Envisioning the Next Steps for MEA Compliance and Enforcement

A High-Level Meeting on Compliance with and Enforcement of
Multilateral Environmental Agreements
21-22 January 2006
Colombo, Sri Lanka

The last few decades have seen a rapid increase in Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) addressing a multitude of environmental concerns from climate change, biodiversity, and desertification to hazardous waste and chemicals. The adoption of these instruments is just the beginning of a process, however: full implementation of their provisions is vital to ensure their effectiveness and full value. While setting out to efficiently combat environmental degradation, alleviate poverty, and enhance intra- as well as inter-generational environmental justice embedded in the concept of sustainable development, there is wide concern within international diplomatic circles that MEAs have not lived up to their promise, that they are neither complied with nor enforced an are inadequately implemented. This is one of the leading causes for the increasing degradation of the environment. However, the truth is more complex. There is a combination of factors and problems (such as limited jurisprudence in international environmental law, the rising numbers of MEAs, increasingly overstressed administrations or soft commitments) that converge to create a context that is not conducive to achieving the commitments agreed upon by States in many MEAs. This can be observed at all levels (the international, regional, and national level), as well as at the negotiating stage.

This High-Level Meeting on Compliance with and Enforcement of MEAs will review the complex issues hampering the full implementation of MEAs in greater detail. It is the third in a series of high-level Meetings that examine some of the most pressing issues facing MEAs. The Meeting will gather some of the most highly regarded legal minds, MEA Executive Secretaries, the Chairs of MEA Compliance Committees, government representatives and representatives of civil society to discuss lessons learned thus far and possible options for the future. The Meeting will consider the technical aspects of compliance and enforcement, as well as breaking new ground in the search for potential legal, structural, and institutional innovations that could enhance the implementation of MEAs, like synergies and inter-linkages or the clustering of MEAs. The Meeting will also consider the experiences to date of MEA compliance regimes. The aim is to look afresh at possible ways to enhance the full implementation of MEAs in order to increase their effectiveness in addressing the environmental problems for which they have been so arduously negotiated.