LEGAL ASPECTS OF REGIONAL COOPERATION
Countries in the region committed to a policy of sustainable development.
Since independence, the countries adopted the basic regulatory legal acts, national
strategies and programs that make up the legal framework for sustainable
development.
One of the mechanisms of regional cooperation are international environmental
conventions ratified by the Central Asian countries, in particular for the protection
of the ozone layer; Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their
Disposal; Procedures Prior Informed trade of hazardous chemicals and pesticides
and persistent organic pollutants; conservation of biodiversity, including biosafety,
access and use of genetic resources, climate change, impact assessment on the
environment, the use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes.
Important role in the international legal regulation of activities related to the
protection and use of natural resources in the region can play the Framework
Convention for the Protection of the Environment for Sustainable Development in
Central Asia (the Convention). The Convention lays down the legal framework for
long-term cooperation of Central Asian countries on a wide range of issues,
including the protection of air, biodiversity, water quality, desertification control and
waste management.
For facilitate the implementation of the provisions of this Convention provides
for the establishment of the organizational mechanism - periodically convened the
Conference of the Parties of the permanent Secretariat, as well as other subsidiary
bodies. The Convention provides implementation of the bilateral and multilateral
schemes and mechanisms of cooperation, on the basis of protocols specify the rules
of development commitments in specific areas of environmental activity.
Environmental international agreements ratified by all the countries of Central
Asia, create good preconditions for the implementation of the Framework
Convention for the Protection of the Environment for Sustainable Development of
Central Asia, including joint research in the legal, scientific and technical fields,
monitoring, information exchange.
Great prospects for cooperation in Central Asia open collaborative research in
the framework of regional programs stipulating the development of measures to
mitigate the effects of climate change, the use and dissemination of technologies,
practices and processes that contribute to control, reduce or termination emissions
of greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting substances and pollutants of air. Regional
cooperation contributes to the exchange of information on scientific, technical,
technological, socio-economic, legal studies in the field of education, training and
public awareness (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and
the Kyoto Protocol, the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer,
the UNECE Convention on Transboundary Air Pollution on long-range).
The provisions of these conventions provide for the creation of conditions for
the gradual reducing and preventing of air pollution, including transboundary
pollution through the creation and implementation of regional, bilateral and
multilateral schemes and mechanisms of cooperation, a regional mechanism for
exchange of information on cross-border pollution, development and
implementation of a regional system of indicators of air pollution Central Asia.
UN Convention to Combat Desertification to strengthen regional cooperation
is intended to develop common strategies for the conservation and rational use of
land resources, to assist in the exchange of information for the establishment of a
regional monitoring of land degradation and its control.
The Convention on Biological Diversity emphasizes the importance and the
need for regional cooperation among states through access to new technologies,
exchange of information and scientific and technical developments. Cooperation
mechanisms are regional projects, improved identification and monitoring of
components of biological diversity, the creation of a regional ecological network for
the conservation of biological diversity, cooperative measures for its conservation,
which is consistent with the provisions of the Convention, CA.
Of particular importance are the UNECE environmental conventions, in
particular: the Convention on the assessment of the environmental impact in a
transboundary context; Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary
Watercourses and International Lakes; Convention on the Transboundary Effects of
Industrial Accidents; Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution on
Long-range. To date, the Central Asian countries are a party to most of these
conventions. Further promotion of accession countries of Central Asia to these
conventions is an important factor in providing a legal framework for the regulation
of cross-border issues of environmental protection and use of natural resources.
To strengthen regional cooperation draft Subregional Strategy for Sustainable
Development of Central Asian countries (hereinafter referred to SSDS), which is
one of the mechanisms for the establishment of effective institutional and legal
conditions for the improvement of the ecological situation in the region. The basis
of the legal support for regional cooperation SSDS is the obligation of countries,
provided they have ratified environmental conventions. This environmental security
in the region on the basis of harmonization of environmental legislation, introduction
of international environmental standards and interstate regulatory protection of the
environment and nature. The latter provides a comprehensive ecosystem restoration,
the creation of national and regional databases on indicators for sustainable
development based on the use of new technologies, the integration of the Convention
on EIA in a Transboundary Context in the implementation of policies, programs and
investment projects. To combat transboundary pollution are encouraged to develop
a more modern system of environmental monitoring program for the rational use and
effective protection against cross-border pollution of water resources, land and air,
the conservation of biological diversity, including cross-border forest areas requiring
special protection, mountain ecosystems .
In addition, the SSDS and environmental conventions provided for the creation
of favorable conditions for the introduction of resource-saving, low-waste and nonwaste technologies of secondary resources and waste management, transportation,
disposal and storage, economic incentives for the restoration of natural resources,
the development of environmental policy integration in the field of waste
management .
The main legal acts that regulate the functioning of institutional mechanisms
for regional cooperation is the decision of the Heads of the Central Asian states on
the establishment of IFAS on the reorganization of its structure; Agreement between
the Governments of the Central Asian countries on the status of IFAS and its
organizations. Joint Statement by the Heads of State cooperation, in which the
interaction is registered units based on the provisions of their activities to address
the problems in the Aral Sea basin.
Normative legal acts regulating the institutional mechanisms for regional
cooperation, are decisions of the President of the Fund, as well as orders, a ruling
executive committee of IFAS, which are binding on structural units of the IFAS.
However, the provisions of legal acts of regional cooperation laid down in the
provisions of the EC IFAS, its affiliates, ICWC and ICSD and other organizations,
including the interaction between the structural units, require the development and
harmonization to improve the efficiency of the IFAS and its structures based
Solutions Heads of State of Central Asia.
LIST OF SOURCES:
1. The Framework Convention for the Protection of the Environment for
Sustainable Development in Central Asia (Ashgabat 2006)
2. Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer (Vienna 1985)
3. Convention on Biological Diversity (Rio de Janeiro 1992)
4. United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification in Those Countries
Experiencing Serious Drought and / or Desertification (Paris 1994)
5. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Rio de Janeiro
1992)
6. Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
(Kyoto, 1997)
7. Sub-regional strategy for sustainable development in Central Asia
8. The decision of Heads of State of Central Asia of the International Fund for
Saving the Aral Sea (Tashkent, 1993)
9. Agreement between the governments of the Central Asian countries on the
status of IFAS and its organizations (Ashgabat, 1999)
10. Joint Statement of the Heads of State cooperation, in which the interaction
is registered units based on the provisions of their activities to address the problems
in the Aral Sea Basin (Almaty 2009)
11. Statute of the International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea (Ashgabat, 1999.)
12. Regulation on the Executive Committee of the International Fund for
Saving the Aral Sea (EC IFAS)
13. Statute of the Interstate Commission for Water Coordination of Central
Asia (Almaty, 2008)
14. Statute of the Interstate Commission for Sustainable Development (Almaty,
2000)