A regional agreement on access to information in the environmental context for Latin America and the Caribbean will be negotiated, participants at a Nov. 9 at a meeting in Santiago, Chile, decided.
Representatives from the 19 Latin American and Caribbean signatory countries of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration – which promotes access to information, participation and justice in environmental matters – approved the launching of negotiations, with a December 2016 target date.
A negotiation committee was created, consisting of representatives from the signatory countries and two civil society organizations, according to an announcement. Chile and Costa Rica will be the co-chairs.
“At the end of the Fourth Meeting on the Focal Points Appointed by the Governments of the Signatory Countries of the Declaration on the Application of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which took place at ECLAC from Nov. 4-6, the participating countries also agreed that the regional agreement will be based on the Contents of San Jose, a document drafted in the working group meetings on the instrument held in Costa Rica last September,” the announcement says.
Article 19, the London free expression group, praised the development. Paula Martins, Director of ARTICLE 19 Brazil, noted the nations are still discussing whether the agreement will be a binding treaty.
Marin said: “It is essential that the final result of the negotiations is a binding treaty which gives people strong rights to demand information and participate in key development decisions. It must also protect human rights defenders who are threatened for their work.”
Since 2012, the Declaration on the Application of Principle 10 has been signed by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay. Antigua and Barbuda, Nicaragua and Saint Lucia participated in the meeting as observers.
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