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Last Update: July 16, 2008
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Partnership for Principle 10 - PP10
The Access Initiative
The Access Initiative (TAI) was formed in November of 2000 after a coalition of experts from the fields of government, civil society, and international organizations united to spread the initiative espoused under Principle 10 of the1992 Rio Pact, that states:
"Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens at the relevant level. At the national level each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment…. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation…. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings…shall be provided."
— Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Pact
Organizations involved in this initiative look to promote close ties with the governments of their respective countries in an effort to increase transparency, thereby making information and knowledge more apparent and accessible to the public.
The 1998 AARHUS Convention in Denmark, which included 35 countries in Europe and Central Asia, proved to be the birthplace of the guiding principles that the future Access Initiative would follow. This convention espoused the rights of access to information, participation in decision-making, and the right to justice in pertinent environmental issues.
The Access Initiative program at its launch counted amongst its members more than 25 organizations and coalitions from 9 countries, some of the most active were the World Resources Institute WRI (USA), Environmental Management and Law Association - Hungary, Advocates Coalition on Environment and Development (ACODE)- Uganda, PARTICIPA- Chile, and Iniciativa de Acceso México (IA-MEX).
Each of these organizations is responsible for fulfilling certain duties that are in accordance with the existing state of the principles of access in their countries. TAI indicated significant progress because it marked the earliest attempt at linking human rights and the environment in the area of sustainable development.
10 years after the passing of the Rio Pact, the WRI published "Closing the Gap," a report that was meant to interpret the effectiveness of the TAI by publishing investigations realized by organizations on their respective states, namely Mexico and South Africa. This report was meant to study the success of the three access initiative principles at a national level.
As seen with this report, TAI supports independent monitoring of government progress. This research is conducted via participating civic groups, and uses a common evaluation tool to provide constancy.
