Belarus. Public interest

environment cases

Eighth meeting of the Task Force on Access to Justice under the Aarhus Convention

Siarhei Mahonau Ecohome NGO, BELARUS

15 - 17 June 2015, Geneva, Switzerland

background

The very first public interest case was found before Belarusian court in 2008 when public brought a lawsuit to August-Bel company which denied to provide information concerning public consultations about planning to construction a pesticides factory in Minsk region.A lawsuit was drafted with great assistance of Aarhus center.

The next case was run by Ecohome NGO – a lawsuit to Belarusian Nuclear Power Planf Constructing Directorate about public participation and access to environmental information – OVOS report.Only the third time a case was run – twice courtss denied to start it and finally it was proceeded by the Business Court of Grodno region.A case description can be find in ACCC/C/2009/44 materials.

2010 – 2015 progress

2010 – 2015 progress (2)

At the moment, Belarus has 21 environment public interest court cases:5 – art. 4 and 6 Aarhus Convention6 – art. 4 Aarhus Convention8 – art. 6 Aarhus Convention1 – other (penal prosecution of person who's damaged trees in protected area)

2010 – 2015 progress (3)

Successful can be found five casesAnother six cases we loseIn ten cases courts does not open a case or open it and later closed.

18 cases of 21 run by Ecohome and/ot it's lawyers.

Case review

To summarize and learn about gaps on access to justice on environmental matters in Belarus a brief case-by-case review was published by Ecohome in 2015.

May 25, 2015National Academy of Sciencies of BelarusRound Table on Access to Justice and Review

presentation

Access to Information cases

- Belarussian Nuclear Power Plant construction (EIA report) – 3 cases- Nyoman Glass factory- Rozy Liuksemburg Street in Minsk– access to urban plannig info- Environment protection Scheme of Minsk- Chinese-Belarusian Industrial Park – denied access of info for Public Environmental Expertiza- Danprod pig farm - Polotsk City Council – tree cutting info- Biological youth Center in Minsk – access to info about construction

Public Participation cases

- Nyoman Glass Factory – ban of glass wool production sue- “Peking-Minsk” Hotel construction (Minsk)- ban of park trees destroying- STV – sue to ban of nuclear energy promotion social advertising- Svietlahorsk Pulp and Paper Factory ― an activity ban case- Sportclub Construction case ― an activity ban case- Molodechno pig far construction – an activity ban case besause of denied access to information- few unsuccessful cases on public participation rised by local communities to ban some construction activities

Follow-up steps

- publishing all the cases on Aarhus Center web page (some cases are published on Grodno regional Aarhus center page)

- publishing Aarhus-related cases (both resume and court decision) on UNECE web page (jurispudence database)

- continuation of cooperation with Ministry of environment to start a series of seminars for lawyers and judges

- starting an information campaign by publishing articles about access to justice in newspapers, magazines and web to learn public and authorities how to cooperate on environmental matters

Thank you for attention

Special thanks for:

- Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Republic of Belarus;- National Academy of Sciencies and its Scientific Library- JUDr Elena Layevskaya- Ms Olga Zakharova and Aarhus Center

and all the staff, colleagues and volunteers from Green Network and Ecohome :)