Published: 2011
TAI and ARTICLE 19 joint position paper leading up to Rio+20.
Topics: Laws and Regulations
As the international community gathers for the Rio+20 summit on sustainable development, we have a chance to renew our commitment to Environmental Democracy. Can national governments deliver?
Published: 2011
The inclusion of procedural rights of access to information, public participationand access to justice in environmental decision-making are recognized in international treaties and soft law agreements as central to the sustainable development agenda. Since the 1990s, a number of Caribbean countries have enacted environmental legislation requiring the preparation of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) prior to permitting significant developments . The extent to which procedural rights have been included within EIA provisions however is varied. There has been little analysis of the impact of the use by citizens of procedural rights in these EIA processes.
This paper examines the legislative framework for EIAs and citizen enforcement of procedural rights in the decision-making process for proposed developments in Jamaica and Belize. The legislative frameworks adopted by Belize and Jamaica are significantly different; with the former enacting comparatively comprehensive regulations to guide the EIA process and the latter dependent on internal guidelines. In both countries there has been documented failure in law and practice to deliver effective procedural rights. A review of recent court decisions in Belize and Jamaica illustrates the value of citizen enforcement as a means of safeguarding procedural rights in the conduct and review of EIAs as well as demonstrating the failure in compliance.
Every two years The Access Initiative organizes a Global Gathering which brings together representatives of partner organizations to discuss ways of ensuring that citizens have the right and ability to influence decisions about the environment and natural resources that sustain their communities. The third gathering took place at Lake Victoria Serena Resort in Kampala, Uganda between 28th and 30th October 2010. The event was organized around the theme “Access Rights, Poverty and Environmental Democracy Worldwide”. It was a call for civil society organizations to increase their advocacy and outreach work in four areas which had been identified by the network as having significant implications for environmental sustainability and democracy in the 21st Century. The areas include;
- Climate change governance,
- Environmental justice and poverty,
- Extractive industries with particular emphasis on oil governance and
- Renewing the call for environmental democracy: The Rio Principles at 20.
Published: 2009
El presente documento hace un análisis sobre la situación de la información ambiental nacional, sus normativas, políticas, así como presenta una investigación sobre las percepciones de gestores y usuarios sobre el acceso y uso de la información y sus necesidades al momento de acceder a la información ambiental.
Published: 2010
Changes in Laws for 29 TAI partners
Attached, is a database of improvements in over 30 TAI Partner Countries. This database highlights changes in national laws towards access improvements from 2005 to 2010. The database highlights areas of change based on Access Pillars: Access to Information (A2I), Access to Justice (A2J), Public Participation(PP) and Capacity Building. Within the database, one can click on the link country tab to find the laws changes within each country.
Published: 2010
Attached, is a matrix of stories that have been written by TAI partners from October 2008 to July 2010 on access changes within their respective countries. The chart highlights the areas of change based on Access Pillars:Access to Information (A2I), Access to Justice (A2J), Public Participation (PP) and Capacity Building.
Within the chart, one can click on the link provided. This goes directly to a story or short blog post on this website explaining. The post provides first hand information from TAI partners working within that pillar of access.
Published: 2009
El Centro Ecuatoriano de Derecho Ambiental inició la construcción de una propuesta de objetivos y acciones estratégicas que permitan mejorar los procesos de gestión de la IA y su acceso.
Esta construcción se basó en el levantamiento de información sobre los principales problemas y debilidades en cuanto a la gestión de la IA, a través de un proceso que incluyó la investigación sobre los sistemas o redes de información existentes, la situación institucional y normativa para la gestión y acceso a la información ambiental y la realización de encuestas cuali-cuantitativas a generadores, gestores y usuarios de la IA para conocer su percepción sobre los principales problemas que se generan en toda la cadena de producción y socialización de información ambiental.
A partir de esta investigación, se identificaron problemas recurrentes en la gestión y socialización de la IA, así como fortalezas y oportunidades que manejan las distintas instituciones públicas y privadas. Esta información ha permitido plantear lineamientos estratégicos para mejorar la gestión y el acceso de la IA, que serán entregados a la autoridad ambiental a fin de apoyar las políticas y acciones para una mayor y mejor generación y socialización de la información en el Ecuador, promovidas por la Secretaría Nacional de Planificación y Desarrollo (SENPLADES) y, en el caso de la Información Ambiental, por el Ministerio del Ambiente.
Published: 2010
Creating and Improving Environmental Courts and Tribunals
We have an on going conversation on our discussion groups here: http://www.accessinitiative.org/law/node/1155
Specialized environmental courts and tribunals (ECTs) are making major contributions to access to justice, environmental governance, and protection of the environment around the world. Their growth is spectacular – hundreds have been developed in dozens of countries in recent years. This ground-breaking book provides step-by-step practical guidance on how to structure and operate an effective ECT – what works and what does not – based on two years of research and over 150 interviews with expert environmental judges, prosecutors, lawyers, litigants, government officials, academics, and advocacy groups in all regions and major legal systems of the world. This University of Denver ECT Study is authored by the multidisciplinary husband-wife team of George (Rock) Pring – a noted scholar and professor of environmental, international, and constitutional law, government consultant, and former environmental litigator – and Catherine (Kitty) Pring – a professional mediator, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) specialist, systems analyst and planner, and former government human services official (www.law.du.edu/index.php/ect-study).
The authors identify the 12 key characteristics of ECTs – the “building blocks” or design decisions which contribute to making ECTs work effectively. Designed for capacity building, this comparative study provides a range of options and alternatives within each building block suitable for developed, developing, or least-developed countries. Real world “best practices” and successes and failures are provided for each step, making this a book that will be invaluable to any country or constituency considering creating or improving an ECT.
This volume is published by The Access Initiative (TAI), the largest civil society network dedicated to ensuring that communities have a voice in decisions concerning their natural resources. For nearly a decade, World Resources Institute (WRI) has been privileged and proud to serve as the Global Secretariat of TAI. TAI partners have worked hard in over 45 countries to identify gaps in laws, institutions and practices in the implementation of Principle 10. In the last 4 years, TAI has ramped up its advocacy efforts and worked with Governments to reform laws and institutions to improve transparency, citizen voice and accountability in environmental decision-making. To support its work, TAI has undertaken or commissioned research that fills or supplements key knowledge gaps in good governance. This volume represents one such important effort. The challenge is to take this knowledge and apply it to courts and tribunals to provide cheaper, faster, and more effective justice in environmental matters.
Published: 2010
The present critique is a joint effort of members of ‘The Access Initiative – India’ (TAI-India) Coalition comprising of over 30 individuals and NGO’s from across the country. TAI-India is part of a global civil society coalition, comprising of over 150 civil society groups which works for effective enforcement of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration i.e., Access to Information, Pubic Participation and Access to Justice. The drafting of the present critique was a joint effort of lawyers, activists, academicians and administrators from both within and outside the country. This is based on their past experiences of dealing with environmental tribunals and public interest litigation in India and elsewhere. Following were the members of Core Team which collated and prepared the present critique to the proposed Green Tribunal Bill,2009 • Ritwick Dutta,(Advocate, New Delhi), Krishnendu Mukherjee (Advocate, Goa), Manoj Misra, (Peace Institute, New Delhi) • Professor William Lockhart, Professor of Law, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, US. • Lalanath De Silva, Director, The Access Initiative, Washington DC and Public Interest Environmental Lawyer, Sri Lanka