Our high expectations are focused on this workshop. The United Nations Environment Programme has a special and an abiding interest in the proper enforcement and compliance with multilateral environmental agreements. We indeed thank them and those still contemplating supporting us. UNEP is the home for the international environmental conventions that have been negotiated under its aegis and to whom it provides support. Under Agenda 21, Chapter 38, the UNEP role and mandate are even broader.
Conventions are legally binding mechanisms.
They represent the collective will of the international community to legally commit them to protecting the environment. The environmental conventions advance the overall global environmental objectives and policies. In approximately thirty years, our primary focus has been on the development of international environmental law. Our next important task is to advance and enhance the implementation of agreed international norms and policies, to monitor and foster compliance with environmental principles and international agreements. Seen in this context, this workshop is just one of a series that we intend to hold in the future at the global and regional levels to foster compliance with and enforcement of international environmental agreements.