The Aarhus Convention is not widely known, despite being one of the most interesting international conventions, since it provides paths and tools to Civil Society actions in order to obtain a real and direct impact on environmental policy.
The theme is related to the ways in which citizens can participate at decision-making in the environmental field: therefore its fundamentals are the access at information and the creation of tools to intervene in the decision-making process, perhaps even changing the outcome.
The Aarhus Convention was officially founded on June 25, 1998, in Denmark. So, during these years it has seen gradually strengthen the aspect of “participatory” – as citizens can influence decisions and interact with the institutions.
Its nature, therefore, has gone from an information to a tool of engagement.
This happened thanks to the growing awareness of the institutions, that every choice of the environmental policy can not be limited to a”technical” aspect, but is an integral part of the way in which a community lives and works on its own territory.
But the reflection on the relationship between community and territory, and the ways in which that community must be empowered to participate in decisions that impact on the territory is a complex reflection since it affects political limits, knowledge, skills and tools in continuous evolution.
For this reason, the Aarhus Convention is in constant motion and, often, for this is defined as a point of departure and not of arrival.
The pages above offer you the opportunity to learn and develop an international instrument that has no equal in his challenge: a bridge between environment and society.