Having a good environment is a fundamental right - Robinson

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, has suggested that European countries might explore the US system whereby environmental groups taking "public interest" actions in the courts are not liable for legal costs.

In a message to the Pan-European Environment Ministers' Conference, she said there might also be scope for the development of an ombudsman-type approach to resolving conflicts between statutory bodies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

"I raise these questions for consideration, not as an environmentalist or environmental law expert, but as one who regards NGOs as having a public-interest `watchdog' role which is vital in all our societies and is in need of strong support."

Mrs Robinson was to be the keynote speaker at a special NGO session of the conference dealing with the need for more public participation in environmental decision-making, but she had to cancel her visit because of a crisis at the UN's office in Rwanda.

In her message, she described a good environment as a "fundamental right". In order to secure it, there was a need for a convention to be adopted today in Aarhus guaranteeing public access to environmental information.

"With proper access to information, I believe there will be a dramatic increase in the demand for public participation in environmental decision-making."

NGO representatives from more than 50 countries welcomed Mrs Robinson's message but regretted that she was unable to come to Aarhus to expand on her views about the link between human rights and the environment.

A common theme in speeches at the NGO session was the need for more widespread use of the Internet to give out environmental information, particularly in former Soviet Union countries.

Ms Christy Duivelaar, of the Regional Environmental Centre in Hungary, said many NGOs in these countries could not afford to travel abroad and the Internet was one of the most practical ways by which they could keep in touch with developments.

Ms Mary Taylor, representing Friends of the Earth in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said it had collected raw data on emissions from industry in the UK, translated it into usable information and put this out on a very popular Website, all for £40,000.

The session also heard that there were two million "hits" in the first week alone on a Website in the US which provides comprehensible information culled from the Toxic Releases Inventory for industries operating there.