Common Contracts

From Aarhus to Escazú and

July 19th, 2021

• Filed
  July 19th, 2021

By operationalising the three-pillar approach of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration, two regional in- struments, the Aarhus Convention and the Escazú Agreement, guarantee the public access to infor- mation, participation in decision-making process- es, and access to justice. The awarding of the rights aims to enhance the protection of the environment for the benefit of all. Although comparable in many respects, the two instruments embrace the content of Principle 10 with their own style and emphases. As argued in the article, some of the differences can be ascribed to the legal environment into which the instruments were developed, referred to in this ar- ticle as their broader legal environment. Accord- ingly, the primary objective of the article is to pro- vide a general overview and a comparison of the main elements of the instruments and to identify