Access to Justice
Access to Justice in international law
The right to review procedures to challenge public decisions that have been made without respecting the two aforementioned rights or environmental law in general.
As far as global treaty regimes are concerned the strongest support for access to justice in environmental matters is found in human rights regimes rather than in multilateral environmental agreements. The 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as well as the regional human rights accords provide for a right to a fair trial that applies also to environmental matters.
The right to access to justice is provided for in the Aarhus Convention and the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation. Both agreements require that the parties ensure certain procedural guarantees or minimum standards, and remedies, and these requirements are set with some degree of details. Outside Europe and North America, the only environmental agreement providing for access to justice, but without any detail whatsoever, is the 2003 African Nature Conservation Convention.
For the presentation on "ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN GENERAL: Article 9 (3) Aarhus Convention" see:
Article 9 (3) Aarhus Convention
Mathias Keller