Last December, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) approved “consultative status” for the International Institute of Law and the Environment (IIDMA), an independent and non-political organisation whose aim is to contribute to sustainable development and the protection of the environment through the analysis, application and implementation of the law in all its aspects.
This status, which is the highest the UN grants to non-governmental entities, allows organisations to participate in the deliberations of ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies, as well as in the Human Rights Council and, under certain conditions, in various meetings of the General Assembly and other intergovernmental bodies.
This recognition adds to others previously obtained by IIDMA, such as accreditation to the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), now the United Nations Environment Assembly, obtained in 1998; accreditation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, obtained in 2019; and accreditation to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, obtained in 2022.
These certifications endorse a trajectory of more than 25 years, in which IIDMA has placed all the tools of law at the service of the environment. In the words of the founding director of the Institute, Ana Barreira, “we are very pleased that our work is recognised at an international level, we are the only organisation of its kind in Spain, having been a pioneer in addressing sustainability using the tools offered to us by the rule of law”.
Achievements and projects that have marked IIDMA’s trajectory: https://iidma.org/en/landmarks-in-our-history/
