legal department).
At the meeting, the following issues of access to justice in environmental matters were discussed: procedural legal personality, limits of appeal, financial barriers and adequate and effective methods of legal protection. At the Task Force meeting, there were presented results of research regarding possibilities of environmental non-governmental organizations to file suits about compensation of damage caused to the environment, limits of appeal within Art. 9 of the Aarhus Convention. The participants were briefed on the initiative of defining Aarhus index among countries that are Parties to the Aarhus Convention that emerged as a continuation of a successful global initiative of defining Environmental Democracy Index for 70 countries. Environmental Democracy Index for Ukraine can be found at the following link: http://www.environmentaldemocracyindex.org/country/ukr
EPL representatives informed the participants about the project funded by USAID and implemented by EPL aimed at raising awareness of judges in the sphere of environmental protection and in particular of provisions of the Aarhus Convention and underlined importance of educating and informing judges about the Convention as a tool of protection of the environment and environmental rights of citizens. A video of short presentation of the project is attached.
