Press Release
UNECE governments urged to support global treaty on environmental democracy
[Geneva, 2nd December 2011] - Brazil’s call for a global treaty on environmental democracy should be fully supported to ensure environmental rights for all, said EEB Secretary General Jeremy Wates today at a UN meeting for next year’s Rio+20 Conference. [1]
“Such a treaty could promote democratic accountability and transparency globally. The rights to information, participation and justice, which the Aarhus Convention seeks to guarantee, should be enjoyed throughout the world,” said Wates at the regional preparatory meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) for the Rio+20 Conference on sustainability. [2]
Wates told UNECE [3] government delegates that the countries that did not support such a treaty should at least not prevent others from moving ahead.
Wates also told delegates that ombudspersons for future generations, which have been pioneered in some countries as a tool for sustainability protection, should be taken up more widely. This person would protect long-term interests in the face of short-term economic and political interests.
In addition, Wates called for guidelines to guarantee minimum standards of civil society participation in decision-making processes on sustainable development and that the Rio+20 Conference should launch negotiations for a framework convention on international sustainability impact assessment. This would assess the impacts on sustainability for certain projects, plans and policies, as well as new legislation, amongst others.
Sustainability advisory councils have also proven their worth, said Wates, and they should be promoted as a useful model at the Rio+20 Conference in June next year.
Notes to editors
[1] Brazil made the call for such a treaty in its submission to the so-called ‘zero draft’ of the Rio+20 outcome document – see http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/index.php?page=view&type=510&nr=227&menu=20, section P8.D.
[2] The Convention was adopted by environment ministers in 1998 in Aarhus, Denmark. Its objective is to guarantee the rights of the public to have access to information, to participate in decision-making and to have access to justice in environmental matters. Find more: http://www.unece.org/env/pp/welcome.html
[3] As well as countries in Europe, the UNECE region includes the United States of America, Canada, the Central Asian republics and Israel.
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