28 June 2006 - Romina Picolotti, president and founder of the Center for Human Rights and the Environment (CEDHA) and active participant in the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE), has been appointed as the new head of Argentina's Environmental Secretariat.

The nomination was preceded by President Néstor Kirchner’s announcement of his intentions to prioritize environmental protection in Argentina and to elevate the status of the Environmental Secretariat, which is currently part of the Ministry of Health, to the ministry level in its own right.

Next week, Ms.  Picolotti, an environmental lawyer and human rights activist, will be sworn in by President Kirchner and announce her team and action plan for the next year. The plan will emphasize the relationship between environmental protection and human rights, and will promote public participation and access to information.

She will also seek alliances with the private sector, emphasizing the promotion of cleaner production and the modernization of Argentina’s most contaminating industries, which will ultimately benefit those most affected by environmental degradation.

Durwood Zaelke, Director of the INECE Secretariat, expressed his support for Ms. Picolotti's nomination, stating, "I congratulate President Kirchner for demonstrating his strong commitment to increasing environmental protection in Argentina through his selection of Romina Picolotti, a strong advocate for improving the environmental condition for all of Argentina's people."

In 1999, Romina Picolotti founded CEDHA, the world’s first organization solely dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights violated by environmental destruction. CEDHA aims to contribute to sustainable development by illustrating the symbiotic relationship between people and nature. Ms. Picolotti received the 2006 Sophie Prize in recognition of her dedication to protecting human rights, the environment, and democracy, and her work to relate the degradation of natural resources to the exploitation of human rights.

For additional information, please contact CEDHA at http://www.cedha.org.ar.

Brazil has two highest federal courts, the Constitutional Court (STF) and the Supreme Court (STJ), whose Justices are appointed by the President and approved by the Federal Senate, which will hold confirmation hearings on Professor Benjamin next week. His inauguration is expected to take place on the second week of August.

"Through his work with INECE, Antonio has repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to strengthening environmental compliance, the rule of law, and good governance. I commend President Lula for nominating of one of the world's most brilliant legal minds to serve on Brazil's highest court," said Durwood Zaelke, Director of the INECE Secretariat.

Mr. Benjamin has been a tireless advocate of INECE's work, promoting the results of INECE products, such as the Principles of Environmental Enforcement and INECE Indicators, to new audiences, including prosecutors and members of the judiciary. Mr. Benjamin has provided key contributions to setting INECE's agenda for the next three years through his participation in the revision process for INECE's Strategic Implementation Plan.

Mr. Benjamin teaches Environmental Law and Products Liability in both Brazil and the United States; founded and serves as Coeditor-In-Chief of the Brazilian Environmental Law Journal; and has drafted or co-drafted several Brazilian laws, including the 1998 Crimes against the Environment Act, the Forest Code, and the Anti-Corruption Act.

30 May 2006 - INECE and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) held the "Emissions Trading Workshop: One Step Further Towards Compliance" on 29 May 2006 in Brussels, Belgium. The goal of the workshop was to develop an action plan for the IT-based system for monitoring, reporting, and verification and other functions in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) that includes functional design, timeline, responsibilities, partners and stakeholders. Participants agreed to meet again in June to further define the functionalities of an IT system and to secure commitments from government stakeholders. See http://inece.org/emissions/ for more information.

17 April 2006 - Philippine environmental activist Antonio Oposa, Jr.’s life is in grave danger after a series of death threats and last week’s brutal murder of one of his closest colleagues.

Mr. Oposa is one of the Philippines’ most daring and effective environmental heroes, winning landmark cases before the Supreme Court, organizing highly publicized raids against illegal fishing and logging cartels, and educating scores of local communities on sustainable uses of natural resources.

Mr. Oposa and his colleagues – a broad, informal alliance of government officials, lawyers, police, coast guard, policymakers, judges, scientists, and others – have earned national and international acclaim for their efforts to protect the Visayan Sea, one of the most biologically diverse “hotspots” in the world.

A longer press release is available through INECE and additional information and updates are available through http://www.pielc.org/OposaIndex.htm.

31 January - The 12th Edition of INECE's Compliance and Enforcement Newsletter is now available online. Articles include:

• Experts Confirm Compliance Key to Emissions Trading Markets' Success;
• Environment Agency Chief Executive Barbara Young Discusses the Contribution of Good Environmental Regulation to Competitiveness;
• South African Indicators Project Focuses on Natural Resource Permitting; and
• Long-Range Planning Advisory Group Addressing INECE Future.

The Colloquium, to be held from 16-20 October 2006 at Pace University School of Law in White Plains, New York, will build upon the October 2005 INECE Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Workshop to Establish a Research Agenda.  

The Colloquium will focus upon compliance and enforcement subjects such as:  the relationship to rule of law and sustainable development; strengthening implementation of multilateral environmental agreements; drivers of compliance; instruments and approaches; the role of the public; measuring progress with indicators; and improving the methodology and empirical basis of compliance research.

This workshop bridging the two communities produced several important topics for research concerning how to generate compliance, why compliance occurs, how to measure the effect of compliance efforts, and what makes networks effective.  Workshop participants recommended next steps for narrowing the list of topics, distributing them to the research community, and getting results from the research. 

The agenda and list of participants at the workshop are available through the INECE Web site.

20 October - The 11th Edition of INECE's Compliance and Enforcement Newsletter is now available online. Articles include:

• INECE Acts on Mandate from 7th Conference to Improve Environmental Governance
• INECE Publishes Groundbreaking Compliance Book
• Parliamentarians Convene in Paris
• US EPA, INECE Conduct Principles of Enforcement Courses in Jordan and Bahrain
• Dutch Launch Compliance Assistance Program
• Philippine Faculty and Students Form Environmental Law Group

10 November - INECE participated in three events at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, held in Bangkok, Thailand, on 17-25 November. INECE

• delivered a presentation on the role of the judiciary in enforcing environmental law during IUCN's Judiciary Day,
• held a Sponsored Workshop on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Indicators for Conservation (co-sponsored by IUCN's Comission on Environmental Law), and
• gave a two-day training course entitled "Environmental Law and Enforcement to Strengthen Water Governance." The course was developed by INECE and was presented by Ken Markowitz, Office of the INECE Secretariat, and Steve Wolfson, US EPA.

20 October - INECE's 7th International Conference will be held on 09-15 April 2005 in Marrakech, Morocco. More details on the Conference will be posted at http://inece.org/conference/7/ as they become available.

INECE is seeking paper submissions for the 7th International Conference Proceedings. Topics include the relationship between good governance and compliance/enforcement; environmental compliance/enforcement indicators; the role of multilateral environmental agreement secretariats in ensuring compliance; and compliance and enforcement strategies for freshwater pollution, illegal logging, vessel pollution, hazardous waste at ports, ozone, emissions trading, or wildlife. See http://inece.org/conference/7/.

October 20, 2003 - The Principles of Environmental Enforcement text is now available in Spanish. Please click here to access "Principios de Cumplimiento y Aplicación de la Ley Ambiental."

La traducción español de Principios de Cumplimiento y Aplicación de la Ley Ambiental está disponible en línea.

The "Guiding Principles" represent a non-binding reference that aims at helping governments to identify key features of an effective and efficient system of environmental enforcement and to create a framework for international co-operation and support. The NISECEN, within which the Guiding Principles were developed, provides its Members with the opportunity to learn good international practices, develop new reference models and tools, and apply them. In addition, a number of specific tools have been developed to support the implementation of the Guiding Principles, including a review of enforcement, permitting and compliance promotion systems, training toolkit, and the glossary of terms. The Network will continue pursuing its goals with its new work programme will be discussed at the Fifth Annual Network Meeting on 16-18 October 2003 in Kiev. A previous article on the Guiding Principles is also available.

More information on reform in the EECCA is available from the OECD Web site.

August 4, 2003 - The latest report in the World Resources series, Decisions for the Earth - Balance, Voice, and Power, focuses on the importance of good environmental governance by exploring how citizens, government managers and business owners can foster better environmental decisions that meet the needs of people and ecosystems with equity and balance. The report argues that greater transparency and accountability can lead to fairer and more effective management of natural resources. It calls on governments to include the public in decisions that affect ecosystems and urges integration of environmental impacts into economic decision-making. It also identifies public access to information from governments, business, and non-governmental organizations as a necessary precursor to improved environmental performance. View press release here. Story from IISD Linkages.

July 3, 2003 - In May, senior judges from 11 countries of Central/Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, together with other judges and experts from across the globe, met in Lviv, Ukraine to advance the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, insofar as it relates to the role of the judiciary in achieving sustainable development. The conference program considered regional and comparative case studies, together with issues relating to the Aarhus Convention, human rights and environment, constitutional environmental rights, the potential role of specialist environment courts, and the ability of judges to exchange judgments through the IUCN/UNEP Judicial Portal. The Lviv Statement is available online from IUCN.

The Rome Statement was released in May following a meeting of European Judges in May to discuss the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation. Specific outcomes included the first meeting of the European Judges Forum and the IUCN CEL Judicial Specialist Group, further support for the IUCN/UNEP Judicial Portal and consideration of the content of the UNEP Judges Handbook.

March 18, 2003 - In October 2002, the NIS Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (NISECEN) agreed to use the Guiding Principles as a non-binding guidance. The policy document helps to distinguish key features of an effective system of environmental enforcement and presents a long-term vision for institutional development. Recently, the representatives of environmental ministries and international institutions that are part of the "Environment for Europe" process endorsed the Guiding Principles during the Meeting of the EAP Task Force (February 2003). They recommended that the Guiding Principles enter into the package of Category 1 documents at the Kiev Ministerial Conference, to be held in May 2003. The Ministerial Declaration is likely to welcome the implementation of these principles.

Please view a background information sheet.

January 8, 2003 - Uniting to Enforce for Better Results (pdf, 128KB), written by EPC member Bill Futrell, was published in The Environmental Forum, the Policy Journal of the Environmental Law Institute (Volume 19, No. 6). Futrell's article informs officials worldwide of the role of INECE in effective environmental compliance and enforcement.

From 10-11 October 2002 judges from across Europe met with judges and scholars from across the globe to take initial steps in advancing the implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, insofar as it relates to the role of the judiciary in achieving sustainable development. (News quote from IUCN)

INECE EPC member Donald Kaniaru (pictured to the right at the podium, photo by John Scanlon) participated in the symposium and his remarks are available here.

The text of the "London Bridge Statement," which was formulated at the conference, is also available.

5 October, 2002 - The Second Volume of Proceedings from the 6th International Conference on Environmental Compliance and Enforcement are now available on INECE's Web site.

(In the image to the right, Costa Rica's Director of International Cooperation Ministry of the Environment and Energy, Ricardo Ulate, delivers the Welcoming Remarks at the INECE Conference.)

18 September 2002 - INECE Secretariat Durwood Zaelke released "A Summary of the Johannesburg Sustainable Development Summit." The commentary includes information on the outcomes of the WSSD relevant to environmental compliance and enforcement.

Visit INECE's WSSD page for more results from the Summit.