Date: Monday, 3 June 2024, 1.30-2.30 p.m. EAT
Venue: Conference Room 9, United Nations Office in Nairobi
Organizer: United Nations Environment Programme
Event documents: Concept note and agenda.pdf
Meeting recording:
Description:
This side event seeks to highlight the importance of effective legislation as a critical element in enabling good governance on air quality management. Achieving good governance, through establishing substantive and procedural rights domestically for ambient air quality and in fulfilling related human rights, including the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, will be addressed.
Further, countries will discuss national experiences in participatory governance in the development and implementation of air quality legislation. How these efforts can support the achievement of UNEA resolution 6/10 on promoting regional cooperation on air pollution to improve air quality globally will be touched upon. Ultimately, the participants will gain an understanding of the challenges and actions to address participatory governance, as well as countries achievements in these areas.
Date: Monday, 3 June 2024, 1.30-2.30 p.m. EAT
Venue: Conference Room 10, United Nations Office in Nairobi
Organizer: Centre International de Droit Comparé de l'Environnement
Event documents: Agenda_0.pdf
Description:
This side event seeks to explain what legal indicators are, what is at stake in improving environmental law, and to show the methodology that can be used to measure the effectiveness of environmental law. The event will present the six families of effective criteria to describe the application process of environmental law:
1) Existential criteria and legal sources
2) Applicability criteria and degrees of enforceability
3) Substantive criteria: content of the norm
4) Organic or institutional criteria: human, technical and financial resources
5) Enforcement criteria: by administrative body (administrative sanctions), through judicial review (criminal and civil sanctions) and by civil society
6) Non legal criteria reinforcing and conditioning effectivity: local customs, economic, social and cultural factors, corrupt behaviour.
A methodology for the measurement of the effectiveness of environmental law.
Date: Tuesday, 4 June 2024, 1.30-2.30 p.m. EAT
Venue: Conference Room 9, United Nations Office in Nairobi
Organizer: Governments of Uruguay and St. Lucia,
co-organized by the UNEP - Latin America and the Caribbean Office, with the support of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR)
Event documents: Agenda_1.pdf
Description:
This event seeks to raise international awareness of the Escazú Agreement, share valuable insights and good practices from the region, and to facilitate dialogue among national focal points and other stakeholders on the implementation of the Agreement’s provisions related to access rights and the protection of environmental defenders.
Date: Tuesday, 4 June 2024, 1.30 - 2.30 p.m.
Venue: Conference Room 10, United Nations Office in Nairobi
Organizer: The Africa Group of National Focal Points to the Montevideo Programme V
Description:
The objective of this side event is to kickstart a dialogue that will lead to the swift ratification and implementation of an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, by African countries. Partners will be invited to build sustained engagements with the Africa regional group or individual national focal points, on how to lay the foundation for access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters, and environmental defenders, especially as they relate to plastic pollution.
Date: Wednesday, 5 June 2024, 1.30-2.30 EAT
Venue: Conference Room 9, United Nations Office in Nairobi
Organizer: United Nations Environment Programme
Event documents: Concept note and agenda_0.pdf
Description:
This session aims to bring together environmental rule of law experts from UNEP, civil society and Government representatives from European Union/UK, Asia Pacific (AP) and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to highlight national, regional and global aspects of SLAPPs. The discussion will explore similarities and differences in challenges and opportunities from a legal and practical perspective. The session will also share recommendations from the Summary for Decision Makers on Environmental rule of law and human rights in Asia Pacific: Strategic litigation against public participation and explore how these can be applied in Asia Pacific as well as in other regions.
Finally, the session will also introduce the Right to a Healthy Environment (R2HE) Toolkit <https://www.r2heinfo.com>. Created by NYU Law in collaboration with the UNEP, it is the first database to map and analyze significant case law and developments regarding the right to a healthy environment.
Date: Wednesday, 5 June 2024, 1.30-2.30 p.m. EAT
Venue: Conference Room 10, United Nations Office in Nairobi
Organizer: Children and Youth Major Stakeholders Group
Description:
The event seeks to understand the importance of environmental democracy and role of stakeholders, especially children and youth, in shaping environmental laws and policies in the local, national and international levels. The event will highlight the importance of youth action towards the fulfillment of intergenerational responsibility and will underscore the necessity for the establishment of transparent, participatory and stakeholder centered governance processes, especially with respect to environmental governance.