EcoLur
“Save Teghout” civic initiative is calling all the NGOs, civic initiatives, representatives of science and education, MPs, Human Rights Defender Office, Foreign Ambassadors accredited in Armenia and all the stakeholders for the protection of human rights in Armenia and management of accountability to sign under this statement to be submitted at the 5th session of Aarhus Convention parties.
EcoLur is also joining this statement.
Statement on the 5th meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention
Honorary representatives of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention,
Dear colleagues,
We, the undersigned, call your attention to the fact that since the ratification of the Aarhus Convention in 2001 the Government of Armenia and entities responsible for the implementation of the rights prescribed by the Convention have failed compliance to the Convention. Since 2004, all the three appeals to the Compliance Committee by the concerned stakeholders of Armenia have been satisfied, thus stating the full-scale failure of implementation of the Convention in Armenia.
Particularly,
1. As a result of Communication ACCC/C/2004/08, the Committee came to the conclusion that the Government of Armenia failed to ensure access to information on the Environmental matters (Article 4, points 1 and 2), public participation in the decision making (Article 6, points 1(a), 2-5 and 7-9, as well as Article 7), and access to justice (Article 9, point 2-4) .
2. As a result of Communication ACCC/C/2009/43, the Compliance Committee affirmed failure to implement provisions of the Convention (Article 3, point 1), and stated once again violation of the Convention on ensuring public participation in the decision making (Article 6, point 2,4 and 9).
3. As a result of Communication ACCC/C/2011/62, the Compliance Committee stated again violation of the right to access to justice (Article 9, point 2).
Obviously, for 13 years since the ratification of the Aarhus Convention, the entities responsible for the implementation of the Convention have consistently failed implementation of almost all the provisions of the Convention. The Government of Armenia has so far not remedied the situation and complied with any of the recommendations made as a result of the above mentioned three communications. In particular,
a. the mechanism of statistic monitoring has never been implemented to ensure proper dissemination of information,
b. legislative, regulatory or administrative measures necessary to ensure the environmental impact assessment and public participation in decision making procedures have not been adopted,
c. necessary legislative and administrative measures have not been taken to ensure access to justice for the public concerned on environmental matters (residents of affected communities and environmental non-governmental organizations).
Thus, despite the numerous and consistent recommendations of the Compliance Committee and Parties, the entities responsible for the implementation of the Convention in Armenia have not undertaken measures in the national legislation, as well as in the administrative and judicial practices to ensure proper exercise of the human rights prescribed by the Convention.
It should be noted that according to the Preamble to the Aarhus Convention, failure to comply with the provisions of this Convention highly affect the proper implementation of other international environmental agreements/treaties. Thus, by failing the Aarhus Convention, the Government of Armenia essentially fails to also comply with those environment-related international agreements/treaties in frames of which the Government of Armenia receives substantial financial resources from international organizations.
Currently, there are 15 approved projects supporting implementation of various environmental conventions with a total budget of more than $15 million envisaged to ensure effective forest management, to combat desertification, to preserve biodiversity and for other matters, neither of which is essentially carried out effectively. To our estimation, the implementation of these projects will not be effective unless the Government of Armenia ensures the implementation of the obligations undertaken by the Aarhus Convention.
To add to this dire situation, PensionDenmark, a private pension fund based in Denmark and Danish state agency Export Kredit Fonden, through financial support and state mediation are supporting exploitation of Teghut copper mine, an operation that is in breach of the Aarhus Convention as recognized by the two decisions of the Compliance Committee, of various national laws as recognized by the Human Rights Defender's annual report, as well as other sources of irrefutable evidence.
Based on the above-said, we would like to suggest Parties to the Convention, in accordance with the “Aarhus Convention Compliance Mechanism”,
to apply warning7 to the government of Armenia defined by the point f); and/or
to temporarily suspend privileges and special rights (according to point g)) given to Armenia in the framework of the Aarhus Convention and presented in the report of the first meeting of the Parties to the convention.
Obviously, consistently failing its obligations undertaken by the Aarhus convention, the Government of Armenia in practice undermines other obligations undertaken by other international agreements/treaties on environmental issues. This logic is not only derived from the actual situation, but is also suggested by the preamble of the Aarhus Convention, as well as the Vienna Convention on International treaties.
We consider that this method imposed against the Government of Armenia can force the latter fulfill its international obligations and will eventually lead to increased transparency and effectiveness of international environmental projects.
We are convinced that the implementation of the above measures will increase public control over the activities of the Government, forcing the latter become more accountable and conscientiously ensure the protection of human rights undertaken by the Aarhus Convention.
Signatories to the statement:
To join the statement you can e-mail to [email protected] or [email protected] by 28 June.
June 23, 2014 at 11:20