sustainable development 20 years on from the ... - José Eli da Veiga

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Reforms that would improve access to environmental justice in the region include: elimination of
barriers to the prosecution of environmental crimes; recognition of common and collective environmental
interests in legal and administrative processes; ensuring legal enforceability of consultation mechanisms
and citizen participation procedures; the establishment of environmental courts and prosecutors’ offices
with adequate geographical distribution; coordination between levels of government; the capacity to halt
activities that are damaging to the environment or to health; provision for the greater guarantees needed
by indigenous people, affording them access to land tenure and social housing, respect, the formalization
of their territories and recognition of linguistic and cultural diversity; protection of women’s right to
access to productive assets such as land and natural resources, and to credit. Reforms along these lines
also require crimes to be clearly categorized, with greater consistency between administrative standards
and punishable actions. Criminal law needs to be supported by a comprehensive policy on environmental
crime to facilitate prevention and punishment. 9
C. ROLE OF KEY STAKEHOLDERS IN IMPLEMENTING
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Principles <strong>20</strong> to 22 of the Rio Declaration refer specifically to three groups of people that play a key role
in <strong>sustainable</strong> <strong>development</strong>: youth, women, and indigenous peoples and local communities. Agenda 21
goes further by defining a total of nine main groups involved in developing and implementing
<strong>sustainable</strong> <strong>development</strong> policies. They include, in addition to the above three groups, the private sector,
workers and trade unions, non-governmental organizations, farmers, the science and technology
community and local authorities.
1. Women towards <strong>sustainable</strong> and equitable <strong>development</strong>
The international community considered the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (United Nations, 1979) as the basis for action under Agenda 21,
chapter 24. Paragraph 4 of that chapter urges Governments to ratify all relevant conventions pertaining to
women if they have not already done so. At the Fourth World Conference on Women: Action for
Equality, Development and Peace and in the Beijing Platform for Action (1995) a host of measures were
outlined concerning the role of women in <strong>sustainable</strong> <strong>development</strong> —echoing Agenda 21, chapter 24. The
12 areas of special concern that represent a barrier to women’s advancement include inadequate
recognition and a lack of support for women’s contribution to natural resource management and
environmental protection (United Nations, <strong>20</strong>06).
Despite a strong regulatory base and the fact that in the late 1990s Latin America and the Caribbean
was the only region in which all countries had ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women, there are still challenges in implementing it, the Beijing Platform of Action
and the principles of the Rio Declaration. As such, the potential of women to participate in <strong>sustainable</strong>
<strong>development</strong> issues as agents and beneficiaries of change has yet to be fully exploited.
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See information on access to justice and reforms in national GEO reports [on line] http://www.pnuma.org/deat1/
nacionales.html