Development and Implementation of Environmental Law – a Contribution by UNEP

Since its creation in the aftermath of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, UNEP has played a crucial role in the development and implementation of environmental law. UNEP’s mandate in this field emanates from UN General Assembly resolution 2997 (XXVII) and subsequent General Assembly resolutions and decisions of the UNEP Governing Council. During the 1970s, UNEP’s mandate in this field was fulfilled on an ad hoc basis in response to specific requests from the Governing Council. Due to the accelerated pace of international environmental law-making, UNEP decided that a more systematic and programmatic approach to the development of environmental law was required. The Programme for the Development and Periodic Review of Environmental Law (Montevideo Programme I) was consequently adopted by the Governing Council in 1981 in Decision 10/21. This programme was subsequently updated and replaced by the Programme for the Development and Periodic Review of Environmental Law for the 1990s (Montevideo Programme II) adopted in Decision 17/25 of the 17 Session of the Governing Council in May 1993. This programme, negotiated simultaneously with the negotiations during the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Rio Conference of 1992, provided a detailed framework of legal developments in the field of environmental law to date and, following Governing Council decision 20/3 of February 1999, is under review as preparation of a future Montevideo III takes place during 2000 for presentation to the twentyfirst session of the Council in February 2001. UNEP does not claim exclusive responsibility in advancing the frontiers of environmental law in its three decades of existence. However, it towers head and shoulders over all other efforts in this area at both the global and the regional level. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Rio Conference recognized UNEP as the principal environmental organ in the United Nations and in Chapter 38 of Agenda 21 mandated UNEP to promote the further development internationally of environmental law, in particular conventions and guidelines for promotion of its implementation, and coordination functions arising from an increasing number of international legal instruments, inter alia, the functioning of the Secretariats of the Conventions. UNEP’s work in the field of environmental law-making and implementation has been in three major directions, briefly reviewed in sections II, III and IV below: • the development of soft law principles and guidelines; • the negotiation and adoption of binding global and regional legal instruments; and • assistance to developing countries and countries with economies in transition in the development of national environmental legislation, including national laws for the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements.