Armenia continues violating Aarhus Convention

Representatives of the "Tegut Protection Group" continue to insist that the Armenian government failed to fulfil its obligations. In connection with that fact, the public organization repeatedly appealed to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee.

Let us remind you that we are talking about the Aarhus Convention of the UN European Economic Commission "On Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters", which was ratified by the National Assembly of Armenia in 2001.

Three years ago, the Armenian government licensed the company "ASR", a member of the "Vallex Group", for the operation of the Tegut copper and molybdenum mine. The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the ecological organizations of Armenia organized protest actions against operation of mines, located in the north of the country, near the Tegut forests. According to ecologists, the development of copper and molybdenum mines will contribute to destruction of Tegut forests and that will have serious ecological, social and economic consequences.

The Committee had twice noted the Armenia's failure to comply with the number of the Convention provisions, in particular, to provide early and effective participation of society, the "Lragir.am" reports.

The Aarhus Committee has already adopted a legal document, and the government shall fulfil its requirements. This was reported by Zarui Postandjyan, the member of the parliamentary faction "Heritage", who acted in defence of Tegut.

According to the MP, the statement of the ecological public organization "Ecodar" with regard to the decision pertaining to the operation of mine in Tegut, presented to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee, was satisfied. Zarui Postandjyan considers unacceptable the fact that the government of Armenia does not respond to that. "The government fails to treat the Commission's decision seriously. However, we will use all sorts of instruments and present the Commission's decision to different European countries. The companies are unable to start operation of any mine for their own money and have to take loans. And, perhaps, we might be able to stop the process of providing such loans," Zarui Postandjyan has explained.

According to her, the public is preparing to hold actions and force the government to fulfil the requirements of the document, adopted by the Aarhus Committee. Works in Tegut are underway however, the main mine opening has not been held yet.

The MP expressed her confidence that a new expert opinion on the Tegut mine should be issued after holding public hearings, the "tert.am" reports.

Furthermore, Zarui Postandjyan states that through Kadjaran programme the government continues to violate the undertaken obligations under international documents and ignores demands of Kadjaran residents, the Armenian office of the "Radio Freedom" reports.

"We have another solution, which refers to the exploration of uranium minefields. This decision was also taken in violation of our domestic law and the Aarhus Convention," Zarui Postandjyan has emphasized.

However, Aida Iskoyan, the national coordinator of the Aarhus Convention in Armenia, believes that the government of Armenia has no serious deficiencies and still has time to implement recommendations of the Committee.