After more than 6 years of intense meetings and negotiations, 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have adopted in San Jose, Costa Rica, the “Escazú Agreement”, also known as Agreement by Principle 10.
It is one of the most important environmental human rights agreements of the last twenty years.
This multilateral instrument seeks to effectively guarantee the rights of all inhabitants to access information, guarantee the possibility that the population must be consulted and participate in the construction of a decision that may affect their quality of life or the right to enjoy a healthy environment, and also have direct mechanisms to access justice in environmental matters.
The Agreement is also the first adopted by a group of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean on environmental matters, and was built and negotiated with the direct and significant participation of representatives of civil society organizations from the various countries of the region.
The Agreement, which is binding, that is to say, of mandatory application for those countries that finally ratify it, includes many provisions tending to guarantee the rights to access information, participation and justice in environmental issues mentioned above, as well as the recognition fundamental principles for environmental law, such as the Principles “Precautionary” and “Prevention”, and “No Regression”, which prevents countries from repealing the guarantees and rights already recognized by it.