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treaty at the 9th Negotiating Meeting on Principle 10. The

negotiations scheduled to take place from February 28 -
March 4, 2018 in San Jose, Costa Rica is the final round of
negotiations for a regional agreement on access to

information, participation and justice in environmental matters
in the LAC Region.

At its core, Principle 10 advocates for the right of citizens to
actively participate in decision making processes on

environmental matters which affect them and promotes the
right to legal recourse in cases where citizens have been

negatively affected. This is particularly important for many
Caribbean countries that still do not have laws which ensure
access to information or early public participation ahead of

large scale projects which often impact the environment and
communities.

For Latin American countries, Principle 10 is particularly

important because it would put innovative measures in place
to protect Environmental Defenders who are often targeted,
threatened and even killed because of their work to protect

fragile natural resources. “In 2017, almost four environmental
defenders were killed each week for protecting their land,

wildlife and natural resources. Latin America is the most
dangerous region, with more than 60 percent of defender

deaths in 2016 occurring in its remote villages or deep within
its rainforests,” according to a blog by Mrs. Carole Excell,

Acting Director, Environmental Democracy Practice at the
World Resources Institute (Read the entire blog at
http://www.wri.org/blog/2018/02/4-environmental-activists-are-

murdered-every-week-new-agreement-could-help-latin).

While skeptics might believe that the Caribbean should not be
concerned about implementing strict laws to protect