Guinea-Bissau Joins UN Agreement On Environment

The United Nations says Guinea-Bissau has become the first non-European country to join an international agreement on government accountability for human rights and the environment.

The Convention, also known as the Aarhus Convention, “protects the right of everyone to live in an environment adequate to his or her health and well-being,” according to the UN.

 It provides citizens with the right to participate in environmental decision-making, and “recognizes that we have an obligation to future generations,” its website says.

Report says the Convention and its Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers are the only legally binding global instruments on environmental democracy.

Guinea-Bissau signed the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making, and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters on April 4, becoming its 47th signatory country.

It is the first country “outside the pan-European region” to do so, the executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, UNECE Olga Algayerova, said.

“Guinea-Bissau hopes to take advantage of the Convention’s instruments to fight climate change and promote its biodiversity… by allowing the public to participate in the decision-making process and to have access to justice when their environmental rights are violated,” its Environment Minister, Viriato Cassama said.

According to the UNECE, Guinea-Bissau is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change.

It is threatened by flooding and increased salinization of coastal areas, which affects agriculture and can lead to shortages of drinking water, among other adverse effects.

While mining and construction activities also threaten the country’s protected areas.

In January, police prevented activists from protesting plans to destroy a park in the heart of the capital Bissau as part of a construction project.

In 2021, Guinea-Bissau joined the UN Water Convention, becoming the fourth African country to do so.

AFRICANEWS/Christopher Ojilere