Klaus Toepfer, the program's director general, has long argued that the Johannesburg summit meeting should focus on implementing treaties and agreements that were struck at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro ten years ago and in subsequent meetings.
The environment program's director for policy development and law, Bakary Kante, said a greater emphasis on applying treaties through national courts would offer opportunities for nongovernmental organizations that want to hold multinationals accountable for their environmental and human rights behavior.
On the question of a possible international environmental court, Kante said such a court could pose a conflict with the United Nations International Court in The Hague, which is authorized to hear environmental cases.
Arthur Chaskalson, the chief justice of South Africa who headed the meeting, said judges could play a key role in achieving sustainable development because most countries already had environmental laws, even if the will to apply them was lacking.
"The problem is a lack of awareness of these rights and particularly a lack of access to the law," Chaskalson said.
In a statement to the leaders attending the summit meeting, the judges said, "The fragile state of the global environment requires the judiciary, as the guardian of the rule of law, to boldly and fearlessly implement and enforce applicable international and national laws, which in the field of environment and sustainable development will assist in alleviating poverty and sustaining an enduring civilization."
Experts said it was becoming increasingly evident that efforts to crack down on pollution, challenge environmentally harmful practices and comply with international agreements on issues such as hazardous waste or the trade in endangered species were being undermined because of the weak legal systems in many countries.
"We have over 500 international and regional agreements, treaties and deals covering everything from the protection of the ozone layer to the conservation of the oceans and seas," Toepfer said. "Almost all, if not all, countries have national environmental laws, too. But unless they are complied with, unless they are enforced, then they are little more than symbols, tokens, paper tigers."
Meanwhile, the environment organization Greenpeace opened a dramatic photo exhibit on the environmental tragedy that beset the city of Bhopal after an explosion at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in 1984 caused the release of lethal gasses in the world's worst industrial disaster.
About 20,000 people died at the time, and the effects of the disaster are visible in the subsequent generation, Greenpeace said. The group said ground water in the region was still contaminated and the abandoned site littered with stockpiles of obsolete pesticides and toxic waste.
Copyright 2002 International Herald Tribune
