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THE COURT — A GUARANTEE OF THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION
S. Vankovych,
Lawyer Assistant, Charitable Foundation Ecopravo-Lviv, Ukraine
One of the ways to exercise the right to information is to make a request for information. This depends completely on whether authorities fulfill their duties in providing this information. Sometimes the parties, involved in such information exchange, solve these questions at their own discretion, ignoring legal requirements on the procedure for receiving, saving and disseminating information.
Often, in response to information request one may hear “If that had been a request from Prosecutor’s Office, we would have provided this information. But, why should we provide everyone with this information?” When a request is refused without any legal ground, the information can be received only through a court. It should be stressed that while considering cases on access to environmental information, the courts comment on provisions of the laws to show how such provisions are or should be implemented.
Ecopravo-Lviv lawyers recently handled a case on the legal protection of the right to information. On November 9, 2001, the Lviv Oblast Commercial Court heard a case in which Charitable Foundation Ecopravo-Lviv sued BrodyWaterCanal, a state-run water supplying company, for refusing to provide environmental information. In the case, Ecopravo-Lviv stressed the right to request and receive such information without any obligation to provide a justification for the request. Information was requested from BrodyWaterCanal regarding the condition of the sanitary zone of a water intake facility and it’s dimension and list of the measures needed to provide the quality of the water being supplied, and the condition of water supply sources.
There were some interesting aspects in this case. The submissions of both plaintiff and defendant referred to the Convention on Access to Information on participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters (Aarhus Convention), which entered into force on October 30, 2001. The defendant appealed to Article 4 of the Aarhus Convention, which states that a request for environmental information may be refused if this request is manifestly unreasonable or formulated in too general manner.
The court dismissed the defendants’ statements. In addition to references to the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law on Environmental Protection of Ukraine, the Law on Information, the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine concerning types of information that is not classified commercial information, we relied upon Article 2 of the Aarhus Convention. Article 2 of the Convention states that non-governmental organizations promoting environmental protection and meeting any of the requirements under national law are deemed to have an interest and can receive information. Paragraph 6 of article 11 of the Water Code of Ukraine, which provides the public with the right to receive information on the condition of bodies of water, pollutants, water usage, plans and measures related to water protection and usage, and the renewal of water resources, was cited to prove the statements.
The court determined that “Ecopravo-Lviv” is an environmental organization and has the right to request information on the condition of waters, pollutants and water usage, water protection and renewal of resources without explaining a purpose. This ruling of the court is an important step on the path to the eventual realization of the citizens’ environmental rights.