CEC delivers final factual record for the Ex Hacienda El Hospital submissions
Montreal, 18 February 2014—On 12 February, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) submitted to the CEC Council a final factual record on consolidated submissions SEM-06-003 (Ex Hacienda El Hospital II) and SEM-06-004 (Ex Hacienda El Hospital III), filed respectively with the Secretariat on 17 July 2006 and on 22 September 2006. The Secretariat included as appropriate in the final factual record, comments received from Canada and Mexico on the accuracy of the draft factual record that was sent to the CEC Council on 17 October 2013. In submissions Ex Hacienda El Hospital II and III, the submitters assert that Mexico is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law in connection with alleged illegal acts that occurred during the operation, shutdown, and decommissioning of a paint pigment production plant operated by the company BASF Mexicana, S.A. de C.V., in the community of El Hospital in Morelos, Mexico. The CEC Council may now, by a two-thirds vote, make the final factual record publicly available within 60 days, i.e., by 14 May 2014. For more information, please visit the CEC’s Submissions on Enforcement Matters webpage, and the registry of submission SEM-06-003 (Ex Hacienda El Hospital II) and SEM-06-004 (Ex Hacienda El Hospital III). In preparing this factual record the Secretariat considered the submissions in light of Mexico’s Response (PDF) thereto, as well as independently gathered information. The Secretariat administers the process set out in Articles 14 and 15 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), which allows the public to submit assertions to the Secretariat concerning a NAAEC Party’s (Canada, Mexico, or the US) effective enforcement of environmental law. The CEC has published Guidelines for Submissions on Enforcement Matters explaining these procedures. The purpose of a factual record is to provide an objective presentation of the facts relevant to the assertion(s) set forth in such a submission, and to allow readers to draw their own conclusions regarding a Party’s environmental law enforcement. Although a factual record is not to contain conclusions or recommendations, it is expected to outline the history of the environmental enforcement issue raised in the submission, the relevant legal obligations of the Party, and the actions of the Party in attempting to fulfill those obligations. For further information, visit the CEC Submissions on Enforcement Matters website.
About the CEC
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was established in 1994 by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel environmental agreement to NAFTA. As of 2020, the CEC is recognized and maintained by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, in parallel with the new Free Trade Agreement of North America. The CEC brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including the general public, Indigenous people, youth, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the business sector, to seek solutions to protect North America’s shared environment while supporting sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations
The CEC is governed and funded equally by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of the United States of Mexico through the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the Government of the United States of America through the Environmental Protection Agency.