Rights, human freedoms are the highest value in our society. Not least among others is the right to live in favorable conditions. For the purpose of its observance the concept of ecological public control is formulated. Through it (probably) it will be possible to solve the problem of insufficient environmental function at the federal level. At the same time, experts point out that there will be real progress only when such a concept is formulated taking into account legal norms, as well as putting its postulates into practice.
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Nature and society have been interacting more closely lately. To some extent, it can even be called "democratic." This is largely implemented through the currently available environmental public control, as organizations and individual activists can take measures to improve the situation and control the fulfillment of the obligations assigned to the authorities. Many recognize how really important it is now to track enterprises, management activities of power structures,that decisions important to the environment are formulated and successfully adopted.
Rules and reality
The functions of environmental public control are to monitor the implementation of a number of significant procedures. The procedures themselves are reflected in the current legislation, it also spells out what their features are, specific mechanisms for translating the letter of the law into reality. At the same time, it is not in vain that it is believed that in practice what is declared by legal acts is not always observed. And here public associations come to the aid of the legal system.
…or am I en titled?
In many ways, environmental public control is due to legal norms adopted back in the period of the RSFSR. It was then that the Land Code formulated the opportunities assigned to the public in our time. It followed from the declared that all citizens, as well as organizations and communities, management structures, associations have the right to take part in the study of various issues, if the fate of the land plot is decided: its withdrawal or provision for the needs of agriculture, construction, industry. This applied exclusively to those areas, the change of which affected the interests of the general population.
As follows from the regulatory documentation, the allocation of land should be accompanied by the identification of public opinion on this issue. For this, referendums, interviews, civil meetings are organized. At the same time, the legislationcontains a clear description of how the procedure should take place, and there are also no correct unambiguous definitions of the legal force of the opinion expressed by the public, therefore, in some cases, the situation is hushed up or attention is gently diverted from the acute issue. To avoid this, it is necessary to make Russia's public environmental control stronger, and to substantiate its capabilities and functionality with legal normative postulates.
How is this supposed to work?
Ideally, public environmental control is carried out through hearings in which all interested citizens take part. At the same time, within the framework of such a meeting, it is necessary to check to what extent the requirements established by the environmental legislation are met, and also to assess how the planned activity may affect the environment.
As experts note, in our country, public environmental control is carried out taking into account significant gaps in the legislation. If this situation is corrected, citizens will have a really strong position, which means they will be able to control the work on decisions that are important for the environment.
Public expertise
This conceived effective form of public environmental control has exactly the same problems as the system described above. At the same time, an effective approach to the organization of work and the implementation of decisions made in practice allows you to keep the situation under control, if it is planned to create hazardous facilities, to conduct activities related to an increased level ofdanger. As part of a public review, independent experts can examine all factors of environmental tension and determine what new ones will result from the commissioning of a controversial facility or the start of work on it.
A public organization for environmental control, activists can now indirectly control how natural resources are disposed of at the federal level. This applies only to those that are considered the property of the state. This is organized through the environmental justification procedure - a mandatory event that accompanies the issuance of a specialized license. In order to correctly draw up a justification, you must first pass an examination carried out by public associations.
Right guarantees
Public environmental control is carried out in order to maintain adequate living conditions for our civilization. The task of the activities carried out within its framework is to protect the environment and control the activities of individual elements of society, including enterprises and associations interested in creating potentially hazardous facilities. So that public organizations that have taken on the tasks of ensuring control can insist on maintaining justice, the legislation gives them the opportunity to apply to the courts to protect the interests and rights declared by law.
In this aspect, the procedure for holding a publicenvironmental control involves sending an appeal to the court if the activity of a certain person looks illegal, the decisions made by him contradict the regulations. You can turn to the law enforcement system for help in a situation where government agencies are inactive, the officials responsible for this issue do not show the required activity. At the same time, there is a strict restriction: it is permissible to apply only on issues that are directly related to environmental interests, the legal possibilities of citizens of the state.
How does it work?
State production and public environmental control in our country are organized largely through information flows - the main form of implementation of activities permitted by law. Public organizations have the right to use methods available to them to request data from government agencies, enterprises regarding nature protection activities. The public also has the right to access information reflecting the current situation. It is declared by several federal laws that have come into force.
or measures, if such leads toviolation of public, civil environmental rights.
How to improve?
As experts say, the efficiency of this system would be increased if the goals of public environmental control could be spelled out in the legislation very clearly and correctly, at the same time, interaction between controlling structures, both state and from society, could be organized at the federal level. At the same time, it is important to cooperate, and not just engage in polemics. The prosecutor's office, which is responsible for observing the principles of justice and equality, should also take part.
Democracy and opportunity
As experts in social and political sciences say, it is the well-formedness of the civil society that is one of the key indicators of the democracy of a state. Civil society can be a source of positive influence on legal relations related to the environmental situation. At the same time, the community must have a peculiar, specific place in the legal system in order to have a real impact on the state of the environment through the promotion and blocking of the decisions of "those in power".
Public hearings, expert events, control - all this allows us to protect the rights of every person living in our country to a good state of ecology.
What are analysts saying?
It is generally accepted that the country currently lacks a holistic approach to environmental issues. Events that are regularly organized have a rather low level of effectiveness. Consequently, at the state level, there is no improvement in quality in relation to the situation in the world around. As for local self-government, the existing approaches here provoke corruption.
At the same time, polls show that citizens are frankly dissatisfied with the way the ecological situation is developing within the state. Tension builds; an already difficult (economic crisis plays a significant role) time is associated with additional aggravation of the situation, due to the neglect of environmental standards, laws, and rules. More than once, professional researchers have tried to formulate what reasons led to such a situation. There are several approaches, explanations developed by different schools. Each of them has its own strengths and weaknesses, adherents and dissenters.
Words and deeds
According to analysts, lawyers, modern legislation in our country is rich in complex and long formulations, supposedly designed to provide citizens and public organizations with the ability to control the environmental situation. At the same time, in practice, the situation is completely different: despite the abundance of words, there is no real benefit from them, since all expressions are too vague. The essence of public control is absent in legislative documents, although a lot of attention has been paid to the description of this phenomenon itself.
More importantly, the lack of algorithms that could be resorted to in order to realize the possibilities. ATAt present, regulation is such that individual institutions and entities simply cannot be effective. At the same time, experts note: there are all the makings to improve the system, and refinement, if any, will improve the quality of society's control over the state of the environment and the factors that determine it.
What about examples?
Quite indicative of the thirteenth article of the federal law on environmental issues. It follows from the wording of the normative act that officials, as well as state bodies, should, to the best of their ability, help individuals, entities and associations of a non-commercial nature, so that they can exercise their rights in relation to environmental protection. On the other hand, there are no specific norms in the laws declaring responsibility if bodies and persons do not fulfill the obligation assigned to them by the thirteenth article.
A similar situation is observed with the twenty-sixth article of the federal law on the protection of the atmosphere. It establishes that on the part of society, control procedures should be organized in the manner determined by the norms in relation to public associations, environmental protection. Of course, this indicates the need for protective measures, but the wording is so vague that it has no real meaning, no practical application, according to jurists.
