On 22 June world leaders attending the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, issued the long-awaited outcome document “The Future We Want” that has been negotiated for over two years.

Despite long and active campaigning of many NGOs worldwide, the right to freedom of expression, essential for participation and accountability, never made it into a draft of the outcome document in Rio de Janeiro.

“It is amazing that in the wake of the Arab spring, governments did not find their voices to support free speech rights in the context of sustainable development”, said Jan Egeland, deputy executive director at Human Rights Watch.

Article 19 expresses disappointment over the world leaders’ not making firm commitments in access to information and public participation by failing to agree to go forward on a global convention on access to environment information.

However, Article 19 also sees a number of useful provisions in the Outcome Document relating to access to information, transparency and public participation, which can be used to improve access and participation at the international and national levels. This means that Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration was extended at some level but without any tangible commitments.

You can find the list of important provisions in the Outcome Document here.

The importance of Rio+20 Summit

According to Article 19, one of the major problems standing in the way of sustainable development and a clean environment is the lack of operational and effective rights of access to information, public participation and access to justice at both the national and international level.

These access rights facilitate more transparent, inclusive, and accountable decision-making in matters affecting environment and development. Access to information empowers and motivates people to participate in an informed and meaningful manner.

Participatory decision-making enhances the ability of governments to respond to public concerns and demands, to build consensus, and to improve acceptance of and compliance with environmental decisions because citizens feel that these decisions are their own.

Access to justice encourages the public’s ability to enforce their right to participate, to be informed, and to hold regulators and polluters accountable for environmental harm.

The 1992 Rio Declaration fostered these rights in Principle 10. Now renewed commitment was needed for the full recognition of the rights in all countries. The Rio 2012 Summit provided an opportunity for governments to transform Principle 10 from aspirational goals into actionable rights.

Tangible commitments would assure better results
Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration recognised the crucial importance of these rights and proposed that access to information, public participation and access to justice be adopted into law in all nations.

In particular, the Outcome Document could include strong commitments from all nations to improve their legal structures on national environmental governance based on Principle 10 and the Bali Guidelines, agree to the development of an international instrument giving legal force to Principle 10 based on the Aarhus Convention, and ensure that the principles are incorporated into all UN bodies decision-making processes.

Over 90 countries have now adopted framework laws or regulations for access to information, including in the past few years China, Indonesia, Nigeria, Liberia, Mongolia and Brazil.

But much work remains to be done to ensure that citizens of the other 100 nations without adequate legal rights are empowered and informed so they may participate and ensure development, and that a clean environment is enjoyed by all in an equitable and fair manner.

Recommendations
Article 19 strongly recommended to all Rio+20 Summit participants to reaffirm and extend Principle 10 in three areas:

– All nations should make tangible and identifiable commitments for adopting Principle 10 into national law based on the Bali Guidelines by 2017.

– All parties should commit to begin negotiations on a new international convention on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice to be completed by 2017 based on the Bali Principles and the Aarhus Convention model.

– Any reform of the institutional framework of governance for sustainable development including the creation of a Council on Sustainable Development, and a World Environmental Organisation or UN Environmental Organisation should also ensure that the Principle 10 rights are incorporated into their structures. This includes all other UN and regional bodies.

Article 19 involvement
Article 19 has been deeply involved in the process relating to the Outcome Document for the past two years, participating in UN and other meetings leading up to the summit, developing a paper with The Access Initiative, submitting comments to the UN and UK Parliament, and co-organising a series of meetings around UN gatherings to focus on the subject.

Dave Banisar, Article 19 senior legal advisor, participated in Rio+20 Summit alongside Tahmina Rahman, director for South Asia region of Article 19, who was coming as part of Bangladesh’s delegation, and Paula Martins, Article 19 South American director, who runs the Brazil office.

Here you can find the delegation’s impressions on the debates in Rio de Janeiro.

Following the summit, the organisation intends to take advantage of the agreements in the document to further advocate for better implementation of access to information and public participation by all countries, the development of a regional convention in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in the institutional reform process.

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