Mexico is\u00a0one of the twelve countries that ratified the Escaz\u00fa Agreement and helped ensure its entry into force. The Agreement will seek to be implemented against a backdrop of stories such as Carlos M\u00e1rquez’s, which are also found in areas such as Tarahumara or the mountains of Jalisco. Mexico is a country with more\u00a0than 500 documented environmental conflicts and its citizen participation mechanisms, such as consultations, have become mere procedures. It is a country where environmental agencies try to operate with the lowest budget in their history and where the federal government is the main promoter of megaprojects.<\/p>\n
“The Escaz\u00fa Agreement comes in a rather complicated national context, a hostile context and one of impunity, especially for [crimes against] defenders,” acknowledges Tom\u00e1s Severino, director of Ecological Culture, one of the civil society organisations that for more than a decade has promoted the regional treaty.<\/p>\n
Despite this context, Tom\u00e1s Severino trusts that Escaz\u00fa will be a powerful tool for the defense of the environment, which will not just remain on paper, as has happened with other environmental treaties.\u00a0\u201cThis is a human rights agreement and that makes a big difference.\u00a0Escaz\u00fa is a much broader umbrella.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the community of Cedros, municipality of Mazapil, Zacatecas, many families depend on the water distributed by a mine. The company is the one that has the concessions for the extraction of water (image: Adolfo Valtierra)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Escaz\u00fa’s first step in Mexico: access to environmental information<\/h2>\n Civil society organisations played a vital role in promoting the Escaz\u00fa Agreement.\u00a0It was they who, some years ago, promoted the creation of an instrument for Latin America and the Caribbean that would focus on compliance with the 1992 Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which states that everyone must have access to information, participate in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters.\u00a0For this, the Aarhus Convention was taken as an example, which European countries adopted in 1998.<\/p>\n
Biologist Olimpia Castillo, from Communication and Environmental Education, recalls that it was during the 2012 United Nations Sustainable Development Conference, known as Rio + 20, when the creation of a treaty for Latin America and the Caribbean was promoted.\u00a0It took six years for what is formally\u00a0the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean to\u00a0be finalised, in March 2018. It became better known as the Escaz\u00fa Agreement, after the city in Costa Rica where it was adopted.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mexico's undersecretary for foreign relations, Martha Delgado, helped get the Escaz\u00fa Agreement ratified (image: Relaciones Exteriores)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In countries like Peru, Chile or Paraguay, the business and political sectors lobbied for Escaz\u00fa not to prosper.\u00a0In Mexico that did not happen.\u00a0Members of civil society that promoted the treaty agree that ratification in the country took two years due to the change in public administration and the health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
In Mexico, in addition to the civil society organisations, undersecretary of foreign relations, Martha Delgado, promoted the ratification of Escaz\u00fa. Before entering public office, Delgado was part of the civil society-led movement that pushed the existence of the agreement.<\/p>\n
Today, it is the same civil organisations that promoted the agreement that, together with the ministry of foreign relations, evaluate and monitor Mexico\u2019s progress in environmental law enforcement with respect to the provisions of Escaz\u00fa.<\/p>\n
A first diagnosis shows that the country has a long way to go in the area of \u200b\u200baccess to information, since it has a relevant law and a National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI).\u00a0Yet, there are still pending concerns to guarantee the right of access to information on environmental issues.<\/p>\n
For example, the Escaz\u00fa Agreement states that it is the State’s obligation to have up-to-date environmental information systems, which include, among other things, a list of contaminated areas by type of pollutant and location.\u00a0This information is not available in Mexico.<\/p>\n
The State must also promote access to environmental information that is in private hands and that relates to concessions, contracts, agreements or authorisations that involve the use of public goods, services or resources.<\/p>\n
Xavier Mart\u00ednez, operational director of the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA), recalls that with the entry into force of the Escaz\u00fa Agreement, Mexico must also build an early warning system related to imminent threats to public health or the environment.<\/p>\n
In addition,\u00a0the country will have to present, at least every five years, a report on the state of the environment.\u00a0All this information must be disseminated in an accessible form for all people.<\/p>\n
The actions that the country must take to guarantee access to information on environmental issues are minimal when compared with the great challenges it faces in complying with the Escaz\u00fa Agreement on issues of\u00a0citizen participation, environmental justice and the protection of land and environmental defenders of.<\/p>\n
Escaz\u00fa can rescue the right to participate in Mexico<\/h2>\n When the Escaz\u00fa Agreement was still just a promise, during the signing period in which there was no certainty about its future, it was already invoked to demand rights in Mexican courts.<\/p>\n
This happened in at least two cases.\u00a0One was in a complaint against\u00a0the construction of a tailings dam by Grupo M\u00e9xico, near the community of Bacanuchi, in the state of Sonora.\u00a0When the lawsuit was filed, the inhabitants of the town located in the north of the country were already well aware of the negative impacts of mining.\u00a0In 2014, a mine belonging to Grupo M\u00e9xico spilled 40 million litres of copper sulfate in the Sonora and Bacanuchi rivers.<\/p>\n
In the case of the new tailings dam, the inhabitants of Bacanuchi claimed that it was built without a prior process of information and consultation with the community. Lawyer Victoria Beltr\u00e1n, coordinator of the legal area of \u200b\u200bPODER, a civil organization that accompanies the community in their demands, notes this as a key citation of Escaz\u00fa.<\/p>\n
In October 2018, the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ruled in favour of the Bacanuchi community, stating that their right to participate in an informed manner in decisions that could affect a healthy environment had been violated.\u00a0Judges recognised, for the first time in Mexico, the right to prior consultation for a non-indigenous community. Furthermore,\u00a0they ordered the government to hold a public information meeting to explain the scope of the project.\u00a0Despite this, Bacanuchi’s fight continues, since the sentence is yet to be fulfilled.<\/p>\n
For Beltr\u00e1n,\u00a0the Escaz\u00fa Agreement opens the door to rescue and re-appropriate the right to participation.\u00a0“A right that at some point vanished”, she says.<\/p>\n
An example is the case of the public consultation that was carried out between November and December 2019 for one of the Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador government\u2019s flagship projects: the so-called\u00a0Mayan\u00a0Train, under contruction in the Yucatan Peninsula, southern Mexico. The territory is home to the Mayan jungle, one of the most important tropical forests in Latin America and the Caribbean.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Mayan Train project proposes the revitalisation of existing rail networks (image: Robin Canul)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The Mexican Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-DH) warned that the consultation for the Mayan Train did not meet international standards.<\/p>\n
the Escaz\u00fa Agreement will have to help promote participation in spaces where the voice of the communities has traditionally been ignored<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Beltr\u00e1n stresses that, to guarantee the right to participation, it has to be “meaningful, effective and influence decision-making.”\u00a0To achieve this, she says, the emphasis needs to be on reversing the imbalances of power at the time of implementing the Escaz\u00fa Agreement.<\/p>\n
For the lawyer Xavier Mart\u00ednez, from CEMDA, the Escaz\u00fa Agreement will have to help promote participation \u201cin spaces where the voice of the communities has traditionally been ignored,\u00a0as with the granting of land use change permits, mining concessions or water concessions\u201d.<\/p>\n
Better implementation of the Escaz\u00fa Agreement\u2019s provisions on information and participation could help reduce environmental conflicts, Beltr\u00e1n says.<\/p>\n
The Mayan Train project involves the rehabilitation of existing tracks, the construction of new ones and, above all, the establishment of what has been called \u201cDevelopment Poles\u201d.<\/p>\n
Access to environmental justice<\/h2>\n The Escaz\u00fa Agreement proposes “a transformation of environmental governance,” according to organisations that accompany communities in their defense of the environment and their territory, including Fundar, the Center for Analysis and Research.<\/p>\n
The entry into force of the treaty, Fundar stressed in a statement last January, is an opportunity for the Mexican state to move forward and show willingness to comply with environmental human rights by “allocating the necessary resources.”<\/p>\n
Since the administration of Enrique Pe\u00f1a Nieto (2012-2018), environmental authorities have faced significant budget\u00a0cuts.\u00a0That trend has exacerbated under current president Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador.<\/p>\n
If in 2016 little more than 55 billion pesos (US$2.7 billion) were allocated to the entire environmental sector, by 2021 that amount decreased to 31.3 billion pesos ($1.5 billion).<\/p>\n
The Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (Profepa), an agency that monitors compliance with environmental laws, was this year allocated around 742 million pesos (US$37 million).\u00a0In 2020 it received 793 million pesos ($40 million).\u00a0This lack of budget has led to “a very diminished (environmental) institutional framework,” says Tom\u00e1s Severino.<\/p>\n
So far during L\u00f3pez Obrador’s six-year term, the ministry with the most staff changes is the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat). It has had three different heads in two years.<\/p>\n
The lack of stability in Semarnat has led to the closure of spaces for citizen participation, among other things.\u00a0Olimpia Castillo, of Communication and Environmental Education, says the Consultative Councils for Sustainable Development or the Council for Environmental Education “only exist in name.”<\/p>\n
If on citizen participation in environmental issues, Mexico is “bad\u201d, in access to environmental justice it is \u201cvery bad”, according to Mauricio Lim\u00f3n, a lawyer specialising in environmental law and author of a 2020 book that compares the Escaz\u00fa and Aarhus agreements.<\/p>\n
To give an example, citizens can file complaints with Profepa, but the agency does not inform the complainants of\u00a0the result of its investigation or its procedures, so it is not possible to challenge the resolution.<\/p>\n
In addition, Olimpia Castillo recalls that since 2013 the Federal Law on Environmental Responsibility indicates that the Judicial Power of the Federation must have district courts with special jurisdiction in environmental matters.\u00a0These courts were to be been established no later than 2015. That did not happen.<\/p>\n
Severino points out that Mexico could evaluate the experiences in other countries, such as Chile, where environmental courts are made up of two people with legal training and a specialist in environmental sciences or exact sciences.\u00a0“This,” he says, “allows for broader visions to solve environmental problems.”<\/p>\n
Lim\u00f3n says Escaz\u00fa should be a “roadmap for access to environmental justice in Mexico” and to have mechanisms that guarantee compliance with the decisions of the courts.\u00a0That is one of the great unresolved issues the country has in environmental matters: that judicial sentences are not carried out.<\/p>\n
The tailings dam in Bacanuchi was built without taking the community\u2019s views into account. So far, the SCJN sentence has not been fulfilled.<\/p>\n
Lim\u00f3n also recalls the case of the Laguna del Carpintero, in Tampico, Tamaulipas state, in the north of the country.\u00a0In 2013, the municipal government promoted the creation of an \u201cEcological Park\u201d, which would be built with public and private resources.\u00a0A mangrove was cut down as part of the work, which is prohibited by Mexican law.<\/p>\n
Neighbours of the Laguna del Carpintero filed a suit against this work, stating that its execution violated their right to a healthy environment.\u00a0The case – where the Escaz\u00fa Agreement was also invoked before it came into force – reached the supreme court.\u00a0In November 2018, judges ruled that there was environmental damage, but it was left to municipal authorities, who themselves cleared the mangrove, to supervise the restoration works.<\/p>\n
The Escaz\u00fa Agreement would also help to eliminate what in legal terms is known as \u201cthe burden of proof\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mart\u00ednez, from CEMDA, explains that in litigation communities are required to demonstrate that, for example, a polluted river damages health or that the arrival of a mine transforms their way of life.\u00a0As of the entry into force of the Escaz\u00fa Agreement, that may change, because the burden of proof must be presented by whoever is able to carry out the necessary studies.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The project is located near the Basaseachi Waterfall Protected Natural Area. This image was selected as part of the contest. This is how mining is viewed in Mexico, organized by the CCMSS (image: Anon)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Urgent need to protect\u00a0the\u00a0defenders<\/h2>\n If there is something that makes the Escaz\u00fa Agreement innovative, it is that it is the first binding legal instrument that recognises human rights defenders in environmental matters.<\/p>\n
It also highlights that states have the obligation to guarantee a safe and conducive environment for the defense of human rights in environmental matters,\u00a0as well as to investigate attacks and punish those responsible.<\/p>\n
In Mexico, numbers of land and environmental defenders began to be recognised in 2015, explains Luc\u00eda Vel\u00e1zquez of the Mexican National Autonomous University\u2019s Institute for Ecosystem Research and Sustainability. For seven years, she has been investigating and documenting attacks against defenders of the environment and their territory.<\/p>\n
Between 1995 and 2019, Vel\u00e1zquez counted 147 environmental defenders killed in Mexico.\u00a0In that same period, it documented 503 of attacks.<\/p>\n
By 2020, 18 murders of land and environmental defenders were recorded, according to a report by the Mexican Center for Environmental Law (CEMDA).\u00a0In the first three months of 2021, there were reports of six murders of defenders, including that of Carlos M\u00e1rquez, in the Sierra de Guerrero.<\/p>\n
A 2020 CEDMA report on the situation of environmental human rights defenders in Mexico also mentioned that of the 65 attacks documented that year, nine involved stigmatisation by Mexican state authorities, including the president himself, who on more than one occasion made public statements against frontline defenders.<\/p>\n
\n
18<\/p>\n
\n
\nenvironmental defenders were killes in 2020
\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n
For Mart\u00ednez, the construction\u00a0of a safe and conducive environment for environment and land defenders is necessary to stop their stigmatisation and criminalisation, as is their meaningful participation in decision-making.<\/p>\n
Another urgent measure is to thoroughly review the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, which has existed since 2012 and depends on the Ministry of the Interior.\u00a0In fact, this instrument has not been an effective tool to protect and prevent murders.<\/p>\n
The story of Juli\u00e1n Carrillo, a Rr\u00e1muri indigenous who reported people outside his community of Coloradas de la Virgen in Chihuahua state cutting down his forests to plant poppies is a case in point.<\/p>\n
Juli\u00e1n and other inhabitants of Coloradas de la Virgen received threats. For this reason, in 2014 four people from this community located in the Sierra Tarahumara, including Juli\u00e1n, joined the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.<\/p>\n
The protection granted to Juli\u00e1n Carrillo was limited to giving him a satellite phone and providing him with a police chaperone during travel outside the community.\u00a0Those measures did not work.\u00a0Juli\u00e1n was murdered on October 24 2018. Threats against the inhabitants of Coloradas de\u00a0la Virgen continued and many were even forced to leave their homes.<\/p>\n
“The mechanism leaves much to be desired,” says researcher Luc\u00eda Vel\u00e1zquez, “the defenders are not adequately monitored.\u00a0It has not\u00a0served\u00a0to\u00a0protect them\u00a0\u201d.<\/p>\n
Based on the Escaz\u00fa Agreement, Mart\u00ednez says that \u201cthe Mexican State will have to transform structures, such as the mechanism, and budgets to guarantee the protection of defenders\u201d.<\/p>\n
Lawyer Lim\u00f3n highlights that of all the issues that must be worked on from the Escaz\u00fa Agreement, the protection of environmental defenders is \u201cthe most delicate and urgent because not only is the environmental or socio-environmental issue at stake, but democracy, the rule of law and the lives of individuals and communities\u201d.<\/p>\n
Camila Zepeda, general director of global issues of the undersecretary of foreign relations, says there have been meetings with the interior ministry, the attorney general’s office, attorneys and other actors to diagnose the mechanism.<\/p>\n
In fact, Zepeda assures that since the end of last January, after Mexico deposited its ratification of the Escaz\u00fa Agreement with the United Nations, it began to have working groups within different agencies build a roadmap for its implementation.<\/p>\n
“The Escaz\u00fa Agreement has the potential to give Mexico better tools to update its institutions and regulatory instruments to deal with the environmental and climate crises that are already present,” insists Tom\u00e1s Severino.<\/p>\n
For Olimpia Castillo, the first step to make the Escaz\u00fa Agreement work is to know its content and potential.\u00a0\u201cOutside of the environmental sphere it is not known.\u00a0We have to make it known and help people take ownership of the agreement\u201d.<\/p>\n
In the Las Conchitas community, in San Miguel Totolapan, Guerrero, they know nothing about the Escaz\u00fa Agreement.\u00a0The nearly 40 inhabitants of the place know only that to defend the forest and their territory, their municipal commissioner, Carlos M\u00e1rquez, was assassinated.<\/p>\n
After M\u00e1rquez’s murder, officials from the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists arrived in Las Conchitas.\u00a0They heard Carlos’s widow say that she would not leave her home, that she would stay in Las Conchitas.<\/p>\n
The woman and her children asked the same thing her husband and other inhabitants of communities in the region requested months ago: that the federal and state agencies do their job, that they not be left alone in their fight to defend their territory and stop logging in its forests.<\/p>\n
This article was orignally published by the journalistic project Land of Resistants<\/a>, and is reproduced here with permission<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The agreement seeks to ensure access to the rights of information, participation and environmental justice. In Mexico, it\u2019s more vital than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50000004,"featured_media":50043373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50039900],"tags":[50041623,50003602,555],"hashtags":[],"country":[50002597],"class_list":["post-50043483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-justice","tag-environmental-defenders","tag-human-rights","tag-indigenous-peoples","country-mexico"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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