[ad_1]
Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize; Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights; Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil; Ricardo Lagos, former president of Chile and Juan Manuel Santos, former president of Colombia and Nobel Peace Prize winner, are some of the leaders who signed a letter requesting the ratification of the Escazú Agreement by Colombia.
In the letter, addressed to President Iván Duque and the Congress of the Republic, 16 former presidents and several world leaders They asked them to redouble their efforts and take the necessary measures so that the Agreement enters into force with the country’s ratification.
We suggest: Academics ask Duque to urge Congress to ratify the Escazú Agreement
And it is that for the Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters for Latin America and the Caribbean to be binding, that is, mandatory, must be ratified by 11 countries and so far only 10 nations have done so, including Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay and more recently, Argentina. Hence, the decision adopted in Colombia will be decisive not only for the country but for the region.
Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world to defend the environment according to the British NGO Global Witness. Photo: archive / Week.
International personalities, who are part of Old, a non-governmental organization formed by a group of recognized global leaders, defenders of peace and human rights, indicated in the communication that The Escazú Agreement was not only a powerful way to assist the countries of the region in the fight against the climate crisis, but it also constituted a contribution to the fulfillment of the broader Sustainable Development Goals.
They stated that Colombia had a historic opportunity to take the necessary step for the treaty to enter into force.
We recommend: 130 organizations asked Duque and Congress to ratify the Escazú Agreement
This letter, which was also signed by Ban Ki Moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations; Ela Bhatt, founder of the Indian Women Association (SEWA); Martti Ahtisaari, former president of Finland and Nobel Peace Prize; Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, former president of Liberia and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Desmond Tutu, former Archbishop of Cape Town, former president of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize, among other personalities, It comes at a crucial moment, given that to date, the Second Joint Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives have not started with the debates of the bill that seeks the approval of the Agreement.
Indigenous people are the most murdered environmental defenders in Colombia. Photo: Guillermo Torres / Semana.
The discussion of the legislative initiative has already been canceled four times, Despite the call of more than 130 environmental organizations and a group of renowned academics, environmentalists and politicians, who acted as moderators of the National Environmental Dialogue Table during the 2019 strike, They have been asking Congress to start the process, and to President Duque to press its completion and fulfill his commitment to implement it.
So far, the second Senate and House committees have been indifferent, despite the fact that the bill was filed in the House of Representatives on July 23, 2020 and in the Senate of the Republic on July 27, 2020 with an urgent message from the national government.
The ratification of the Escazú Agreement will allow environmental leaders to have access to information and prevent environmental conflicts. Photo: archive / Week.
This is due, in part, to the pressure exerted by various sectors, such as some of the most powerful economic unions in the country, various congressmen and political leaders such as former Minister Germán Vargas Lleras, who do not agree with the signing of the agreement, after ensuring that the country’s economic development would be affected and its sovereignty would be put at risk.
It may interest you: Escazú Agreement: Congress postponed a new ratification debate
Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico; Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway; Hina Jilani, defense lawyer and activist for democracy and human rights in Pakistan and leader of the Pakistani movement for women’s rights; Graça Machel, co-founder of The Elders, and Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, former United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, are other leaders who joined the petition.
They resort to the statute of the opposition
Given the repeated cancellations by the presidents of the Second Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives of the debate on the bill by means of which the Escazú Agreement would be approved, a group of senators and representatives filed a request with the presidents of the second committees to schedule it under the Statute of Opposition
The letter sent to the presidents seeks that after four cancellations, The joint session that would open the process for the discussion of the legislative initiative will be held on November 3.
The promoters of this alternative are senators Antonio Sanguino, Iván Cepeda, Feliciano Valencia, and representatives Abel Jaramillo and Neyla Ruiz.
