Published: 2012
The Spring 2012 issue of Sustainable Development Law & Policy, published by the American University Washington College of Law. Features the article “Moving from Principles to Rights: Rio 2012 and Access to Information, Public Participation, and Justice” co-written by TAI’s Lalanath de Silva and Carole Excell.
By Joseph Foti (Posted: July 10, 2012)
More than a year ago, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon likened Rio+20 to a “free-market revolution for global sustainability,” calling for the event to inspire innovations that move the world toward more sustainable pathways to economic growth and development. Later in the year, U.N. Commission for Sustainable Development Chair, Sha Zukang, explained that the main difference of Rio+20 from earlier conferences “will be the sharp focus on renewing political commitments and on implementation…” Said Sha, “My message is: come to Rio ready to commit.”
The Rio+20 conference wrapped up on June 22nd, so the big question is: Did governments come through with these serious commitments?
Overall, the conference has been criticized for falling short of its goals, but one particular high point is countries’ actions to improve governance, especially regarding Principle 10. This “environmental democracy principle,” established at the first Rio Earth Summit in 1992, states that environmental issues are best solved with participation from all interested citizens. Several countries moved forward in embracing this important sustainable development principle during Rio+20. However, understanding how nations got to this place—and what the commitments mean—requires some backstory. . The Three Demands Campaign
The Access Initiative (TAI), a global network facilitated by WRI that promotes access to information, public participation, and justice in matters impacting the environment and development, launched the Three Demands (3Ds) Campaign in July of 2011. TAI saw Rio+20 as a chance for individual countries to re-affirm their commitment to Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration and take new, innovative steps to implement this cornerstone of environmental governance. Through the 3Ds campaign, TAI partners and their networks identified the most important steps needed in each country to improve public involvement in environmental decision-making—from forest management to pollution control, from project-level decisions to formation of law and regulation.
As the formal process continued throughout the next year, U.N. member states signaled their commitment to open and participatory governance in multiple versions of “The Future We Want,” Rio+20’s formal outcome document. Further, in one of the more interesting developments to emerge from the process, more than one “Compendium of Commitments” has been developed to make note of governments’ and institutions’ pledges, including an official process led by UNDESA as well as a “Cloud of Commitments,” launched by NRDC. (See the earlier blog post I wrote for more information on these initiatives.) These interfaces might help to energize implementation and accountability.
The Results
In total, more than a dozen countries where TAI is engaged signaled their intent to improve implementation of Principle 10. On June 19th, 2012, TAI, the network’s Brazil partners, Fundação Getulio Vargas-Rio Program on Law and Environment, and the United Nations Economic Programme hosted “Choosing Our Future: Open and Participatory Sustainable Development Governance,” an event which showcased governments’ commitments to improve governance. Highlights include:
• Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Convention on Principle 10: Led by Chile and the Economic Commission for Latin America (UNECLAC), so far 10 countries have signed onto a declaration to launch a process negotiating a regional convention on access to information, public participation, and access to justice. Countries publicly supporting this declaration include Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. In an era where multilateralism in the environmental arena is seen as increasingly rare, this declaration is a notable exception.
• Ireland: As a result of pressure from Irish NGOs, many of which are led by members of the TAI coalition, the Irish Government expressed its intent to ratify the Aarhus Convention (formally the UNECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation, and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters). On June 21st, it became the final European Union member state to ratify the convention.
• Indonesia: TAI partners made a number of recommendations to their government as a part of the 3 demands campaign. While the commitment was formally registered into the process for the Open Government Partnership, one of Indonesia’s commitments around access to information was articulated in the 3Ds campaign. Additionally, in the weeks preceding Rio+20, the Chief Justice of the Indonesian Supreme Court, following the release of the 3Ds by TAI partners led by ICEL, the Chief Justice has issued several measures to improve access to justice, including decrees establishing and implementing environmental judges certification.
• South Africa: Similar to Indonesia, South African TAI partners issued a number of demands and had one of them integrated into the Open Government Partnership—specifically, the launch of a feasibility study for an Open Environmental Data plan.
• UNEP: In a presentation to the “Choosing Our Future” audience, UNEP’s Achim Steiner, represented by staff, committed to advance Principle 10 through: creating programs to implement the 2010 Bali Guidelines on Principle 10; improving Principle 10 implementation within UNEP’s internal processes; and providing continuous support to the application of Principle 10 internationally, including through international and/or regional treaties and within the Eye on Earth Community.
Looking to the Future
Moving forward, it is hoped that the commitments process will continue as a rolling process— perhaps in the high-level forum currently being established. Continuing this process is an opportunity to make Rio+20 and the institutions it established more than just a simple talk shop and actually create real change.
We know that in the coming months, TAI partners will work to ensure that further commitments are submitted by governments, whether through the formal Rio+20 commitment process (open for the entirety of 2012) or through other arrangements, such as the Open Government Partnership. Just as importantly, we will be there to continue to track implementation and execution, whether or not commitments are formally entered into any official registry.
Published: 2012
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development is returning to Rio de Janeiro in 2012, with institutional framework for sustainable development and green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication as the main themes. As part of the preparations for Rio+20, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) called for submissions by 1 November 2011 through a web portal they established.
An analysis of the submissions carried out by The Access Initiative (TAI) showed that there were over 140 submissions (including submissions by several states, intergovernmental organizations and civil society organizations) calling for better implementation of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration and greater transparency, participation, and accountability in matters affecting sustainable development. Clearly, there is a growing sense of urgency and a chorus of national governments, intergovernmental bodies and civil society groups calling for the strengthening of Principle 10 worldwide.
These calls for a convention or legally binding framework on Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration provide the context for this paper. In it we seek to (a) provide reasons why a convention offers a good option for making future progress in implementing Principle 10, (b) suggest what the contents of such a convention might be and (c) conclude with what Rio+20 can do to further such a convention. For those who would like more information on Principle 10 and the details of the various calls for a convention, we have provided an annex.
Published: 2012
In an effort to ensure that the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) generates meaningful outcomes, governments and other stakeholders increasingly support using the Conference to announce specific and time-bound commitments, and to agree on a “framework” to hold each other accountable for results.
By Daniel Barragan (Posted: February 20, 2013)
In the context of Rio+20, a number of civil society organizations, most of which form part of The Access Initiative (TAI), came together to advocate countries in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region to advance on access rights. As a result, at Rio+20 eleven governments issued a formal declaration and publicly signaled their support for development of a regional instrument to strengthen access to information, public participation, and access to justice in sustainable development decision‐making. The Governments include Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.
The signatory governments also committed to drafting and implementing a Plan of Action 2012-14, to work towards an international instrument. The UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) is serving as the technical secretariat for the process.
The participation of civil society in the elaboration of an LAC Principle 10 instrument is essential to the process of elaboration. Civil society’s participation would ensure that the instrument is capable of actually strengthening public institutions in the region, with a view to ensuring the realization of access rights. The participation of civil society is also important to ensuring the legitimacy of the instrument and thus its viability as a tool to strengthen environmental governance for sustainable development.
The process of elaboration of the LAC Principle 10 Instrument is just beginning, and that means that there is ample opportunity for civil society to help shape every aspect of the instrument, including the form of the instrument, e.g., a legally binding convention.
Governments have committed to a participatory process, but this commitment will not materialize if civil society lacks the actual capacity to participate in the relevant meetings of the process. The project thus contemplates several strategic objectives and components to enable meaningful civil society participation.
In this context The Access Initiative, through its Core Team member, Centro Ecuatoriano de Derecho Ambiental (Ecuadorian Center for Environmental Law) and the support of the Center for International Environmental Law submitted a proposal to the Norwegian Agency of Cooperation, NORAD on January 31st, 2013.
The project’s goal is to enable civil society’s participation in the process of elaboration of the LAC Principle 10 instrument, and the expected result is a strong instrument that can ensure meaningful participation of local communities and other stakeholders in decision-making process regarding natural resources.
Attached is the Declaration of P10.
Published: 2011
TAI and ARTICLE 19 joint position paper leading up to Rio+20.
Published: 2011
TAI and ARTICLE 19 joint position paper leading up to Rio+20.
Published: 2011
TAI and ARTICLE 19 joint position paper leading up to Rio+20. Also available in Spanish and Portuguese.
Published: 2011
UNEP Perspectives Series
This discussion paper 1) briefly explores the rationale and principles for “public participation” in IEG; 2) reviews exemplary practice and options of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) with regard to implementing these principles and suggests a number of changes to IEG that could enable more transparent, participatory, and accountable governance; and 3) suggests that Rio +20 provides an opportunity to improve the quality of civil society participation by enabling civil society organizations not merely to observe, but also to inform, shape, and engage decisionmaking processes by securing an equal footing with states in some aspects of the IEG policy-making process; performing key governance functions that governments cannot or will not perform themselves; and amplifying the voices of people and of interests that governments may not represent adequately. In order to frame these observations in the context of Rio +20’s mandate to review progress toward sustainable development, this paper concludes by summarizing proposals across the three pillars of Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration (access to information, public participation, and access to justice).
As the international community gathers for the Rio+20 summit on sustainable development, we have a chance to renew our commitment to Environmental Democracy. Can national governments deliver?