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Implementing the Aarhus Convention in Northern Ireland: A consultation

May

20

Implementing the Aarhus Convention in Northern Ireland: A consultation

by Alison Hough

Actions and Detail Panel

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Date and time

Fri, 20 May 2022

10:00 – 12:15 IST

Location

Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest

Dublin Road

N37 HD68 Athlone

Ireland

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Sorry this event has now finished. Recording of the event will be available later.

Interactive online stakeholder workshop for Northern Irish environmental stakeholders exploring all-island Aarhus implementation.

About this event

Summary:

This collaborative, interactive stakeholder workshop, funded by the Irish Research Council, will focus on implementation of the Aarhus Convention in Northern Ireland, and also discuss the role Aarhus Centres might play in improving implementation. The target audience is the eNGO sector in Northern Ireland, as well as activists, lawyers and those interested in environmental governance. The output from the discussions will be incorporated into a report on Northern Ireland's compliance with the Aarhus Convention, and will feed into a report on All-island implementation.

Guest speakers will include experts on Aarhus issues Roger Watts of Crawford Lockhart Black Solicitors, Dean Blackwood, Town Planner, PhD Researcher and activist, and Christian Melis of the OSCE on Aarhus Centres, as well as Tony Lowes of FIE and Mary McGuiggan of The Gathering NI.

Registered attendees will be emailed a Zoom link and password 30 mins prior to the event, and will be issued a draft report on Aarhus Implementation in Ireland in advance of the consultation which will form the basis of the final report, together with the workshop output.

10am Guest Speaker Panel on the Aarhus Convention and Aarhus Implementation issues.

• Roger Watts, CLB Solicitors- Article 9(4) of the Aarhus Convention,

• Dean Blackwood, Aarhus Implementation Issues in Northern Ireland.

10.30am Workshop questions on Aarhus Implementation in breakout groups.

10.50am Group Discussion/Q&A.

11.10pm -11.20pm Break.

11.20pm Speaker Panel on Aarhus Centres

• Christian Melis, OSCE, Aarhus Centres

• Mary McGuiggan “The Aarhus Centre Conversation along the Derry/Donegal Border.”

• Tony Lowes, FIE, "An Aarhus Centre for Ireland"

11.40pm Workshop Questions on Aarhus Centres and breakout groups

12pm - 12.15pm Group discussion and Wrap up.

12.15pm Ends

This is the second of two events about all-island implementation of the Convention. The first event, held in 2021 focused on Ireland implementation issues.

This workshop forms part of the Irish Research Council New Foundations grant-funded research project, "Finding Common Ground: Towards All-Island Implementation of the Aarhus Convention", funded by the Irish Research Council to TUS (Technological University of the Shannon), and in collaboration with QUB and Newcastle University, and the NGOs FIE, FOE-NI and the EJNI. The Principal Investigator is Alison Hough BL, Senior Lecturer, TUS, together with co-investigators Dr. Ciara Brennan, Director of the EJNI and Dr. Peter Doran of QUB.

RESEARCH PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET:

V1.4 7th May 2022

You are being invited to take part in a research study. Before you decide, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. This Participant Information Sheet will tell you about the purpose, risks and benefits of this research study. If you agree to take part, we will ask you to sign a Consent Form. If there is anything that you are not clear about, we will be happy to explain it to you. Please take as much time as you need to read it. You should only consent to participate in this research study when you feel that you understand what is being asked of you, and you have had enough time to think about your decision. If at any stage you change your mind about participating in this study you are free to withdraw. Simply contact us at ahough@tus.ie and request that the data generated if any be destroyed. Thank you for reading this.

This Project:

Title: “Finding Common Ground: Towards all-island implementation of the Aarhus Convention”

Funder: The Irish Research Council, New Foundations

Principal Investigator: Alison Hough, TUS. Co-Investigators Dr. Peter Doran of QUB, and Dr. Ciara Brennan of EJNI.

The project will also involve collaboration with Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE), an NGO dedicated to environmental protection and access to justice. The project will also partner with Environmental Justice Network Ireland (EJNI) and Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland (FOE-NI). It will involve working with NGO umbrella bodies, The Environmental Pillar/IEN and NIEL (Northern Ireland Environment Link).

This project will assess all-island implementation of the Aarhus Convention through a mix of desk-based research and consultation with the NGO community. It will also explore the possibility for an all-island “Aarhus Centre”.

The Aarhus Convention UNECE 1998 guarantees environmental democracy and participation rights, as well as access to information. This means the public/NGOs have the right to have a say in decisions affecting the environment and the right to go to court to protect the environment. The Convention is not yet fully implemented in Ireland or Northern Ireland. The Convention has increased in importance for Ireland due to Brexit, as it offers an alternative basis for maintaining a “level playing field” between Ireland and Northern Ireland in environmental protection rights and environmental impact assessment procedures, as well as environmental public consultation. Working with environmental NGOs across the island, this project will access grass-roots knowledge from organizations at the coalface of environmental challenges. Through identification of the main obstacles to Aarhus implementation and the creation of networks for future collaboration, this preliminary all-island project will set strategic priorities for a future large-scale cross-jurisdictional Aarhus Research Programme (ARP).

The project activities consist of:

1. Production of reports on Aarhus Convention Implementation in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

2. Circulation of a questionnaires to Irish and Northern Irish eNGOs regarding Aarhus Convention implementation issues in Ireland and Northern Ireland and the role of Aarhus Centres in achieving this.

Participants will be provided with the above report and a briefing paper on Aarhus Centres in advance of the consultation/questionnaire, to ensure informed responses.

The survey questions will be explored in more depth in an interactive stakeholder workshop. The output from the discussions will be incorporated into a report on compliance with the Aarhus Convention in both jurisdictions which will be published.

5. Production of a report on all-island implementation of the Aarhus Convention and the role of Aarhus Centres in this.

What does participation involve:

Participants in the research will be invited to answer research questions on Aarhus Convention implementation issues in Ireland in a consultation workshop for environmental NGOs or respond to a survey asking the same questions.

The Survey:

The survey seeks to identify what the most urgent Aarhus Convention implementation issues are right now on the island of Ireland, and what role Aarhus Centres could play in improving implementation and how.

The Consultation Workshop:

There will be two consultation workshops, one in Ireland and one in Northern Ireland, for the NGOs in both those jurisdictions. This reflects the fact that there are very different conditions and issues arising in either jurisdiction.

What happens to the information from the workshop and survey:

The workshop will be recorded and published online for up to two years. The video of the workshop will not be downloadable to participants should aware of the risk that persons could screen-record the video from the website and distribute further. The survey responses will be retained by the researchers and collated, analysed and the results inputted into the Reports issued from the project (without identification of the survey participants). All data will be stored securely for up to six years. Participants can request that the data held about them in the form of the video recordings and/or survey data be deleted at any time by request to ahough@tus.ie.

Confidentiality:

All information that is collected via survey during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential and will not be shared with anyone else except in anonymised form. The information collected in the surveys as part of this research study will be stored in a way that protects your identity for up to six years. You will be provided with a draft copy of the report prior to publication for review. You can withdraw consent for your data to be used at any time.

The recordings of the workshop will be published online for up to two years and consent will be sought for same. The video of the workshop will not be downloadable to participants should aware of the risk that persons could screen-record the video from the website and distribute further. If anyone changes their mind after participating in the workshop, they can be edited out of the published version of the video at any time on request to ahough@tus.ie.

We will store the original recordings securely for up to six years after which they will be destroyed. Results from the study will be reported as group data and will not identify you in any way, unless you request to be so identified.

 

Implementing the Aarhus Convention in Northern Ireland: A consultation image

Tags

  • Ireland Events
  • Westmeath Events
  • Things to do in Athlone
  • Athlone Seminars
  • Athlone Other Seminars
  • #environmental
  • #accesstojustice
  • #environmental_governance
  • #environmental_law
  • #public_participation
  • #rule_of_law
  • #access2justice
  • #aarhus_convention
  • #access2information
  • #access2participation
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Implementing the Aarhus Convention in Northern Ireland: A consultation

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