ONLINE 22nd APRIL
11:00 Santiago, Chile | 16:00 BST | 17:00 CEST
This event will be in Spanish with simultaneous translation into English
The “Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean”, better known as the Escazú Agreement, was adopted in Escazú, Costa Rica, on March 4 of 2018. It is an international legal instrument that aims not only to protect the environment, but also human rights.
The objective of this international treaty is to guarantee the rights of access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision-making processes and access to justice in environmental matters, as well as to contribute to the protection of the right to live in an environment with healthy and sustainable development.
Currently, the agreement has been ratified by 15 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and another 10 signatory countries are pending ratification.
The establishment of ecocide as an international crime, as well as its adoption by national legislation, will contribute to protecting both the environment and human rights, in particular the right to live in an environment free of pollution, as well as the rights of indigenous peoples, who inhabit their territories in harmony with nature. These are, precisely, objectives shared by the Escazú Agreement, so both instruments, although different, are, at the same time, complementary.
The participation of Stop Ecocide in this regional summit of Latin America and the Caribbean, through this official parallel event, aims to share different legal strategies for the protection of nature, the territory and its defenders, including our proposal to convert ecocide into an international crime.
Aresio Valiente López (Panama), professor of the University of Panama, Executive Director of the Popular Legal Assistance Center, President of the National Union of Indigenous Lawyers of Panama, Vice President of the Institute of Agrarian, Environmental and Indigenous Law and member of the legal team of the General Guna Congress, autonomous government of the Guna people.
Pablo Fajardo Mendoza (Ecuador), Ecuadorian lawyer and activist, representative of the Amazonian indigenous peoples in the Chevron-Texaco case, Goldman Prize for the environment. He was a member of the Panel of Independent Experts for the legal definition of the crime of Ecocide.
Rodrigo Lledó Vásquez (Chile-Spain), Director of Stop Ecocide for the Americas, Vice President of Human Rights Without Borders and professor at the International University of La Rioja (Spain). He was a member of the Panel of Independent Experts for the legal definition of the crime of Ecocide.
Juana Calfunao Paillalef (Chile), Ñizol Lonko (higher ancestral authority) of the Mapuche People-Nation, activist and defender of the environment and the ancestral rights of her people to the territory. She led the request for international arbitration so that the State of Chile respects the Treaty of Tapihue of 1825.
Yolanda Zurita (Peru), social and environmental activist, representative of the National Platform of People Affected by Heavy Metals, Metalloids, and other toxic chemical substances (Peru), an organization that has recently obtained a favorable ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Moderated by Constanza Soler (Argentina), journalist.