Ba­hamas Prime Min­is­ter Philip Davis, an­nounced on Thurs­day the ac­ces­sion of the Com­mon­wealth of the Ba­hamas to the Re­gion­al Agree­ment on Ac­cess to In­for­ma­tion, Pub­lic Par­tic­i­pa­tion and Jus­tice in En­vi­ron­men­tal Mat­ters in Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean (“Es­cazú Agree­ment”).

The Ba­hamas is the ninth CARI­COM Mem­ber State to be­come a par­ty to the treaty and the 18th in the re­gion.

“Every Ba­hami­an has the right to a safe and clean en­vi­ron­ment. Our ac­ces­sion to the Es­cazú Agree­ment, pre­cise­ly on World En­vi­ron­ment Day, is a de­ci­sive step to­wards mak­ing it a re­al­i­ty. It places our peo­ple and one of our great­est trea­sures, our en­vi­ron­ment, first”, Prime Min­is­ter said to­day in a pub­lic cer­e­mo­ny held at The Re­treat Na­tion­al Park (New Prov­i­dence), al­so mark­ing the Unit­ed Na­tions In­ter­na­tion­al Day for the en­vi­ron­ment.

The Prime Min­is­ter re­called the fo­cus giv­en by the Gov­ern­ment of the Ba­hamas to the preser­va­tion of the en­vi­ron­ment. “Our gov­ern­ment has de­lib­er­ate­ly pri­or­i­tized our is­land’s nat­ur­al rich­ness, as the life­line that sus­tains the econ­o­my, liveli­hoods and well­be­ing of present and fu­ture gen­er­a­tions of Ba­hami­ans.”

The Es­cazú Agree­ment, adopt­ed on 4 March 2018 and in force since 22 April 2021, aims to en­sure the right to a healthy en­vi­ron­ment and to sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment through ac­cess to in­for­ma­tion, pub­lic par­tic­i­pa­tion and ac­cess to jus­tice. It is al­so the first in the world to in­clude spe­cif­ic pro­vi­sions to pro­tect hu­man rights de­fend­ers in en­vi­ron­men­tal mat­ters.