The Right to a Healthy Environment Discussed at HELF Lecture

The Role of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, the ECHR and the CJEU

The Hague, 2 May 2014

The Hague Environmental Law Facility (HELF) held its third lecture on 1 May at the Institute for Environmental Security, with participants from around the Netherlands and Belgium representing universities, NGOs, law enforcement agencies and the legal sector.

The guest speaker was Dr. Ellen Hey, Professor of International Law, Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University and Visiting Professorial Fellow (2013-2015), School of Law, University of New South Wales. Dr. Hey’s lecture was entitled "The European Aarhus Space: The Role of the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, the ECHR and the CJEU."

Dr. Hey was the ideal guest for this event as she is a member of the Aarhus Compliance Committee. During her lecture, Dr. Hey drew heavily on the various provisions of the Aarhus Convention, highlighting both the substantial and procedural rights from the three pillars of the Convention (access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice) concerning the right to a healthy environment. She also described cases that have been dealt with by the Committee, including the Taskin case.

Questions and further discussion from participants included focus on the influence of the Aarhus Convention in influencing a change in the EU and globally. At the conclusion of the lecture and discussion, participants had an opportunity to speak directly with Dr. Hey at a reception organized by HELF.

The Hague Environmental Law Facility (HELF) is a joint initiative of the Institute for Environmental Security (IES) and the TMC Asser Institute. HELF has been progressively developed over the years in order to contribute to the sphere of international and European environmental law especially in the area of enforcement, compliance and implementation.