Law and Conventions

UNEP' S Assistance Programme in Environmental Law
UNEP has a mandate from the UN General Assembly and its Governing Council to assist, upon request, developing countries and countries with economies in transition in strengthening their environmental legislation and institutional regimes. Assistance has been provided to over 80 countries worldwide including many from Asia and Pacific, in the last two decades.

Kind of Assistance Provided
Needs assessment is undertaken by UNEP to identify areas of environmental problems and concerns and recommendations to mitigate environmental problems through development of appropriate environmental legislation and institutions; Assistance is provided to National Legal Experts to review existing environmental policies, legislation and institutional regimes; assistance is also provided in organizing national consensus building workshops of stakeholders for appropriate legal, policy and institutional reforms; Legal advice is provided  in drafting framework environmental laws, sectoral statutes and domestic  laws for the implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs).
 
Training in Environmental Law
To further assist countries in enhancing their capacity building in environmental law, UNEP organizes global training programmes in environmental law and policy every two years. About 270 environmental lawyers and policymakers have been trained from countries world wide in seven such programmes held since 1993. The next GTP8 is planned for October/November 2007. To replicate this programme in the region UNEP/ROAP organized the first Regional Training Programme in Tianjin, China from 16-19 August 2004.

Greening the Judiciary and Enforcement
Having realized that the judiciary plays an important role in the development, implementation of and compliance with environmental law, UNEP has organized Judicial Symposia at the global, regional, sub-regional, and national levels. A Global Judges Symposium was held in August 2002 where a set of Principles known as 'Johannesburg Principles' were adopted for promoting the capacity of the Judiciary and other legal stakeholders involved in the development, implementation of and compliance with environmental law. A Central Asia Judges Conference on Challenging of Environmental Law Implementation was organized in Almaty from 7-8 September 2006. National Judges Capacity Building Programmes have been held in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam in 2005-2006.

From 14-16 January 2008, the Asia Pacific Conference on Environmental Justice and Enforcement was held in Bangkok, Thailand.

Parliamentarians
UNEP/ROAP organized a National Workshop on Enhancing Awareness of Parliamentarians in Cambodia from 16-17 February 2006.

MEAs
A Workshop on Capacity Building for Implementation of CBD for developing countries in Asia-Pacific Region was held in Bangkok from 9-11 October 2006.

Environmental Law Information
To enhance the public awareness of developing countries in the field of environmental law, which is an important component of capacity building, UNEP has over the years produced and disseminated several environmental law publications to developing countries free of cost.  

• Selected Multilateral Treaties in the field of the environment Vol. 1 and 2;
• The Register of International and Other Agreements in the Field of the Environment;
• UNEP's New Way Forward: Environmental Law and Sustainable Development launched in October 1995 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of United Nations;
• Handbook of Environmental Law;
• UNEP Environmental Law Training Manual;
• Report on the Southeast Asian Justices Symposium: The Law on Sustainable Development;
• Reports on the Global Training Programmes on Environmental Law and Policy ;
• Compendium of Judicial Decisions on Matters Related to Environment (International Decisions Volume I and National Decisions Volumes I-III);
• The Programme for the Development and Periodic Review of Environmental Law for the First Decade of the Twenty-first Century; (Montevideo Programme III);
• Dispute Avoidance and Dispute Settlement in International Environmental Law;
• Biannual Bulletin of Environmental Law;
• Judicial Handbook on Environmental Law;

Ecolex  Project
Countries worldwide can now have access to environmental law information through ECOLEX, an Internet based service being jointly developed by UNEP, IUCN and FAO. A prototype of the service is available at www.ecolex.org

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