A New Pact to Defend Latin Americas Environmental Activists

[Judi Lynn]

March 29, 2018 David Danzig

Two years to the day after a prominent Honduran environmental activist was murdered, 24 Latin American and Caribbean countries agreed to a legally binding agreement that will help protect environmental activists from attack and harassment.

The measure, known as The Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin American and the Caribbean, is also intended to give people affected by development projects a voice in the deliberations around their approval, and some recourse if a project harms them. The agreement is the first binding legal treaty on environmental rights in the region.

“This was done with ordinary people in mind,” said Karetta Crooks Charles, a communications officer of the St. Lucia National Trust, who helped negotiate the measure.

Berta Caceres, a Honduran environmental activist gunned down in her home on March 3, 2016, was also on the minds of negotiators. A winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015, Caceres was one of Latin America’s most prominent environmental activists. She was killed after spearheading an effort to block the development of a controversial hydroelectric dam in Honduras.

More:
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/new-pact-latin-america-enviro-activists

Environment and energy:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127116282