| Montreal, 1/02/2005 – On 27 January 2005, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) of North America dismissed the submission filed on 14 July 2004, by Academia Sonorense de Derechos Humanos, A.C. and Domingo Gutiérrez Mendívil (the Submitters), asserting Mexico's failure to effectively enforce its environmental laws with respect to the prevention of air pollution.
Submission SEM-04-002 (Environmental Pollution in Hermosillo) asserts that Mexico is failing to effectively enforce practically all provisions of law regarding the prevention and control of air pollution in the municipality of Hermosillo, Sonora. In revised submissions, filed on 28 September and 13 December 2004, the Submitters reported that they notified the relevant authorities of the matter of the submission and that they filed for an injunction, which remains pending, claiming the same enforcement failures as the submission.
In its determination of 27 January 2005, the Secretariat of the CEC dismissed the submission, considering the factors under Article 14(2) of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), one of which is whether private remedies available under the Party's law have been pursued. It concluded that continuing this process and requesting a response from Mexico could duplicate or interfere with the processing of an ongoing proceeding that addresses the same matters as the submission. Nonetheless, the Secretariat noted that the submission raises matters whose further study, at the appropriate time, would advance the goals of the NAAEC.
The citizen submissions mechanism of the CEC enables the public to play a whistle-blower role on matters of environmental law enforcement. Under Article 14 of the NAAEC, any person or nongovernmental organization may submit a claim alleging that a NAFTA partner has failed to effectively enforce its environmental law. Following a review of the submission, the CEC may investigate the matter and pursue a factual record of its findings.
Please visit the Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters page for more information.
|
