FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY - Article 19

ARTICLE 19GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR FREE EXPRESSION2005), issued 15 and two Instructions under the stamp ‘for official use only’, while Yury Yekhanurov,who succeeded her (8 September 2005 – 4 August 2006), published only one resolution bearing thestamp ‘For official use only’. However, the government refuses to make public documents that wereclassified prior to November 2005.Significantly, the Ministry of Justice officially acknowledged in 2006 that the use of stampsrestricting access not allowed for by legislation is illegal. Classifying normative legal acts with stampsrestricting access, which is not envisaged by legislation, is a violation of the right of citizens to accesslegal information. In 2006, the Ministry of Justice approached the Cabinet of Ministers suggesting thatthey give instructions about the inadmissibility of the future use of the stamps limiting access, andrequiring the publication of acts previously issued by the Cabinet of Ministers bearing these stamps. 254However, the government has so far refused to publish previously classified acts.The practice of using secret stamps is not only contrary to Ukrainian legislation, but also tointernational standards on freedom of information. Exemptions to the general right to freedom ofinformation are legitimate only when they meet the three-part test mentioned above. 255 Furthermore,the public should be able to challenge the classification of documents in court. This right is simplydenied in the case of secret stamps.9,&,9 % 6Although the Aarhus Convention creates an obligation to provide for public participation in decisionmakingon environmental issues, in practice citizens wanting to exercise their right encounter manyobstacles, often due to the impossibility of obtaining relevant information at the right time. The MEP,each of its directorates and all regional departments have monthly ‘public involvement’ plans that areconsolidated into one general programme and submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers. However, theseprogrammes mainly consist of awareness raising activities on minor issues, such as ‘Say no to litter’,often aimed at school students, and do not constitute a real tool for public participation.!" " 6 " Formally, EIAs are carried out according to legal procedure, but they are frequently superficial and donot assess the true environmental impact with sufficient accuracy. 256 Moreover, information on thecarrying out of EIAs has to be published in the media, yet sometimes even specialised NGOs (let alonethe general public) only hear about a project when a final decision has been reached. In other cases, a254 Letter to Oleksandr Yevhenovych by Deputy Minister of Justice M. M. Shupenya No. -32705-22, 21January.2006. http://khpg.org.ua/en/index.php?id=1151734678 (see Appendix 1).255See Section 2.3.256 For legal provisions on this, see Section 4.7.For Internal Use Only. Is Post-Chornobyl Ukraine Ready for Access to Environmental Information?ARTICLE 19, London, 2007'"