"Chile ratifies treaty to protect green activists in Latin America", 01 June 2022

...The Chilean Senate...ratified the United Nation’s Escazu agreement on access to environmental information and justice and offers protection to green activists in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The agreement is significant is it comes in the wake of a spiral of violence against ecologists that has made Latin America one of the deadliest regions for environmental activists.

With 31 in favor, three against, and 11 abstentions, the Senate gave the green light to the first environmental treaty in the region and the only aimed at protecting green activists in the world.

....Foreign Minister Antonia Urrejola...said it was essential for a country like Chile, which has a robust institutional framework on the environment, to cooperate with states that do not have it, “just as we require practices in defense of human rights defenders.”

“Defending rights is an essential part of a democracy…thanks to all the senators”...

Chile thus became the 13th country to ratify the agreement after Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and others.

Twenty-four countries had signed the pact to guarantee access to environmental rights and protect environment activists and biodiversity in times of climate emergency...