JET boss calls for Gov’t to Ratify Escazú Agreement
Published:Friday | November 8, 2024 | 12:09 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Dr Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie, CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), is urging the Jamaican Government to ratify The Escazú Agreement, which it signed in September 2019.
Without its ratification, the protection provided by the treaty cannot be accessed by citizens of any country.
The Escazú Agreement, a regional treaty, came into effect on International Earth Day, April 22, 2021, and was adopted in Escazú, Costa Rica, in 2018.
Formerly known as The Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean, the Agreement seeks to protect the rights of present and future generations so that they might live in a healthy environment.
It also seeks to effectively implement the rights to access environmental information and justice regarding environmental matters and to enhance public participation in the environmental decision-making processes.
Speaking at the launch of the ‘Caribbean Perspectives on Escazú: Our Rights, Our Future’ campaign held by The Breadfruit Collective, a Guyana-based non-governmental organisation that focuses on gender and environmental justice, Rodriguez-Moodie stated that the JET utilised the Access to Information Act “heavily”, but even then, information was not always easily accessible or made available to them by authorities.
She is, therefore, demanding greater access to environmental information, one of the four pillars of the Agreement.
“In order to be an effective environmental defender, you do need access to information. You need meaningful public participation, you need justice, and you need protection,” she said.
Rodriguez-Moodie continued that to have a long-lasting effect on the country’s path towards environmental justice and sustainable development, the Government must start by empowering environmental defenders and promoting an inclusive approach to environmental governance.
Speaking with regard to justice and accountability, Rodriguez-Moodie stated that access to justice is necessary so that when environmental defenders are injured or unfairly targeted, they are able to seek redress and challenge decisions that have been made. However, she also pointed out that this is not always easy or inexpensive to accomplish.
“We need protections because sometimes we face physical threats, legal harassment, criminalisation. We need access to information because if you don’t have timely information, data on projects and policies, and so forth – this is absolutely crucial to being able to take action,” she said.
The United Nations (UN) defines environmental human rights defenders as “individuals and groups who, in their personal or professional capacity and in a peaceful manner, strive to protect and promote human rights relating to the environment, including water, air, land, flora, and fauna”.
According to Rodriguez-Moodie, the JET has already contacted the authorities but is yet to hear back.
“But we’re hoping to kind of really push and get those discussions going,” she continued.
“We also recognise that we in the Caribbean, at least in Jamaica, we tend to sign these agreements, we tend to sign these documents a lot, and it doesn’t actually translate to much sometimes, and so I think ... it’s not just about making sure that we ratify... . I think what’s very important is that at the very least, we see an improvement in the access to information, the public participation - the four different pillars that we’re talking about,” Rodriguez-Moodie said.
She pointed out that the JET is currently rolling out a nationwide initiative to support environmental defenders in Jamaica, which got under way in August. Funded by the JET small grants programme, it will be implemented over a two-year period.
JET intends to accomplish this in three ways: first, by educating the public about the Agreement through public workshops; second, by developing a database of all local environmental defenders and recording their experiences; third, by advocating for the Government to ratify the Agreement and create a more secure and inclusive framework for environmental defenders on a local level.
“Essentially, the Escazú Agreement is absolutely critical to the work that we do at JET and to be meaningful advocates,” she said.