User:CarlaSP/Global Pact for the environment

May 10, 2018  the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that opened the negotiation channels towards a Global Pact for the environment (Resolution A/72/L.51 of May 10, 2018 “Towards a Global Pact for the environment” ). The vote was 143 for, 5 votes against (United States, Russia, Syria, Turkey, and Philippines), and 7 absentee votes (Saudi Arabia, Belorussia, Iran, Malaysia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, and Tajikistan).

The global pact for the environment was born from an initiative launched in 2017, by a network of 100 renowned experts representing all continents.

Objectives
The Pact’s objective is to fill the gaps in international environmental law and to contribute to the emergence of a global legal framework, one that is more protective of natural resources. As a matter of fact, if the 1972 Stockholm Declaration and the 1992 Rio Declaration recognize the general principles of environmental rights that today have consensus, these texts have strong political influence and symbolism but lack legal force. The Pact for the most part, will be a multilateral treaty, equipped by legal force, dedicated to the principles that guide environmental action. With the momentum created by the adoption of the 2030 UN  Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, the Pact would go beyond the sectorial differences, by not targeting a particular sector (the Paris Climate Agreement, biodiversity, pollution etc. ), the Pact applies to environmental politics as a whole.Having the vocation to become the cornerstone of international environmental law, is at the same time distinct and complementary to sectorial conventions. Having a universal program, that is susceptible to be applicable to all States, without geographic restrictions. Also, if adopted, the Pact will be the first international treaty on the environment as a whole.

The Pact recognizes a third wave of fundamental rights, rights related to the protection of the environment. It will complete the legal edifice of fundamental norms, that will incorporate the two international 1966 Pacts – one relative to political and civil rights, the other to economic, social, and cultural rights.

While consolidating and harmonizing the global scale of environmental rights, the Pact will result in a reinforced dynamic within the legal framework. In each State party, the legislator will implement principles of the Pact, adopt new laws protecting the environment. The Supreme Courts will have a source of inspiration for their jurisprudence, within the Pact principles.

Origin
The project of the Global Pact for the environment was proposed in 2017 by an international network of hundreds of the most prominent experts (professors, judges, and lawyers) representing more than 40 countries from the north and south, who had been briefed by the “Group of experts for the Pact” (GEP). The GEP is headed by Laurent Fabius, President of the Constitutional Council and previous COP 21 President and is driven by his General Secretary, Yann Aguila, Lawyer at the Paris Bar and the President of the Environmental Commission of the Jurists’ Club. Which includes Antonio Herman Benjamin, judge at the High Court of Justice of Brazil, David Boyd, special UN rapporteur on human and environmental rights, Lord Robert Carnwarth, judge at the United Kingdom Royal Supreme Court, Parvez Hassan, Lawyer at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Maurice Kamto, public law professor at the University of Yaoundé in Cameroun, Swatanter Kumar, president of the National Green Tribunal in India, Tianbao Quin, professor at the Wuhan University in China, Nicolas Robison, professor at Pace University in New York or Jorge E. Vinuales, professor at the University of Cambridge. The complete list of members of the network is available on the Pact website .

The idea behind the Global Pact for the Environment is not new. In 2015, the adoption of such an international treaty also had the Environmental Commission of the Jurists’ Club propositions, in the report "reinforce the efficiency of international environmental law ". Other initiatives from civil society have gone the same way. The network of international experts’ 2017 project is written to be expanded upon.

Context
As indicated in the 2017 Pact project presentation report, the experts’ first drafted text must be seen as a preliminary version, as a contribution to international civil society that reflexes States. Acting as a treaty, the State representatives will negotiate the final text of the Global Pact for the environment.

The Pact drafted in 2017 by the experts GEP is structured as a Preamble and 20 principles, complemented by 6 final clause articles. It is founded on two main principles, a right and a duty : the right to a sound environment and the duty to care for the environment.

The project includes a series of largely established principles, that includes substantial principles (duty to prevent and to repair environmental disasters, principle of precaution, principle of integration of sustainable development objectives in the governmental policies) or procedural principles ( right to information, principle of public participation to the development of environmental decisions, right to have access to environmental justice). Furthermore, the preliminary draft of the Pact is innovative, like an official recognition of the role civil society plays in environmental protection or even the non-regression principle, that prohibits environmental legislation from regressing.

Finally, the text also envisions Pact control mechanisms ensuring effectiveness. The follow up Pact committee will constitute a forum for exchanging experiences between States, and formulating useful recommendations for all, in light of national best practices.

Current status ?
The Pact project was presented for the first time in Paris on June 24, 2017, within the framework of an international event organized by the Jurists’ Club in the Sorbonne University’s Grand Amphitheater with attendance from several affluent individuals in environmental conservation, including Laurent Fabius, Ban Ki-moon, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mary Robinson, Anne Hidalgo, Laurence Tubiana, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal and Nicolas Hulot .

September 19, 2017 the Pact project was presented to the UN by the French President Emmanuel Macron to celebrate the world summit, bringing together several governmental Heads of States, for the 72nd anniversary of the UN General Assembly Session in New York. For this occasion, the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, the President of the UN General Assembly, Miroslav Lajčák, as well as the Executive Director of the UN Environment (UN Program for the environment), Erik Solheim, manifested their support for the project.

May 10, 2018, UN General Assembly adopted the resolution « Towards a Global Pact for theEnvironment ». This text opens the floor to negotiation of such a Pact. It organizes the project’s terms of review by UN bodies. The plan includes :

The report presentation by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to the General Assembly, identifying the eventual gaps in international environmental law towards the end of 2018;

The creation of a open-ended working group, open to all State members, in charge of examining this report and to discuss the necessity of elaborating the project in terms of a new international treaty.

September 5-7, 2018 the working group held a first organizational meeting in New York. They scheduled the next three meeting that will be held in Nairobi in January, March, and May 2019.

In May 2019, in terms of the working group tasks, if the need for a Global Pact for the Environment is confirmed, the UN General Assembly could adopt a second resolution, in light of the negotiations on the Pact contents. In the case of successful negotiations, the Global Pact for the environment could be adopted in the coming years at an ad hoc international conference, then giving States the option to ratify.