Environment justice official on monitoring visit to Cyprus

Special rapporteur for the environment, Michel Forst, on Tuesday is visiting Cyprus at the invitation of the agriculture ministry.

Forst’s arrival, his first official visit in this capacity, comes as part of Cyprus being party to the Aarhus Convention, under the umbrella of the UN body for environmental justice.

The aim of the visit includes raising awareness of Cyprus’ obligations and legal deficiencies arising from the Aarhus Convention for access to environmental justice and protection of environmental defenders.

According to an official announcement, the environment department is seeking to strengthen its knowledge base and skills in relevant issues on the island.

Forst will meet with Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou to discuss protection of environmental defenders and better implementation of provisions.

Among these are right of access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice on environmental matters, which items are designated as obligations of the state, in the Aarhus Convention and its strategic plan for 2022–2030, and are marked as priority recommendations in the Cyprus’ 2022 EIR (EU’s environmental implementation report).

The special rapporteur will also hold a meeting with the Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis, as well as attend the House environment committee session on Wednesday.

Additionally, Forst will hold a series of closed-door meetings with representatives of non-governmental and grassroots organisations, including the federation of environmental organisations (FEO), independent citizens’ groups and institutes.

On Thursday, in collaboration with the commissioner for the environment, the law department of the University of Cyprus and the FEO, the environment department is hosting a conference the topic.

Forst will participate as a keynote speaker at the event and present his mission and role. The agriculture minister and Environment Commissioner Antonia Theodosiou will also address the gathering.