From gopher@ecosys.drdr.virginia.edu Sat Jun 19 02:42:21 1993 From: EcoGopher Subject: 93-06-01-16: VUOTOS RESERVOIR AGAINST HU Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1993 14:48:30 CDT From: Matti Pellinen Subject: VUOTOS RESERVOIR AGAINST HU VUOTOS RESERVOIR AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS VUOTOS RESERVOIR PRESS RELEASE 26.5.1993 SUBJECT: Application to the European Commission of Human Rights concerning the exploration work for the planned Vuotos reservoir and the granting of a claim to mining activities without due cause on the same area. Five landowners from Pelkosenniemi, Finland made an application to the European Commission of Human Rights today. They are represented before the Commission by Pirjo-Riitta Oinaala, lawyer of the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation. The applicants consider that authorities have violated their right to enjoy from their property peacefully that is guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights by allowing Kemijoki Oy (a state owned power station company) to begin soil exploration work on their land without prior permission. The procedure for the permission to start the exploration work was deficient because the applicants were not given proper service of notice so that they could not present their views on the matter to the County Administrative Court nor to the Supreme Administrative Court before the actual exploration work on their land had started. Thus the applicants were not given the right to a fair trial when deciding on their rights and duties. However the permission to start the exploration work was properly served to Kemijoki Oy, which had applied for the permission. For this reason the applicants consider that they were discriminated in violation of the Convention. The applicants consider that the extension of the exploration work was disproportionate to the permitted aims of the research. According to their opinion the actual nature of the conducted exploration work is more like preliminary construction of the Vuotos reservoir. The Water Rights Court has not yet given any permission to start the building of the actual Vuotos reservoir although Kemijoki Oy has applied for it. The applicants had in their view no effective remedy when their rights were violated. According to the applicants the claims for mining activities that were granted for Kemijoki Oy violate their rights under the Convention because the authorities were aware of the fact that these claims were made for other purposes than they were applied. The applicants consider that Kemijoki Oy applied for the claims in order to prevent the interruption of the preliminary construction work in case the permission by the County Administrative Court would be annulled by the Supreme Administrative Court. Addresses: Also: oinaala@sll.fi (Pirjo-Riitta Oinaala) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Finnish Association ! E-mail addresses (some of them): for Nature Conservation ! varis@sll.fi international secretary PO BOX 169 ! poutanen@sll.fi Information secretary Peramiehenkatu 11 A 8 ! postmaster@sll.fi Macintosh-support 00151 HELSINKI Tel: 358-0-228081 ! FINLAND Fax. 358-0-22808200 ! ============================ Suomen Luonnonsuojeluliitto ry. Matti Pellinen PL 169, FIN-00151 HELSINKI E-mail: pellinen@sll.fi, tel: 90-22808202 fax: 90-22808200