OSCE holds conference to celebrate 10 years of Aarhus Centres

To mark the 10th year of OSCE involvement in support of the Aarhus Convention, the OSCE held a conference from 3 to 5 July 2013 in Vienna that highlighted the role of the Aarhus Centres in putting the Convention’s principles into action.

The event, entitled “Aarhus Centres: A Decade of Partnership in Implementing the Aarhus Convention”, was organized by the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities. It brought together Aarhus Convention National Focal Points and other government representatives; Aarhus Centre Managers; members of non-governmental organizations from 15 countries; staff from OSCE field operations; and several international organizations and experts.

“The Aarhus Convention, in its 15th year, still remains unique among multilateral environmental agreements in the extent to which it promotes citizens’ environmental rights,” said Dr. Yurdakul Yigitguden, the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities.

“Its core principles – the right to information, the right to participate, and the right to justice – empower citizens to play a greater role in promoting more sustainable forms of development. With these goals in mind, the Aarhus Centres open up channels of communication between citizens and governments, and build and cement the relationship of trust among them,” he said.

Referring to the theme of the 2013 OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum –“Increasing stability and security: Improving the environmental footprint of energy-related activities in the OSCE Region” – the representative of the OSCE Chairmanship and Deputy Head of the Ukrainian OSCE Delegation, Hryhorii Khomenko, added: “It is evident that challenges at the interface of energy and environment can only be addressed through joint efforts of governments, civil society organizations, academia, business community and international organizations. And we believe that the Aarhus Centres play an important role in this endeavour.”

The OSCE supports a network of close to 50 Aarhus Centres in 13 countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Governments and leading NGOs in these countries, as well as the Aarhus Convention Secretariat at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe are major partners of the Organization in these efforts. The Aarhus Centres are supported through the Environment and Security (ENVSEC) Initiative and other contributions by OSCE participating States.