conference proceedin.. - Facultatea de Drept

Conference Proceedings - Galaţi, 24 th -25 th of April 2009
Year I, Vol. II - 2009
starting point in the steps to be taken in enlarging upon the phenomenon of
”responsibility”.
The principle of the public’s participation –a main way to
achieving the fundamental right to a healthy environment
The Stockholm Declaration of 1972 has consecrated for the first time
– as a prior principle – man‟s right to an environment “whose quality to
enable him to live in dignity and welfare”, considering, at the same time,
the obligation of the society to preserve, defend and meliorate the
environment for the generations to come.
This right is consecrated in the constitutional and legislative texts of
numerous states, either as a subjective right of the man or as an obligation
of the state, or of both at a time. As it is not about the right to an abstract
environment but about a right every individual has in order to protect the
environment he is living in, this right includes in its definition – among
others – the right to being informed on the policies and projects with
negative consequences over the environment, the right to participate in
those processes that adopt decisions referring to the environment and, if
necessary, to make use of adequate juridical means for the recovery of the
damages appeared when the legal guarantees were not observed
(Marinescu, 2008, pg. 76).
The principle of informing the people and of making them
participate in the whole process refers to the right to be informed by and
inform the state which might be the cross–borders damages resulted from
dangerous activities that took place on the territory of one state or another.
The importance of the principle is considerable, especially in the case of
reducing the effects of an accident with negative consequences and that is
why its preventing role shall not be neglected with respect to the necessity
of communicating the information and data regarding the activity to be
continued and the risks that might appear.
The principle also includes the right of each person who lives in a
possibly contaminated area implying the risks creating significant crossborders
prejudices, to be informed on the respective activity, on the way
this activity influences the environment and on the way he/she has to
participate in the decision-making.
The necessity of communicating all available information was
especially more evident immediately after the Chernobil accident in 1986.
Later, the documents of the UN Conference for Environment and
Development in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992, the Declaration of the Rio de
Janeiro and the Agenda 21 as well as the majority of the international –
more or less recent - conventions and treaties referring to the protection of
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