Exporting environmental democracy to international forums: Understanding the role of the Aarhus Convention

This socio-legal paper examines how the duty under Article 3.7. of the Aarhus Convention to promote principles of environmental democracy in international environmental forums is being interpreted and operationalised in practice. A systematic content analysis of the parties' 2021 and 2025 national implementation reports identifies uneven reporting and predominantly ad hoc approaches, focussing mainly on nationally based measures to facilitate the participation of states' own publics, rather than collaborative initiatives to influence the design of participatory processes and outcomes of international institutions themselves. These findings point to a need for stronger institutional coordination, tailored forum-specific guidance, and more systematic monitoring and accountability mechanisms in order to strengthen Article 3.7's operationalisation. More broadly, the paper also contributes to wider debates on the prospects of environmental democracy at scale, illustrating how the Aarhus Convention both exposes and tests the limits of efforts to democratise international and global environmental governance.