The Access Initiative (TAI)

Access to information, access to public participation, and access to justice (the three “access rights”) are practical means of ensuring that decisions by governments consider sustainable development concerns and the interests of the poor.

An informed and empowered public monitors government and corporate performance, is alert to problems, challenges the conventional wisdom of government or corporate decision-makers, discusses the issues, organizes social and political change, and demands improvements. Where independent courts supply remedy and redress without political interference, the public can better hold decision makers accountable.

In Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration, 178 governments agreed that citizens should have access to information about the environment, the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes, and access to judicial and administrative proceedings to seek redress and remedy. Despite real progress in the decade after Rio in the development of laws and regulations for environmental governance that reflects Principle 10, actual practice lags far behind, particularly in the areas of public participation in decision-making and access to justice.

Strategy

The TAI approach to strengthening access is unique.

Coalitions of civil society organizations in their respective country conduct national level assessments of government policies and practices, performing legal research and case study analysis according to an internationally recognized research method. Partners then perform advocacy work, often in collaboration with champions within their governments, to promote improved access rights in their country. Because people of different countries identify different priorities for improvements, TAI benchmarks and catalyzes progress in individual countries, rather than suggesting universal fixes or ranking countries

Accomplishments

Since TAI’s inception in 2000, more than 100 civil society organizations around the world have become TAI partners and completed assessments in more than 50 countries. Our work has laid the foundation for numerous advocacy successes including:

• Making India’s Green Tribunal fully functional and accessible
• 10 Governments in the Latin America and the Caribbean region adopt a declaration to begin working on a Regional convention on Principle 10 at Rio+20
• Chile included enhanced participation for the poor in cornerstone environmental regulation, a first for Latin America.
• Improved access to environmental justice in India and the Philippines
• United Nations Environment Programme’s Governing Council council adopted guidelines for the development of national legislation on access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters

For more information on The Access Initiative, please see http://www.accessinitiative.org