Trinidad and Tobago signs on to the Declaration on the application of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

Trinidad and Tobago became the twelfth country in Latin America and the Caribbean to adhere to the Declaration on the application of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. The announcement was made during the Conference on Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean: follow-up to the United Nations development agenda beyond 2015 and to Rio+20, which took place on March 7-9, 2013 in Bogota, Colombia.

The Declaration on the application of Principle 10 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean was signed within the framework of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. In it, the signatory countries-Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Uruguay- committed to developing an action plan for 2014, with the support of Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) as Technical Secretariat to enhance the implementation of a regional instrument on the right of access to information, participation and justice environmental areas which enshrines the Principle 10 of the Declaration Rio on Environment and Development in 1992.

At the first meeting of the focal points designated by the signatory governments, held November 6-7, 2012 at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, countries adopted a road map of the process of creating an instrument on Principle 10 in Latin America and the Caribbean. In it, the signatories point out that the main objectives of the regional instrument should be to achieve a common vision on the importance and benefits of the access rights of Principle 10 and recognize the particular conditions of each country. It also reaffirms also the importance of the participation and contributions of civil society in this process, which is open to all countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. The second meeting of focal points designated by the signatory governments will be held in April 2013.