Participatory and Procedural Rights in Environmental Matters

Despite the recognition of access to judicial procedures and remedies in the 1992 Rio Declaration and the 2002 Johannesburg Plan of Action, thus far no environmental agreements of global reach provides for access to justice. Nor do the International Law Commission (ILC) Articles contain any provision on access to legal review of some sort. Therefore, on the global scope, support for access to review procedure in environmental matters is rather to be found in human rights law. In particular, the notion of access to justice in environmental matters draws on the right to a fair trial, set out e.g. in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). However, as far as jurisprudence on a fair trial is concerned, this has mainly been developed by regional human rights bodies.