Aarhus Convention
	Public participation is a prerequisite for successful policy and decision-making and is a precondition for transparent, open and democratic governance. Citizens have a right to voice their concerns in matters affecting them. Participation helps to create more informed government decision-making by incorporating diverse opinions, values and ideas and by resulting in direct, immediate knowledge of the environmental conditions from the community and citizens. Public involvement improves the quality of decision-making, raises citizen awareness of environmental issues and increases public understanding of projects involved in the decision-making. It also helps to defuse conflict or opposition to particular government actions and builds broad-based consensus for environmental programmes and more support for their implementation. The UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus Convention) adopted in June 1998 is a key international legal instrument supporting these goals. REC Public Participation Programme The Public Participation Programme's mission is to support and facilitate access to information, public participation in environmental decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters through capacity building, networking, legal and policy analysis and assistance to various stakeholders. The Public Participation Programme serves the needs of all stakeholders involved in environmental issues: governments, NGOs, businesses and the public in the CEE region. The programme serves various stakeholders by different means. More information about REC's activties and public participation programmes and project are available at: http://www.rec.org/REC/Programs/PublicParticipation.html   REC BiH contact person for the implementaion of Aarhus Convention in BiH: Field Office (FO) Banja Luka Mr. Đorđe Stefanović, Deputy CO Director E-mail:rec.bl@inecco.net tel./fax: +387 51 317 022				The Aarhus Convention Implementation Guide D E T A I L S Aarhus Convention D E T A I L S