The decision-making processes concerning the environment are too opaque and governments should commit to transparency steps when they meet next year for Earth Summit 2012, according to a joint report by Article 19 and The Access Initiative.
Titled Moving from Principles to Rights, the report says “people in over half the countries around the world are still being denied access to essential information about the environment.”
“With one year to go before Rio 2012, governments need to take the necessary steps to improve their capacity to supply environment-related information to the public, especially to indigenous peoples, vulnerable communities, and the poor. In addition, civil society organisations must be empowered to demand access to information, participate in decision making processes and hold governments and polluters accountable for environmental harm,” said Dr. Agnes Callamard, Article 19 Executive Director.
The report says “few laws exist that require governments to proactively release environmental information,” according to news release on the report. “In fact, most governments fail to release relevant environmental information and risk in emergencies at all, as exemplified by the crisis in Burma after 2009 Cyclone Nargis. In other cases, the information provided by governments is only fragmented and often incorrect, such as following the recent nuclear meltdown in Japan.”
“If Rio 2012 is to be successful and bring the world closer to building a green economy and assuring sustainable development, civil society organisations must be empowered to demand access to this information,” said Lalanath DeSilva, Director of The Access Initiative.
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