The right of the individual under international law as developed by the Aarhus convention

Abstract

This dissertation discusses how the Aarhus Convention, through the three pillar rights, has integrated the notion of environmental protection with the notion of human rights. These pillar rights, namely, the right of access to environmental information, the right to public participation in decision-making and the right of access to justice in environmental matters are fused together with the intention of attaining the objective of the Convention. This objective establishes the right of every person of present and future generations to live in a healthy environment. Notwithstanding the fact that, it is widely connected with the nature and scope of certain human rights, including, inter alia, the right to life itself, both jurisprudence and legislation have not till this present day fully acknowledged its real implications. The pivotal role of the Convention remains that of strengthening the position of the individual within the municipal legal system, which enables him to actively participate in public matters relating to the environment. The idea behind this is two-fold. First, it is crucial that governments recognise the public’s potentialities of the public by providing adequate and effective opportunities for increased engagement within the political sphere of environmental democratic governance. Second, the added value of public participation is that Parties must essentially act more transparently and accountably if the public were to be involved from the very beginning till the very end within environmental decision-making procedures. These considerations highlight the need for an extended interpretation of already existing civil and political rights as well as of social, economical and cultural rights. Hence, endorsing the three pillar rights as being inherently connected with human rights by according a higher status that does more than treat them as mere ordinary rights encompassed within an international environmental treaty.