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UO law professor re-elected to leadership position on UN committee
Svitlana Kravchenko will help monitor compliance to an international treaty on environmental democracy.
RIGA, Latvia -- (June 17, 2008) University of Oregon law professor Svitlana Kravchenko has been re-elected as vice chair of a committee within the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).
Kravchenko will continue to serve as vice chair of the compliance committee for the UN Aarhus Public Participation Convention, an international treaty that promotes environmental democracy. The convention, which provides access to information, public participation and justice in environmental matters in Europe and Central Asia, is based in UNECE.
The compliance committee is a quasi-judicial body that sits in judgment on the performance of nations that have agreed to abide by the treaty. Five countries were found in violation of the pact during a recent meeting in Latvia.
Diplomats from 41 nations selected Kravchenko to retain her position as vice-chair of the compliance committee.
At the same meeting, Kravchenko and UO law professor John Bonine were chosen as "Knights of the Aarhus Convention." The title is given to individuals who perform "services above and beyond the call of duty in upholding the principles of environmental democracy this past decade." Bonine and Kravchenko helped negotiate the Aarhus Convention in the late 1990s and have continued to be involved in related United Nations activities since then.
Kravchenko is director of the Masters in Law program in the UO School of Law.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of 62 of the leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. Membership in the AAU is by invitation only. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.
Contact: Pauline Austin, 541-346-3129, paustin@uoregon.edu
Source: John Bonine, UO professor of law, 541-346-3827, jbonine@uoregon.edu
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