Time is running out for the Scottish Government to meet a UN environmental justice deadline according to a new scrutiny by the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS), which brings to light a series of failings in reforming access to justice in Scotland.
Scotland has been repeatedly found in breach of Article 9 of the UN Aarhus Convention, which enshrines legal rights for citizens to access justice on environmental issues in a court of law. In 2021, the Convention’s governing bodies issued Scotland a deadline to end over a decade of non-compliance by 1 October 2024, and ensure that access to justice is ‘fair, timely, equitable, and not prohibitively expensive’.
However, a new briefing from ERCS exposes how the Scottish Government’s lack of action is still stalling reforms required by the UN. Meanwhile, the Scottish Civil Justice Council has kept its review of legal expenses behind closed doors after reneging on their duty to publicly consult on them.
Concerned at the level of inaction, Maggie Chapman Green MSP has now tabled a parliamentary motion calling on the Scottish Government to redouble efforts to ensure full compliance with the Convention.
The same access to justice reforms required for Scotland to comply with the Aarhus Convention are critical to also ensuring the new Scottish Human Rights Bill has teeth, including the right to a healthy environment.
With less than four months to go, campaigners are sounding the alarm bell and demanding urgent action on legal aid reform and for a radical overhaul to make legal expenses affordable to defend environmental human rights.
ERCS’s in-house solicitor Ben Christman said:
‘Despite widespread concern over the climate and nature emergencies, going to court to defend the environment is unaffordable for most people. Legal expenses can amount to tens of thousands of pounds – even six figures is not unheard of. Our current system only supports the rule of law for a wealthy minority, and exorbitant legal costs shield public bodies and polluters from being held to account. Many people we have given legal advice to have had cases with merit but have been priced out of the legal system.
The Scottish Government is doing next to nothing to change this dismal state of affairs. It is failing to meet its obligations under the UN Aarhus Convention, and with less than five months to go before a crucial deadline to remove the barriers to accessing justice, little progress has been made. The Government must take urgent action to make our legal system affordable, and ensure environmental justice is available to all.’
Maggie Chapman, Scottish Green MSP for North-East Scotland, said:
“More than ever, people in Scotland need clean water, clean air, safe green spaces to live and play and learn. Where those are unjustly denied, environmental protectors need to be able to access affordable court processes to enforce their rights and those of their communities. The Aarhus Convention, to which the UK is a signatory, gives us those procedural rights. Sadly, Scotland remains in breach of that Convention, and our government has failed to act effectively to put things right. This motion, which I hope will receive widespread cross-party support, calls upon the Scottish Government to act, enabling the people of Scotland to protect our natural environment.”
ENDS
For more information contact
Julia Leino, Policy & Communications Officer
Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland
jleino@ercs.scot, 07541 517863
[1] The Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland (ERCS) carries out advocacy in policy and law reform to improve environmental rights and compliance with the Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice on environmental matters.
[2] ERCS’s briefing on access to justice is available at: https://www.ercs.scot/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/ERCS_Aarhus-access-to-justice-briefing_June24-1.pdf.
