FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY - Article 19

ARTICLE 19GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR FREE EXPRESSIONThose who learned the lesson disclose, others still have to get used to working with NGOs and themedia.’Successes achieved in court also set precedents and send a signal to other public institutions.In this way, they can contribute a great deal to changing the general administrative culture. NGOs areengaging in strategic litigation in Kyiv, but this does not yet seem to be the case in Donetsk. NGOsfrom Donetsk oblast have so far mainly focused on non-judicial complaint proceedings, through whichthey have also achieved successes. For example, the NGO Donetsk Environmental Movementrequested in-service proceedings after receiving false information from the State EnvironmentalInspectorate of the Donetsk oblast. The proceedings led to the dismissal of the head of this authorityand the NGO reported that it subsequently had fewer difficulties in obtaining information.Ordinary people acknowledged their poor awareness of their immediate environment. InDonetsk, it was noted that local people frequently fail to find out about construction projects or treefellingeven when it is near their homes. The interviewees in Kyiv complained of severalenvironmental concerns on which greater information was needed, such as air pollution caused by carexhaust fumes and industrial emissions, the decrease of community green areas as a result ofconstruction, the pollution of surface and underground water, and the disposal of household andproduction waste. In Lviv, residents further noted that they distrust information provided by theauthorities and have no faith in being promptly and effectively alerted to environmental emergencies,or obtaining truthful information about their effects and potential health hazards.:,3 + " ." :,3,* !+ " ) !" -The Aarhus Convention and Ukrainian legislation require that various types of environmentalinformation be disseminated by government bodies on their own initiative so that they are easilyaccessible to any member of the public.Most public authorities in the Lviv oblast use e-formats and maintain websites, but thoseinterviewed said that these new measures have made only a modest contribution to openness, becauseof restricted access to the Internet. Moreover, even on websites the authorities provide only verygeneral information.An NGO in Donetsk stated that government bodies rarely disseminate information proactively,pointing out that Donetsk has no information centre or website. There are some specialisedFor Internal Use Only. Is Post-Chornobyl Ukraine Ready for Access to Environmental Information?ARTICLE 19, London, 2007()