This presentation aims to provide a global and comparative overview of procedural rights of Public Participation in Environmental Matters in the sense of the Aarhus convention. The contribution is based on a very recent and current publication titled “Mauerhofer V., 2016. Public Participation in Environmental Matters: Compendium, Challenges and Chances globally, Land Use Policy (Elsevier) 52, 481-491” and in particular presents the results therein related to these procedural rights.
The method applied was an in-depth literature review in particular of research papers, legal documents, policy papers, which was implemented by means of electronic databases (Web of Science, Scopus) as well as by internet research using terms such as public participation, access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice in combination with continent names.
The results were then analysed according to the five continents Europe, Africa, America, Asia as well as Oceania, and distinguished as well as discussed regarding general aspects, access to information, access to decision-making and access to justice.
The results for the five continents show that
- there exist regionally and nationally large differences within the three pillars access to information, participation in decision-making and access to justice.
- that access to information is widely legally established within all regions on all continents, and
- that access to justice is the one sector of the three mentioned in Principle X of the Rio Declaration which has obtained the least reflection in legislation and implementation so far.
This innovative study provides as far as visible the first time such a transcontinental and comprehensive overview on procedural rights related to Public Participation in Environmental Matters and indicates several further challenges for researchers and politicians.
