On October 25 this year, a practical training for students of various AUCA faculties was held in one of the classrooms of the American University of Central Asia (AUCA) campus by the Aarhus Center in Bishkek with the support of the OSCE Program Office in Bishkek and the State Agency for Environmental Protection and Forestry under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic on the topic “Aarhus Convention – one of the tools of access to justice in violation of the environmental rights of citizens.” This event was held in conjunction with the faculty of “Law” at AUCA, in which 37 students took part. At the beginning of the training, information was provided on the activities of the Aarhus Center in Bishkek and a brief presentation was given on the implementation of programs for 2015-2019.

The second part of the training was moderated by coach D. Arstanbaeva and V. Bolotbaeva. They presented a detailed module, which included materials on the Aarhus Convention and the practice of applying the provisions of the Convention. During the presentation of the module, a lot of interested questions were asked on various environmental topics, to which detailed answers were given by trainers. After the theoretical part of the presentation, they held a role-playing game with the participants in the training, during which they lost in practice the consideration of the environmental dispute in court. With this practical lesson, the trainers were able to interest the participants on how to properly present their environmental rights to the judicial authorities in case of violation.

Upon completion, the participants were awarded training certificates, which confirmed the passage of a short course on familiarization and application of the Aarhus Convention. At the end of the meeting, some student participants expressed a desire to cooperate with the Aarhus Center and become a volunteer of the organization.