Training for Judicial Officers

UNEP has fully recognized the crucial role that the judiciary plays at the national level as the ultimate arbiter in the settlement disputes that involve matters relating to environment and sustainable development. Therefore, the Judiciary is a crucial partner in the interpretation, the implementation and the enforcement of environmental law. UNEP's commitment to this end is based on the specific mandate provided in the programme for the Development and Period Review of Environmental Law for the First Decade of the Twenty-first Century (commonly referred to as Montevideo programme III), which sets the 10-year strategy for UNEP's activities in the field of environmental law. The programme, adopted by the Governing Council of UNEP in 2001 by its decision 21/23, identifies the Judiciary as one of the key target groups for capacity building activities in the field of environmental law. In order to build capacity of these crucial actors, UNEP has set training programmes addressing Judges and other legal stakeholders.

Based on its mandate, UNEP held jointly with the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and the Instituto de Derecho y Economía Ambienta (IDEA, a Paraguayan NGO), three judicial training seminars in March 2005 in Paraguay to focus on the role of the judiciary in ruling on cases that implicate MEAs, including, for instance, enforcement actions to uphold legislation implementing MEAs. More judicial workshops are planned in Kenya and India for 2007.

List of activities

• Three judicial training seminars in Pilar, Encarnación, and Ciudad del Este, Paraguay (March 2005)
• Workshop for Judicial officers in Santiago, Chile (April 2006)