| Montreal, 12/02/2002 – The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) received a submission on 7 February 2002, from Jorge Rafael Martínez Azuela and other residents of the area surrounding the Mexico City International Airport (Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México-AICM), asserting that Mexico is failing to effectively enforce its environmental laws with respect to the noise emissions originating at that airport. According to the Submitters, there are studies showing that the noise emissions of the AICM exceed the limits established in environmental law, causing irreversible damage to the thousands of persons living near the airport.
The submission (SEM-02-002) asserts that in this case, Mexico's failure to effectively enforce its environmental law has resulted in the AICM neighbors suffering hearing loss, various negative effects due to loss of sleep and the lessened academic performance of children in the area, whose classes are interrupted by a passing airplane approximately every seven minutes. The Submitters assert that the federal and local environmental authorities have failed to effectively enforce Articles 5 paragraphs V and XIX, 8 paragraph VI, 155 and 189 through 204 of the General Law of Ecological Balance and Environmental Protection (Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección al Ambiente), Mexican Official Standard NOM-ECOL-081-1994, and Articles 80 through 84 of the Environmental Law of the Federal District.
The CEC Secretariat is now reviewing this submission to determine whether it complies with the requirements of NAAEC Article 14(1).
Under Article 14 of NAAEC, the Secretariat may consider a submission from any nongovernmental organization or person asserting that a Party to NAAEC is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law. Where the Secretariat determines that the NAAEC Article 14(1) criteria are met, it takes further steps that can lead to the development of a factual record on the matter. In accordance with Article 15(2) of NAAEC, the Secretariat shall prepare a factual record if the Council, by a two-thirds vote, instructs it to do so.
The CEC was established under NAAEC to address environmental issues in North America from a continental perspective, with a particular focus on those arising in the context of liberalized trade. The CEC Council, the organization's governing body, is composed of the environment ministers (or equivalent) of Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Please visit the Citizen Submission on Enforcement Matters page for more information.
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