Ensuring the citizens' rights to a healthy environment: Experience of the Republic of Belarus

T.I. Makarova ^a,b*, V.E. Lizgaro ^b**

^aSouth Ural State University, Chelyabinsk, 454080 Russia

^bBelarusian State University, Minsk, 220030 Republic of Belarus

E-mail: ^*tamaramakarava@gmail.com, ^**lizgaro@bsu.by

Received January 15, 2020

Full text PDF

DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2020.2.99-109

For citation: Makarova T.I., Lizgaro V.E. Ensuring the citizens’ rights to a healthy environment: Experience of the Republic of Belarus. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2020, vol. 162, no. 2, pp. 99–109. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2020.2.99-109. (In Russian)

Abstract

Based on the concept of the environmental legal status of an individual, a historical and legal analysis of the experience of the Republic of Belarus in legalizing human and civil rights in the field of environmental protection was performed. Attention was drawn to the fact that ensuring and protecting the environmental citizens’ rights at the international and national levels is an important area of state environmental policy. It was shown that the environmental legal status is considered in Belarusian legal science as a system-forming category and a comprehensive institution of environmental law, in which the central element is the constitutional human right to a healthy environment, as well as citizens’ powers necessary for the implementation and protection of this right. The recognition by the Republic of Belarus of the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus) has led to the active development of national environmental legislation in terms of securing the rights, which are needed for the right to a healthy environment. The Republic of Belarus has accumulated a constructive experience in implementing the provisions of the Aarhus Convention, but there is also a certain inconsistency in the reforms that have failed to fully contribute to ensuring the citizens’ right to a healthy environment.

Keywords: human rights, environmental protection, environmental legislation, right to healthy environment, international law

References

1. Stec C., Casey-Lefkowitz S., Jendrośka J. (Eds.) Orkhusskaya konventsiya: Rukovodstvo po osushchestvleniyu [The Aarhus Convention: An Implementation Guide]. New York, Geneva, UNECE, 2000. 257 p. (In Russian)
2. Stec S., Casey-Lefkowitz S., Jendrośka J. (Eds.) The Aarhus Convention: An Implementation Guide. New York, Geneva, UNECE, 2000, 186 p. Available at: https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/ DAM/env/pp/acig.pdf.
3. Makarova, T.I. Ekologo-pravovoi status grazhdan Respubliki Belarus’ [Legal Environmental Status for Citizens of the Republic of Belarus]. Minsk, BGU, 2004. 231 p. (In Russian)
4. Makarova T. Social importance of environmental law: Criteria of values and effectiveness of law. Kazan University Law Review, 2018, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 7–17. doi: 10.30729/2541-8823-2018-3-2-7-17.
5. Pravovye mekhanizmy okhrany okruzhayushchei sredy i obespecheniya ekologicheskoi bezopasnosti [Legal Mechanisms for Environmental Protection and Environmental Safety]. Makarova T.I. (Ed.). Minsk, BGU, 2016. 191 p. (In Russian)
6. Makarova T.I., Lizgaro V.E. Improving the legal framework for public participation in the adoption of environmentally significant decisions in the context of the Aarhus Convention. Pravo v Sovremennom Belorusskom Obshchestve, 2013, no. 7, pp. 552–559. (In Russian)
7. Balashenko S.A., Makarova T.I., Lizgaro V.Y. Ekologicheskoe pravo [Environmental Law], Minsk, Vyssh. Shk., 2016. 383 p. (In Russian)
8. Makarova T.I. Legal instrumentalism as a method of forming an environmental legal space. Ekologichne Pravo Ukraini, 2017, nos. 1–2, pp. 40–46. ( In Russian)
9. Alekseev S.S. Pravo: azbuka  – teoriya  – filosofiya: Opyt kompleksnogo issledovaniya [Law: ABCs – Theory – Philosophy: An Integrated Research]. Moscow, Statut, 1999. 712 p. (In Russian)
10. Makarova T.I. Environmental rights of humans and citizens: Theoretical and applied problems of establishment in law. Pravo i ekologiya: Materialy VIII Mezhdunar. shkoly-praktikuma molodykh uchenykh-yuristov (Moskva, 23–24 maya 2013 g.) [Law and Ecology: Proc. VIII Int. Pract. Sch. for Young Legal Researchers]. Moscow, IZiSP, INFRA-M, 2014, pp. 69–75. (In Russian)
11. Donnelly J., Howard R.E. International Handbook of Human Rights. Westport, Greenwood Press, 1987. 342 р.
12. Makarova, T.I. Legislation of the Republic of Belarus in the light of the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters (Aarhus), Gosudarstvo i Parvo, 2007, no. 1, pp. 83–91. (In Russian)

The content is available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.