Page 37 - อนุสัญญาว่าด้วยการเข้าถึงข้อมูลข่าวสาร การมีส่วนร่วมของประชาชนในการตัดสินใจ และการเข้าถึงความยุติธรรมในเรื่องสิ่งแวดล้อม: จัดทำขึ้น ณ เมืองออร์ฮูส ประเทศเดนมาร์ก วันที่ 25 มิถุนายน 2541

Recognizing further the importance of the respective roles that
individual citizens, non-governmental organizations and the private sector can
play in environmental protection,

Desiring to promote environmental education to further the understanding
of the environment and sustainable development and to encourage widespread
public awareness of, and participation in, decisions affecting the environment
and sustainable development,

Noting, in this context, the importance of making use of the media and
of electronic or other, future forms of communication,

Recognizing the importance of fully integrating environmental
considerations in governmental decision-making and the consequent need for
public authorities to be in possession of accurate, comprehensive and
up-to-date environmental information,

Acknowledging that public authorities hold environmental information in
the public interest,
Concerned that effective judicial mechanisms should be accessible to the
public, including organizations, so that its legitimate interests are
protected and the law is enforced,

Noting the importance of adequate product information being provided to
consumers to enable them to make informed environmental choices,
Recognizing the concern of the public about the deliberate release of
genetically modified organisms into the environment and the need for increased
transparency and greater public participation in decision-making in this
field,

Convinced that the implementation of this Convention will contribute to
strengthening democracy in the region of the United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (ECE),

Conscious of the role played in this respect by ECE and recalling,
inter alia, the ECE Guidelines on Access to Environmental Information and
Public Participation in Environmental Decision-making endorsed in the
Ministerial Declaration adopted at the Third Ministerial Conference
"Environment for Europe" in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 25 October 1995,

Bearing in mind the relevant provisions in the Convention on
Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context, done at Espoo,
Finland, on 25 February 1991, and the Convention on the Transboundary Effects
of Industrial Accidents and the Convention on the Protection and Use of
Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, both done at Helsinki on
17 March 1992, and other regional conventions,

Conscious that the adoption of this Convention will have contributed to
the further strengthening of the "Environment for Europe" process and to the
results of the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Aarhus, Denmark, in June 1998,
Have agreed as follows:

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