[5] The Aarhus Convention was drafted by governments, with the highly required participation of NGOs, and is legally binding for all the States who ratified it becoming Parties.
Among the latter is included the EC, who therefore has the task to ensure compliance not only within the member States but also for its institutions, all those bodies who carry out public administrative duties.
The private sector, for which information disclosure depends on voluntary, non- mandatory practices, and bodies acting in a judicial or legislative capacity, are excluded.
[9] Other significant provisions are the "non-discrimination" principle (all the information has to be provided without taking account of the nationality or citizenship of the applicant), the international nature of the convention,[10][11] and the importance attributed to the promotion of environmental education of the public.
The risk could lay in a loss of time and resources that could be otherwise invested in defining the outcomes,[18] notwithstanding the fact that it renders the convention vague, weak and open to multiple interpretations.
The relative differences between the participants and social groups' resource inequalities also suggests the possibility for irregular and imbalanced environmental protection.
The objective of the Protocol is "to enhance public access to information through the establishment of coherent, nationwide pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs)."
An amendment to the Aarhus Convention on "Public Participation in Decisions on Deliberate Release into the Environment and Placing on the Market of Genetically Modified Organisms" was adopted at the Second Meeting of the Parties on 27 May 2005, in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
It is by far the most impressive elaboration of principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, which stresses the need for citizens' participation in environmental issues and for access to information on the environment held by public authorities.
In part due to a decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union[27] and domestic litigation,[28] a special costs regime applies in England and Wales when bringing judicial review claims under the Aarhus Convention.