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.
