The Access Initiative in Ukraine is being implemented to study the development of democracy in decision-making affecting the environment. The main goal is to make an unbiased assessment of Ukraine’s implementation of its international commitments and its compliance with the national legislation on improvement of public access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters through environmental empowerment of the public, national policy and legislation reforms and development of relevant governmental institutions.
TAI Ukraine seeks to update the government on the state of the art in the access related field; improve public participation system; raise public awareness on access to reliable information and participation in decision-making; plan and implement remedial actions; develop participation strategies in the legislative decision-making process; and encourage general public to get access to environmental information, participation and justice.
Ukraine
Region
Europe
1.58
Environmental Democracy Index Score
Ukraine scored very well on the Transparency pillar, well on the Justice pillar, and poorly on the Participation pillar. The law grants a clear right to information and requires the government to collect and publish a wide range of environmental information. For the Participation pillar, however, the law provides few opportunities for members of the public to adequately participate in the process of environmental decision making, as comments can only be submitted once a proposal has been drafted, limiting the scope of the publics influence. As for the Justice pillar, the public can challenge government and private-actor decisions that violate its environmental rights in court, but the law does not establish adequate mechanisms to ensure independence and impartiality of the courts. By addressing these issues, Ukraine could ensure public participation is provided at an early stage in the decision making process and that review procedures are carried out in an unbiased manner.
Visit the Environmental Democracy Index to explore the EDI score.
