Kravchenko, Svitlana --- "Giving the Public a Voice in MEA Compliance Mechanisms" [2011] ELECD 308; in Paddock, Lee; Qun, Du; Kotzé, J. Louis; Markell, L. David; Markowitz, J. Kenneth; Zaelke, Durwood (eds), "Compliance and Enforcement in Environmental Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Compliance and Enforcement in Environmental Law

Editor(s): Paddock, Lee; Qun, Du; Kotzé, J. Louis; Markell, L. David; Markowitz, J. Kenneth; Zaelke, Durwood

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848448315

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Giving the Public a Voice in MEA Compliance Mechanisms

Author(s): Kravchenko, Svitlana

Number of pages: 28

Extract:

4. Giving the Public a Voice in MEA
Compliance Mechanisms
Svitlana Kravchenko*

1. OVERVIEW OF PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN MEA
COMPLIANCE AND ENFORCEMENT

The public's involvement under multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs),
including conventions and treaties, has progressed from international law-making
to increasingly significant participation in environmental compliance and
enforcement. l For more than 15 years, the public has sat at the negotiation tables
with governmental diplomats, having the right to speak and to have its views
taken into account in drafting and discussing MEAs. This trend started perhaps in
Rio de Janeiro at the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development in 1992 and came to its highest development in the negotiation of
the Aarhus Public Participation Convention. Now the public is gaining the right
to participate in the compliance mechanisms of the MEAs themselves, pushing
governments more strongly toward compliance with international commitments.
The transparent and participatory nature of the Aarhus Convention compliance
mechanism is the most developed example. All meetings of the Aarhus
Compliance Committee are open to the public except when the Committee is
deliberating toward its decision. Any member of the public attending meetings of
the Compliance Committee may offer interventions, observations, or opinions
concerning cases under consideration. Representatives of Earthjustice, the
European ECO Forum, and some other NGOs and individual observers often
participate in the meetings. In that role, they present useful information on the
situation in particular countries (such as human rights violations in Turkmenistan
or claimed deficiencies in access to justice in ...