Latin America and the Caribbean Adopts Its First Binding Regional Agreement to Protect Rights of Access in Environmental Matters

March 14, 2018

--- Image caption ---

Today the representatives of 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries who were gathered in San Jose, Costa Rica adopted the first binding regional agreement to protect the rights of access to information, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters (Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development), an unprecedented legal instrument for the region.

At the conclusion of the Ninth Meeting of the Negotiating Committee of the Regional Agreement on Principle 10, the government delegates, along with representatives of the public and experts from international bodies, agreed to the final text of the accord, which had been under negotiation since 2014 and which also enshrines the protection of human rights defenders in environmental matters.

The closing ceremony was led by Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís and Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the United Nations regional organization that acts as technical secretariat of this agreement.

Other participants included Edgar Gutiérrez, Costa Rica’s Minister of Environment and Energy; Marcelo Mena, Chile’s Environment Minister; and Alejandro Solano, Costa Rica’s Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship.

“The agreement that has been achieved here in Costa Rica marks a turning point; it is very good news for a continent that needs it a great deal for its fight against crime, poverty, inequality and hate. It is also crucial for the very survival of our species,” President Solís said during his remarks at the meeting’s end.

The President indicated that it is necessary to bring people into environment-related decisions, making them participants in development, since “the right to a healthy environment is a human right,” he stated. He also highlighted the legal relevance of the agreement and of “environmental democracy” as a new legal term that implies the participation of all in the protection of the environment.

Credit: ECLAC- Read More>>