The Agreement protects the rights of individuals, groups and organizations who defend environmental rights. It contains rights on access to information, public participation, and access to justice in environmental matters. The Agreement also explicitly recognizes the right to a healthy environment as a human right. The Agreement obliges States to investigate and punish threats and attacks on environmental defenders. Finally, States are to set up bodies that monitor, report, and oversee that the treaty provisions are respected.

The signing of the Agreement can be seen as a response to the recent increase in killings of environmental activists. Last year, almost 200 environmentalists were killed worldwide, 60% of them in Latin America. The Agreement seeks to improve the protection of environmental defenders. Together with the recent advisory opinion of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights that recognizes the right to a healthy environment, the Agreement forms an important step in environmental protection in the region. The Agreement and the advisory opinion take a human rights-approach that stresses public participation. They mark a transfer of power to individuals, groups, and organizations to hold States accountable if they fail to protect the environment.

The full text of the “Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean” can be consulted here: https://repositorio.cepal.org/…/113…/43583/1/S1800428_en.pdf

Responsible Editor: 
Jeroen van Bekhoven
Post-Doctoral Fellow, National Taiwan University, College of Law

Proofreader: Yu-hsiu Joe Hsieh
Graduate Student, National Taiwan University, College of Law