Following a series of informal consultations with Members of
Parliament, representatives from civil society organizations (including the Belize United Black Association for Development Educational Foundation), UN Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights & the Environment, and UN Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), we are
delighted to launch a Factsheet for Parliamentarians: The Escazú Agreement, an
Environmental & Human Rights Treaty.
This Factsheet for Parliamentarians introduces the Escazú Agreement, a groundbreaking
regional treaty in Latin America and the Caribbean, that serves as a key tool
to catalyze climate governance and action from a human rights-based approach,
ensuring the three rights of access to: information, participation, and justice
in environmental matters. The Factsheet outlines climate change impacts on
groups and communities disproportionately on the frontlines as human rights
defenders in environmental matters and provides parliamentarians with action
points for climate action within this context.
The Escazú Agreement is open to the 33 countries of Latin
America and the Caribbean and entered into force on 22 April 2021. To date, it
has 24 signatories and 13 Parties.
Earlier this
year, the UN General Assembly recognized that a clean, healthy and sustainable
environment is a universal human right. Climate change is a threat multiplier,
and has placed those already disenfranchised, often women, indigenous and
afro-descendants, at the forefront as human rights defenders of the
environment.
PGA’s Climate
Action Campaign aims to raise awareness and assist in effective implementation
of the Escazú Agreement – a truly groundbreaking treaty for Latin America and
the Caribbean that recognizes, protects and promotes the rights of all human
rights defenders of the environment.
As
parliamentarians, we are uniquely equipped to ensure the protection of human
rights through the robust implementation of tools like the Escazú Agreement.
This Factsheet for Parliamentarians: The Escazú Agreement, an
Environmental and Human Rights Treaty is
a useful tool that empowers legislators, outlining actions that we may take to
ensure the full recognition of the universal human right to a clean, healthy,
and sustainable environment.
Hon. Dr. Angela Brown Burke, MP (Jamaica),
PGA Board Member and Co-Convenor of the Climate Action Campaign
In 2023, the Factsheet will be developed into a comprehensive
Toolkit for Parliamentarians on the Escazú Agreement.
This session, jointly hosted by Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) and ParlAmericas, will bring together parliamentarians and civil society representatives from the Caribbean SIDS for a dialogue on the Escazú Agreement
PGA convened the hybrid Parliamentary Caucus: Protecting Human Rights Defenders in Environmental Matters, jointly with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in its capacity as Secretariat of the Escazú Agreement.
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