The Aarhus Convention: a Driving Force for Environmental Democracy

2 The Aarhus Convention: a Driving Force for Environmental Democracy Jeremy Wates* I. Introduction The Aarhus Convention - or to give it its full name, the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters - has been described by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as "the most ambitious venture in environmental democracy undertaken under the auspices of the United Nations whose adoption was a remark- able step forward in the development of interna- tional law': The Convention was adopted at the Fourth Ministerial "Environment for Europe" Conference, held in the Danish