Access to environmental justice in Peru and Latin America

By Dr FABIOLA MORALES CASTILLO

 

    LIMA, Peru – On June 21^st and 22^nd, 2007, the Sub-Regional Workshop of Compared Legislation and Access to Justice on environmental Laws Issues was made, activity that formed part of United Nations environment Programme (UNEP)’s Global environmental Citizenship PROJECT  that was developed by the Latin American Parliament at Peru’s Congress.

 

This workshop was made in parallel to the 7^th Joint Summit of Latin American Parliament’s Committees for Citizen Safety, Drug Trafficking, Terrorism, & Organized Crime’s Enforcement & Prevention, and Human Rights, Imprisonment Policies & Justice, with the participation of congress members of Peru, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Aruba, Venezuela, and Argentina among others. At the same time, the Homeland Security Ministers of Peru and Uruguay, and the Peru’s Justice Minister.

 

This programme starts from the existent preoccupation because of the few participation and conscience of Latin American citizens about the natural resources care, the clean production, and the environmental quality. The global environmental citizenship proposes us not to be only citizens of one country but to be global citizens.

 

Being like this, it’s addressed to build public awareness for increasing the levels of understanding about Latin American environmental issues, so creating a adequate level for national staking and actions related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, and the depletion of ozone layer.

 

Thus, the citizen participation on environmental issues becomes the main element not only because the participation allows a transversal reflection of the different issues or affairs linked to the environmental agenda, someway, but it cares directly to the health and life quality of people.

 

In the other hand, it’s necessary that the citizens of our region be aware of the great biodiversity of our countries and use it, exploit it in a rational way, keeping it for this and the future generations. With this project, the Latin American Parliament looks for determining strategic insights those should be priorize as a previous phase for a medium-term and long-term goal to improve the the possibility to the citizens for accessing the equity and justice in environmental matter.

 

One of the presentations was in charge of Instituto del Bien Común’s consultant Dr Carlos Soria Dall’orso who exposed on environmental legislation in Latin America. Dr Soria pointed out that a study of environmental justice access leads that there are strong declarations in favor to give access to justice, but few mechanisms to do it in a certain way, not existing easiness for that access to the citizen.

 

The judges in general are limited in knowledge on environmental matter, despite training has been done and will do – however, at the same time, the environmental Laws continue to be elective in the Laws career, while, otherwise, the alternative mechanisms for conflict solution have not been regulated by the legislation. Then, we have to produce effective authorities supported by the citizens as a mean for the environmental legislation to be effective.

 

Ada Alegre Consultores’ Dr Ada Alegre spoke about the Access to environmental justice in Peru. Dr Alegre is a lawyer specialized in environmental issues. Into her exposition, she identified ten central insights for an ordered attention to the right to access the environmental justice.

 

(i) To regulate a specific environmental action that can cover the aspirations around the environmental risk or hazard, the prevention, management, or control of the impact. (ii)To improve the environmental criminal rules of Peruvian Crime Code. (iii) To introduce improvements to the Civil Accountability Regime incorporating insights related to the environmental hazard. (iv) To improve the legal regimes of supervision, fiscalization, and punishment functions that the State applies. (v) To sistematize the disperse and still few jurisprudence on environmental matter we have in the country. (vi) To improve the procedures for the effective application of of environmental rules. (vii) To give more publicity of environmental rules to ease its understanding and effective application. (viii) To strengthen the jurisdictional work through the constant training to judges and attorneys. (ix) To establish basic regulations to improve the role of conciliators and referees in environmental matter; and (x) To establish institutionalized mechanisms to support the indigenous communities and poor population for their effective access to environmental justice.

 

Another speaker was National Council of environment’s director Dr César Villacorta who exposed about the environmental competence and management of local governments, pointing out that to get effectiveness in environmental administration is necessary a planned, participative, trans-sectorized, and communicative organization

 

He said the local governments configure a direct level to dialogue and participation on environmental matter – it’s this instance which everybody practically sees each other’s face. For Dr Villacorta, the goal the National Council of environment’s environmental administration local system is to estimulate to the municipalities with the formulation of environmental policies and actions to make it operational and measure the advance in environmental administration as one of the sustainable development bases localwide, so giving the municipalities with a new tool that allow them in a organized way to look for international cooperation.

 

Coming up, Peruvian Society of environmental Laws’ executive director Dr Manuel Pulgar-Vidal intervened exposing on the challenges of legislation and access to environmental justice in Peru. Dr Pulgar-Vidal emphasized during his presentation on the role that law has in solution of environmental problems. He considers that the law is a tool for the solution of those problems but not the solution because it needs the support of other stakeholders like the citizens. Regarding it, he identified many challenges for environmental legislation:

 

(i) It must protect the citizen, not the environmental administration instruments. (ii) It must integrate in a frame of solid politics, which all inside the principles of efficiency, effectiveness, and legitimacy.  (iii) To apply in a frame of governability. (iv) It must, beside the environmental administration, give in an unconcentration frame. (v) It must be present and included in the context of free-trade agreements.

 

At her turn, National Council of environment’s Biodiversity and BiosecurityUnit Chief Dr. María Luisa del Río Mispireta, doctor in Biology, about the evaluation of the climate change impact and the biodiversity, priority in the environmental agenda, explained there are two ssubstantial elements in the climate change/biodiversity relationship.

 

(i) Both are very related and form part of a same equation with their influence in biosphere; and (ii) The climate change demands to take urgent adaptation measures as wwell as measures for a sustainable management of biodiversity can contribute to mitigate some of their effects. So, she signed it’s urgent to include in the national environmental agenda: (i) to integrate the biodiversity, its conservation and sustainable exploitation as well as its knowledge, (ii) To identify vulnerable components of biodiversity, (iii) To evaluate the threats and impacts to the biodiversity, (iv) To detect and to understand the changes in the abundance and distribution of species, and (v) To implement and to monitor the activities of adaptation.

 

Finally, I must highlight the worthy presentation of Dr Antonio Brack Egg, Vice-President of Research Institute of the Peruvian Amazon, who exposed about the environmental reality  in Peru, and, with a vision of future, pointed out we must re-think in the 21^st century the development and passing from destruction of environment to the building of new opportunities, trending to a development in alliance with the environment, the indigenous people, and the most pauperized population.

 

He reminded that the communities conserving more genetic resources and traditional knowledge are the poorest and marginalized ones, so the development must include the eco-business, discovering the potentials that the environment offers us. He considered those big opportunities must lead us to reflection. Regarding the legal frame, he expressed it demands a greater responsibility. Today, environmental impact assessments are required, environmental adequation programmes for companies those were not managing well their relation to environment, prevention of negative impacts, reversion of negative environmental processes, and the social license with the local communities, that in Peru is an extreme need issue.

 

    The Sub-Regional Workshop of Compared Legislation and Access to Justice in environmental Laws Issues had as a conclusion the making and signature of the Lima’s declaration, important document which agreements are the next:

1st. To agree the making of an environmental Chart or Chart of Promotion of Latin American Environmental Citizenship that gathers the vision of the Latin American Parliament about the environmental issue in the region and the goals it aspires to reach.

2nd. To agree the making of a regional-range agreement to promote the citizen participation and the access to information as fundamental conditions of the access to environmental justice, to be presented to the parliaments of every country in the further goal’s frame that plans to create a Latin American and Caribbean Court for environment.

3rd. To promote the coordination and interchange of information and experiences about the Aarhus Convention with members of the European Parliament and the European economic Comission.

4^th. To establish an instance inside the Latin American Parliament’s Comission of Tourism aand Environment in charge of monitoring and evaluating the accomplishment of the agreements contained in both documents, and coordinate and interchange experiences with the joint organizations of the access initiative.

5th. To request formally at UNEP the inclusion of those initiatives into its work programme through the Global environmental Citizenship Project and help with such as entity to look for complementary funds and holding the technical advisory about this particular.

6th. To encourage the participation of legislator members of the Comission of environment and Tourism in making the workshop in Havana where will continue with treatment of this issue.

7th. To thank the honorable Peru’s Congress, UNEP, Latin American Parliament, and Peruvian Society of Environmental Laws for their commitment to support this initiative, cheering them to continue this joint work.

 

We thank the speakers and parliament members of participant brother countries, their contribution to the success of this important Global Environmental Citizenship Latin American workshop .

 

Fabiola Morales is journalist. She has been Peru’s Congresswoman and became Vice-President of Latin American Parliament.