ABOUT CONSULTATIVE MEETING ON JOINING AARHUS CONVENTION
This meeting aimed to study the Aarhus Convention (AC)--a UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters--and its concept, and to seek a chance to join it. Another intention was to study experience of those countries implementing the AC.
Several officials addressed the meeting including D.Battulga, the head of the Predisidential Office; G.Zandanshatar, the Minister of Foreign Affairs; D.Tsogtbaayar, the Minister of Environment and Tourism; Ms. Sezin Sinanoglu , UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Mongolia; Jit Peters, the head of the meeting for the Aarhus Convention (AC) members; Marco Keiner, a director, Environment, Housing and Land Management Division at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); and Ella Behlyarova, the secretary of the AC.
D.Battulga stressed that Mongolia urgently needs a developmental policy that would ensure the public participation in times of the mining investments and extraction boom and the desertification and climate change effects in Mongolia. He said the President Ts.Elbegdorj is about to submit to parliament a draft law on mineral resources, where it is said that investors must ask localities' people whether they can run mining activities. "That is why it is vital for us to learn advantage and disadvantage of realizing the AC," he added.
On the second day of the meeting, the participants from other countries and from some international organizations and NGOs delivered reports on how they have been implementing the AC. Then they sent a recommendation to the State Head on making an initiative to join the AC. It has been appreciated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister of Environment and Tourism.
The Aarhus Convention was signed on June 25, 1998 in the Danish city of Aarhus. It entered into force on 30 October 2001.
As of July 2009, it had been signed by 40 (primarily European and Central Asian) countries and the European Union and ratified by 41 countries. It had also been ratified by the European Community, which has begun applying Aarhus-type principles in its legislation, notably the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC).
The Aarhus Convention grants the public rights regarding access to information, public participation and access to justice, in governmental decision-making processes on matters concerning the local, national and transboundary environment. It focuses on interactions between the public and public authorities.
B.Khuder
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