OSCE Centre supports discussion on implementation of Aarhus Convention in Kazakhstan

ASTANA, 9 October 2013 – More than 30 experts from government institutions, judiciary, academia and civil society organizations took part in an OSCE-supported roundtable meeting on regulatory aspects of the implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Kazakhstan that took place today.

The event supported by the OSCE Centre in Astana and the Norwegian government was  co-organized by the Environmental Protection Ministry of Kazakhstan, the Supreme Court and the National Aarhus Centre.

The meeting aims to review, discuss and help finalize two draft documents which are to be presented soon to the Aarhus Convention Secretariat in Geneva - the national reply on the fulfillment of Kazakhstan’s obligations in the implementation of the convention in the country, and a legal draft on certain regulatory decisions of the Supreme Court on legal practices applied by courts in environmental protection disputes in civil cases.

“In recent years, Kazakhstan has made progress in the protection of the environment and public participation in the environmental governance. The Centre supports its efforts to improve respective regulations so that they could meet all of the government’s obligations under the convention,” said Ambassador Natalia Zarudna, Head of the OSCE Centre in Astana.

"The workshop will help motivate people to action in the implementation of the obligations under the Aarhus Convention in the Republic of Kazakhstan," the statement delivered on behalf of Vice-Minister of Environment Protection, Bektas Mukhamedzhanov said.

Kazakhstan signed the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (the Aarhus Convention) in 2000. Since 2009, 12 Aarhus Centres have been established in different regions of the country, in order to promote the convention’s implementation.