Documents and publications
Newsletter Nº 27
April 22, 2005

CONTENT:

1. COURT OF APPEALS CONFIRMED THE PRECAUTIONARY
   MEASURE REGARDING THE NEW ENVIRONMENTAL URBAN
   PLAN PRESENTED BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE
   
   
2. ELECTRONIC DIALOGUE: PROPOSALS FOR THE NEXT
   SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS
   

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COURT OF APPEALS CONFIRMED THE PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE
REGARDING THE NEW ENVIRONMENTAL URBAN PLAN PRESENTED
BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE
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In the frame of an injunctive relief sponsored by the lawyers of FARN's Citizen Control Program, Tribunal II of the Administrative Contentious Court of the City of Buenos Aires confirmed the precautionary measure dictated on 21 September 2004 by the Tribunal N° 2, in charge of Judge Roberto A. Gallardo. The precautionary measure consisted in ordering the Parliamentary Secretary of the Legislature the "provisional constitutional filing" in the new project of the Environmental Urban Plan (Plan Urbano Ambiental - PUA) presented before the Legislature, in order not to give treatment to that document until the problem is resolved, this is to say, the creation of a PUA where the Honorary Permanent Advisory Commission participates in its elaboration and revision, according to what it was established by the present regulation of the CABA.

The PUA is a constitutional mandate in where it is seen the urban-environmental matrix, through which the future urban and environmental policies of the City of Buenos Aires will be structured. The Constitution of the City of Buenos Aires (CCABA) conjectured in Art. 29 that PUA must be elaborated with interdisciplinary anticipation of the academic, professional and communitary entities. After this, it must be approved by a law of the Legislature of the City.

On the other hand, Law Nº 71 established that the organism that will formulate and update the PUA will be the Environmental Urban Plan Council (COPUA), and to guarantee its interdisciplinary condition, ordered the creation of a Honorary Permanent Advisory Commission (CAPH) according to that it was established in the CCABA, which will participate in the elaboration, revision, updating and monitoring of the linked instruments.

Since the creation of the CAPH and shortly after passing it to the Legislature, its members have opposed to the methodology used in the process of elaboration of the PUA. Its participation was a mere "consult on accomplished facts ". Likewise, it was detected an absolute lack of genuine and updated data of the city to create the indicators that permit knowing the present urban realities.

It is important to outline that in July 2001 the Citizen Control Program on Environment sponsored an injunctive relief where it was presented the first presentation of the Final Document sent by the COPUA to the Legislature, that will motivate the dictation of a precautionary measure ordering the President of the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires - Cecilia Felgueras - to notify each legislator that the final documents of PUA sent by the COPUA for its legislative treatment would be "prima facie" unconstitutional.

In this context, taking into account that the Executive Power of the Government of the City insisted about the project of the PUA that was previously objected, FARN, among its priority objectives includes the promotion of the citizen participation in the decision-making, and this was of the interest of Mrs. Marta Dodero and Mr. Javier Garcia Elorrio in order to present a new injunctive relief that put as the main issue the constitutional irregularities of the project.
After the appeal of the GCBA, the Court mentioned, taking into account the numerous constancies that revealed the lack of participation of the CAPH in the elaboration of the PUA, considered that the requirements of the requested preventive were enough and confirmed what it was resolved in the first instance.

FURTHER INFORMATION:

    Full text of the sentence (in PDF)
    http://www.farn.org.ar/arch/resol_copua.pdf

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ELECTRONIC DIALOGUE: PROPOSALS FOR THE NEXT
SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS
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The "Foro Deliberativo on-line" (E-Dialogue) on Environment and Sustainable Development at a regional level is still being carried out, from April 4th to May 6th, which is moderated by FARN and its goal is to elaborate proposals regarding the environmental problematic in the continent in order to be considered in the next Summit of the Americas. The goal is to achieve that the proposals may be included in the agenda of the next Summit of the Americas ("Creating employment in order to confront the poverty and to strengthen the democratic governance "), which will be developed in the City of Mar del Plata, Argentina, during November 2005.

The slogan of the forum on environment and sustainable development is "environmental bases for development". Previously to this, it was defined the dialogue's frame on "Sustainable Management of the natural resources", regarding the citizen participation tools, territorial planning and environmental education. During the next week, proposals will be received along with the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the same ones, in order then to build consensus in the last week.

We must remember that to participate, it is necessary:

1. To go to page http://foroscumbres.redinter.org/
   
   
2. To register your username and password. The registration is at the top of the screen.
   
   
3. To fill this electronic formulary with the details you think important to publish (name of your organization, contact information, name and surname, etc). This will be very useful for the participants of the e-dialogue because they will be able to write to you with better fluency. We must clarify that the personals details you do not want to be published in the web, you do not have to write them.
   
   
4. With your username and password you will be able to register yourself in the forums, writing your contributions.