Environmental Human Rights Defenders: Legal Protections across International Borders

Written By Andrea Brazier

Part III: The Escazú Agreement

Diálogo Chino: Why is the Escazú Agreement so important?

The Escazú Agreement, formally called the “Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean,” was adopted in March of 2018 in Escazú Costa Rica. It builds on the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) held in 2012, and the Santiago Decision adopted in 2014 which contextualizes, for Latin America and the Caribbean, Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development:

“Environmental issues are best handled with participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making processes. States shall facilitate and encourage public awareness and participation by making information widely available. Effective access to judicial and administrative proceedings, including redress and remedy, shall be provided.”

Article 9 of the Escazú Agreement is groundbreaking in that it is written with specific consideration of “Human rights defenders in environmental matters,” and elaborates on the signatory parties’ responsibilities to protect the rights of EHRDs, such as the “right to life, personal integrity, freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association, and free movement,” so that they may “act free from threat, restriction and insecurity.”

The considerations in Latin America are sorely needed at this time as the climate crisis mounts, environmental activism surges, and thus so does the violence against EHRDs. Diálogo Chino, an independent news outlet covering topics related to China-Latin American relationships and the environment has been closely following the progress of the Agreement over the past few years.

There have been significant delays in the advancement of this Agreement through the process of congress, submission to the UN, and ratification due several factors including the suspension of congressional meetings due to COVID-19, as well as changes in government and political crises. As of March 2022, the Agreement has 24 signatures and 12 ratifications, of the possible 33 Latin American and Caribbean nations to which this Agreement is applicable.

A perceived issue with the Escazú Agreement is that it covers various different topics under the umbrella of “Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters…” Although this multinational convention is unprecedented in its inclusion of EHRDs, the association of environmental and human rights in an agreement which predominantly addresses the right to free speech and freedom to information means that there are various other Articles that can be contested by signatory nations. This may result in the rejection of this Agreement in its entirety, failing to enact national and international responsibility for the persecution and deaths of hundreds of EHDRs yearly.

For example, Paraguay has been resistant to ratifying due to strict Catholic leadership, as reported by various Latin American news outlets, citing an oppositional statement made by Archbishop Edmundo Valenzeula that the Agreement pressures Paraguay to accept "abortion, gender ideology and euthanasia" resolutions — topics not even mentioned in the document. Conversely, the inclusion of Article 9 (protections for EHRDs) into the larger Ezascú Agreement, could also be a strategy to integrate these legal protections in a more palatable way to those countries who may not sign to these terms if they were independent of the Agreement.

On its own, the Agreement falls short of being able to create enforceable legal protections to safeguard the lives of EHRDs, especially if not all nations agree to sign, ratify and hold each other liable for any failures in upholding Article 9. The following graphic shows the way that the Ezascú Agreement interacts with other strategies such as the Open Government Partnership and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Agreement, in context of the other legal and international instruments, has the potential to expand channels of communication, transparency, and positive resolutions to defend EHRDs when the Conference of the Parties (COP) and the Committee to Support Implementation and Compliance are used as tools to ensure signatory nations’ observance of the Agreement.

Hope remains for the Ezascú Agreement to be able to hold governments accountable for the rights of EHRDs; with the ratification of Argentina and Mexico in late 2020, this regional agreement came into force and was activated on Earth Day 2021, with the necessary support of 11+ ratifying countries.

UNICEF has prepared a comprehensive resource explaining the the Ezascú Agreement for youth and young people (ages 15-24) which can be found here; this is a fantastic way to educate yourself and others on this historic leap forward in climate action.

Tune in next time as we explore Other International Instruments for the protection of EHRDs!

Adapted from an Academic Paper submitted for International Environmental Law, Osgoode Law Hall & the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University; 2020.

Andrea Brazier
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