CYIL vol. 7 (2016)

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CYIL 7 ȍ2016Ȏ DO THE EUROPEANS HAVE THE RIGHT TO GET INFORMATION ABOUT…
in the context of state security. Secondly, the article will reveal the contents of the
international legal rules regarding the right to information about the environment
in the case of the construction of a nuclear power plant. Thirdly, the situation of the
construction of a nuclear power plant in Ostrovets, Belarus, will be analyzed.
1. The Right to Information about the Environment in the Context
of National and Individual Security
1.1 The Significance of the Right to Information in the Context
of National Security
Some scientists argue that the purpose of the contemporary state is to satisfy and
combine the interests and aims of various social groups, to seek social compromise
and harmony, to ensure human rights and freedoms, to guarantee public interest.2
Since the state may be defined as the union of human beings living in a particular
territory and belonging to one political rule, therefore one of the main tasks of the
state is to ensure the needs of its members. One of the main needs of a person is
security, as defined by A. Maslow.3 Therefore the state ensures or seeks to ensure
the safety of individuals by various forms and methods, especially by legislative and
jurisdictional functions. The accessibility of the information, its accuracy and the
timely provision of information may increase both objective and subjective safety
in contemporary societies. The right to get information about the environment is
closely related to state security as a whole. Speaking about security, this is defined in
the objective sense by the absence “of any threat to the valuables possessed and in the
subjective sense – the absence of fear that these valuables will be attacked.”4 While
defining the term “security”, the main question arises – that of the object of security;
in other words, we have to answer the question: “whose security”? The traditional
theory of security is based on the idea that all the members of society or individual
interests are subordinate to the interest of the state.5 The main aim is to protect
the state from the threat of military aggression, to ensure the territorial integrity of
the state. The traditionalists fear that “widening the definition of security risks will
render the concept redundant by making it too all-encompassing and diluting the
important task of analysing military threats and inter-state conflict.”6 The problem
with the traditional theory lies in the fact that a secure state does not necessarily mean
2 ALFONSAS VAIŠVILA, Teisinės valstybės koncepcija Lietuvoje (Vilnius: Litimo, 2000) 579.
3 SAUL MCLEOD ‘Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’ (2014)
html> accessed 20 May 2016.
4 A. WOLFERS, Discord and Collaboration, Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1964, 150.
5 BIRUTĖ PRANEVIČIENĖ ‘Limiting of the Right to Privacy in the Context of Protection of National
Security’ (2011) 18(4) Jurisprudence 1614-1615.
6 PETER HOUGH Environmental Security. An Introduction. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
London and New York. 2014, 22.