Aarhus Centre Ashgabat

The Centre facilitates the free access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision-making and access to justice on environmental matters.

Apart from including free legal consultations related to environmental rights, the main activities of the Centre comprise:

• Increasing the level of environmental knowledge of the public and other interested parties with focus on environmental norms and human rights, as well as creating an environmental information database, including national laws on the environment;
• Producing comprehensive environmental materials to be published in the national mass media;
• Developing partnerships with the corresponding state and civil society representatives, as well as with the network of Aarhus Centres in other OSCE countries;
• Promoting the Aarhus Convention among relevant stakeholders;
• Supporting the implementation of projects of international players, such as the OSCE, UNDP, UNEP, Tempus, World Bank, ADB, IDB and other stakeholders.

Since 2012, the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat has been supporting the host country in the implementation of the UNECE AC through the Centre' s funded project - Aarhus Centre. The work is implemented in close co-operation with the host country, in particular, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, which still needs assistance in the implementation of the Aarhus Convention and in particular, bringing related environmental legislation to be in compliance with its principles. Therefore, the activities of the Aarhus Centre are focused on the results that are feasible to achieve in Turkmenistan, such as enabling the public to receive environmental information and obtain legal advises on environmental issues. During the lifespan of the project, a number of training activities and awareness raising events have been organized for relevant national stakeholders, including government officials, students, and public at large, to openly discuss national environmental issues/legal framework and sustainable use of natural resources. In addition, the Aarhus Centre plays an important role in providing expertise comments to environmental laws and by-laws (including Law on Fauna (2013), Law on Nature Protection (2014), Law on Public Consolidations (2014), Law on Waste (2016), National Climate Change Strategy(2019) etc.) for consideration of relevant authorities.