United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment highlights recently adopted ECLAC Regional Agreement on environmental access rights

In the framework of his participation at the 37th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, John H. Knox, emphasized the importance of the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean recently adopted on 4 March 2018 in Escazú, Costa Rica.

In his speech, the Special Rapporteur considered this treaty on access to environmental information, participation and justice as "one of the most important human rights treaties and one of the most important environmental treaties of the last twenty years."

The Special Rapporteur also presented the Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment. Such principles refer to essential elements of the recently adopted Regional Agreement such as the principles of equality, non-discrimination and non-regression, the obligation to provide a safe and enabling environment for environmental human rights defenders and public access to environmental information, foresee public participation in environmental decision-making, considering the views of society, and access to effective remedies for human rights or national law violations related to the environment.