Next Steps in Implementing
the Aarhus Convention

Objective

The project is designed to enhance the implementation and awareness of the Aarhus Convention in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovo (territory under interim UN administration) and focuses on activities such as building capacity, sharing experience and ensuring civil society involvement in environmental decision making as they relate to the Aarhus Convention.

The Aarhus Convention, a UN initiative that entered into force on October 30, 2001, provides the public with the rights of access to information, public participation in decision making and access to justice in environmental matters. While it is considered a priority in many SEE countries, implementing it in practice requires long-term attention.

Activities

Activities are set to strengthen governmental and NGO capacities through three regional workshops, national and local capacity-building workshop, all of which target officials at national and local levels, as well as NGOs. To aid in the education of workshop participants, training materials are being created on such topics as the implementation of public access to information, access to justice, and public participation in decision making on environmental impact assessment, strategic impact assessment, and integrated pollution prevention and control. Information about the Aarhus Convention is being prepared in lay terms and in local languages in the form of brochures, website content, and manuals to aid NGOs engaged in pilot projects as they promote the Aarhus Convention to the public and local officials.

Activities in the current project build on a previous Aarhus project, Support Developing Strategies for the Implementation of the Aarhus Convention in South and Eastern Europe, which developed specific mechanisms, national level structures, and networks of experts and NGOs interested in the issues covered by the Convention. Governmental and NGO “focal points,” or contacts, produced country-level needs assessments, action plans, and implementation strategies that have helped to guide activities in the current project.