拉丁美洲和加勒比海环境正义行动计划

更新，13年4月19日：十四个拉丁美洲和加勒比海（LAC）国家采用了雄心勃勃的行动计划，以改善2013年4月17日WRI's press release有关LAC原理10区域声明的行动计划的更多详细信息。

Without the right laws and safeguards in place, development can come at the expense of the environment and local communities. This point is especially evident in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Newspapers across the region regularly document conflicts over land and自然资源使用,水力发电development,oil exploitation, expansion of agriculture into virgin forests, and the土著实践的破坏。

发生了许多冲突，因为国家缺乏强大的法律和实践，这些法律和实践鼓励公众获得信息的获取和尽早参与政府决策。没有这些法律，公民不能合法获取信息on projects like proposed oil wells or highways—or engage in the decision-making processes about developing and approving these projects. Governments can then make decisions without considering the impact on local citizens. The resulting social, environmental, or health costs often fall disproportionately on the affected communities. (See our video,"Sunita,"for more information on the need for access to information laws).

但是，紫胶区域的情况可能会有所改变，具体取决于本周开会。来自13个国家和两个观察家国家的代表将与墨西哥瓜达拉哈拉的民间社会团体会面，以最终确定实施两年的行动计划LAC原理10区域宣言。If attendees come up with a strong plan, several LAC countries will come closer to adopting a plan for improving environmental justice and public participation rights across the region.

这Latin America and Caribbean Principle 10 Regional Declaration

原则10，或“环境民主原则”，要求公众获得环境信息的权利，参与影响环境的任何政府决定，并投诉并寻求从司法或行政机构中寻求补救。这Latin America and the Caribbean Principle 10 Regional Declaration在2012年6月的RIO+20峰会上被采用，这是发展中国家首次聚集在一起，以正式考虑创建实施原则10的区域工具的可能性。

到目前为止，来自13个国家的政府已经签名to the Declaration, and signatory governmentsprepared a Road Mapin Chile last November. The formal Plan of Action is to be approved at the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)meeting in Mexico，明天开始。该行动计划很重要，因为它将将政府承担到该地区要创建的区域工具的类型，定义人们和组织的参与方式，并建立政府将采取的具体步骤，为谈判过程做准备，从2015年开始。

3确保强大行动计划的原则

智利，多米尼加共和国和墨西哥政府已经发布行动计划草案。Finalizing this plan will be a significant step forward in the LAC Principle 10 process, but what’s more important is that the plan is astrong将公众的权利放在首位。Wri的访问计划, along with a number of our partners, believe that the Plan of Action must contain three key elements:

1. Demonstrated Political Will--to make serious progress on discussion of a法律约束regional convention for Principle 10 (rather than voluntary), as well as its scope and a vision for success. A legally binding regional convention presents opportunities to increase the adoption of access rights in the region and address the lack of implementation and enforcement that currently exists (see our paper,从原则到权利）。

2. 资源：LAC原则10声明将无法取得成果，除非政府和民间社会能够建立自己的能力，以确保采用新的信息自由法，改善公众参与过程，并促进司法和行政司法。我们将需要一种清晰的方法来获得财务，教育和其他资源，以推动这一过程的前进。

3. Strong Rules for Public Participation: Governments can’t design a regional instrument all on their own. Strong rules should facilitate participation of全部利益相关者 - 公共，私人和民间社会团体，包括受环境伤害影响的人，例如儿童，妇女和土著群体。如果没有强大的参与和公民社会的官方角色（例如，在工作组或副主席上），此过程将无法满足该地区每个国家 /地区的人们的需求。

Now is the time to make the important decisions that will guarantee the Principle 10 Declaration process is successful. A strong foundation during the planning phase will lead to a strong regional instrument during the implementation phase. Developing a robust Principle 10 Convention just may ensure that we see fewer and fewer of those media reports on environmental and development conflict in Latin America and the Caribbean.