By Carla García Zendejas
It has been a year since the landmark Escazú Agreement entered into force (April 22, 2021), and while the Agreement was envisioned in a pre-COVID world, it is critical to take stock of the context in which it will be implemented. This week, States are gathering in Santiago, Chile, to do exactly that in the First Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Escazú Agreement.
The Escazú Agreement is the first regional environmental agreement in Latin America and the Caribbean enshrining the right of every person of present and future generations to live in a healthy environment, it is the only binding agreement stemming from the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, and it the first-ever agreement to include specific provisions for human rights defenders.
One of the first points of consensus with regards to Escazú was the goal of sustainable development while simultaneously acknowledging the need for a different development model that would integrate a rights-based approach to prevent inequality and discrimination. For development to be sustainable, communities must take ownership of development processes so that the environment and human rights are respected, with the goal of avoiding harm.
The Escazú Agreement is a powerful tool to prevent conflict through inclusive, informed, and participatory decision-making in environmental matters. Still, it is also a means of increasing accountability, transparency, and environmental and social governance. The Agreement’s unique importance stems from the foundational premise that access to information, broad public participation, and access to justice when needed are essential to promoting sustainable development.
While the vision for Escazú was to introduce a human rights-based model of development, ensuring environmental democracy in the region, the implications of the Agreement have now taken on profound dimensions due to the public health crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like many communities worldwide, people throughout Latin America and the Caribbean are still experiencing the loss of life, insufficient health care services, inadequate infrastructure, unequal access to vaccines, and an insufficient response to the pandemic. While these factors are not unique, what sets the region apart is the vulnerability and fragility that goes hand-in-hand with the inequities of daily life, all of which have been exacerbated for more than two years. The risks have grown especially acute for human rights and environmental defenders, as COVID-19 provided cover for increased criminalization, harassment, and reprisals.
The timing could not be more ideal for this binding agreement.
In recent years, after worldwide pressure stemming from conflict, violence, and the death of environmental defenders opposing development projects, multilateral development banks such as the World Bank committed to some of the principles contained in the Escazú Agreement, such as social inclusion. They also strengthened their policies on other principles, including access to information, public participation, accountability, and good governance. These development banks have also established specific zero tolerance on reprisal policies to protect those voicing opinions concerning their financial investments.
As billions of dollars for COVID-19 response financing and investments through loans, funds, and grants have now flowed to Latin America and the Caribbean from development banks, there is a critical need to scrutinize how and where these millions of dollars have been used and managed. While there is no question about the need for aid and support, existing questionable practices — exacerbated by the need to fast-track money — may have led to the mismanagement of multimillion-dollar loans, which will not benefit those most in need. Cases like these are where the implementation and enforcement of the Escazú Agreement could begin to create transformative change in the years to come.
As an example, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group committed a record $21.6 billion to the region in 2020. Eight billion dollars accounted for pandemic response, while $1 billion was specifically meant to help borrowing countries acquire and distribute COVID-19 vaccines. While vaccine funding is undoubtedly essential, it is expediting funds over the last years, many of which appear to be unconnected to the crisis, that raises red flags. Nations and communities at the receiving end of development aid must be granted full transparency, inclusion, and equity regarding the intended development projects.
Transparency, inclusion, and equity are central pillars of the Escazú Agreement, which institutions now include in their policies. This is evident in the Inter-American Development Bank’s new Environmental and Social Policy Framework, where principles from the Agreement were specifically included in the Standard on Stakeholder Engagement and Information Disclosure, thanks to participation from civil society.
In the case of the IFC, its $8 billion COVID-19 response was directed at helping corporations to continue operating, thereby sustaining jobs during the crisis. Here, the IFC and IDB Invest could play a central role in leveraging private investors during this time of crisis while enforcing their new environmental and social governance and transparency mandates. By ensuring transparency and public participation in decision-making by communities within these COVID response projects, vulnerable groups such as Indigenous Peoples, women, and children can benefit from these investments while avoiding unintended harms.
Also, the recognition of existing fragility and conflict should be a vital lens by which to address ongoing and future emergency situations. As we have all learned, the global pandemic compounded challenges for vulnerable people. Throughout this crisis, citizens in Latin America have not relented in expressing their opinions and opposing government measures that did not respond to national cries for basic needs, as we have seen in Colombia, Chile, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, and Brazil. As of 2021, Latin America was still the most dangerous region in the world for human rights and environmental defenders. Escazú acknowledges these vulnerabilities and calls for eliminating barriers to participation and protecting human rights defenders.
There is no doubt that the policies of development finance institutions have changed in recent decades — the question is whether this change can lead to improved projects and development outcomes that provide solutions precisely when they are needed the most.
The COP1 of Escazú marks the first steps toward effective implementation in Latin America and the Caribbean of the principles of environmental democracy to guarantee the rights of every person to a healthy environment. Development finance institutions and borrower States should be doing all they can to fully meet their existing duties to protect the environment and human rights if we hope to rebuild a more just, equitable, and sustainable society amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.
The Escazú Agreement has become a rallying cry for what transparency, inclusion, and participation in decisions about future life in Latin America and the Caribbean could actually become. As the world resurfaces from the pandemic and we look toward the future, a different development model may finally result from the new world we will all create together.