The importance of Convention on Environment

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has praised the world’s leading international convention on environment and human rights as a powerful tool for environmental protection and the promotion of civil rights, saying the instrument also helped to combat climate change and air and water pollution.

“The Convention’s critical focus on involving the public is helping to keep governments accountable,” Ban said in a message to last month’s fourth meeting of Parties to the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters – the so-called Aarhus Convention. “There have been many achievements over the past decade, including the entry into force of the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers, the first global legally binding instrument of its kind,” Ban noted in the message.

He said as the world prepared for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil next year, it should be remembered that the convention was one of the major results of the Rio Declaration adopted at the first Earth Summit nearly 20 years ago. “As the convention enters its second decade, we applaud the accomplishments of the past while acknowledging the challenges ahead,” Ban added.

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