The Aarhus Centre Banja Luka supports and promotes the implementation of the Aarhus Convention in and around Banja Luka, in northern Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The main goal of the Aarhus Centre Banja Luka is to promote the implementation of the Convention in BiH and liaise between public institutions and the community, especially at the local level.
In June of 2013, the Centre for Environment opened the Aarhus Centre for Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environment Matters, with financial support from the EU and the OSCE Mission to BiH.
The mission of the Aarhus Centre comprises:
The Office of the Aarhus Centre is open to citizens, representatives of associations and institutions interested in getting accurate and up-to-date information on environmental matters, as well as adequately preparing for participation in decision-making.
Services provided by the Aarhus Centre encompass:
Key to the operation of the Aarhus Centre are the NGOs involved in environmental matters and units of local government which should implement the Aarhus Convention in practice. By building capacities of civil society organisations, their skills will be improved, enabling them to objectively and substantively represent the public in environmental matters. At the moment, the staff of Banja Luka Aarhus Centre consists of the coordinator and the legal officer.