Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters

The North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (“NAAEC”) Articles 14 and 15 (known as the “Citizen Submissions on Enforcement Matters”, or “SEM” process) include procedures allowing any “non-governmental organization or person […] residing or established in the territory of a Party” to make submissions to the CEC Secretariat asserting “that a Party [to the NAAEC] is failing to effectively enforce its environmental law.” The CEC has published “Guidelines for Submissions on Enforcement Matters” (the “Guidelines”) explaining these procedures.

The SEM process is neither adversarial, nor is the CEC Secretariat a court. The CEC Secretariat cannot make determinations or “rulings” on the merits or demerits of assertions raised in a Submission, including whether a Party may be failing to effectively enforce its environmental law. Rather, the CEC Secretariat is an independent and neutral body tasked with efficiently administering the process set out in NAAEC Articles 14 and 15. When the Council approves a Secretariat recommendation that a Factual Record be produced, NAAEC Article 15(4) and the Guidelines (paragraph 12) set out what types of information are to be included.

A quick guide
Criteria for a submission and a description of the process
Any interested organization or person, as well as the JPAC, may follow the status of any given submission during its process
List of Citizen Submissions and their current status.
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Submissions
Public Commentary
[Public Commentary]
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