On the eve of the COP16 biodiversity summit, set for October 21 to November 1 in Cali, Colombia, Amnesty International called Thursday for states to strengthen human rights protection in the Global Biodiversity Framework.

COP 16 is the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the governing body to the Convention on Biological Diversity, an international treaty adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Its purpose is to define responsibilities and limits of action for the conservation of biodiversity, its sustainable use, and the fair sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources.

Parties are expected to accelerate their efforts during this year’s summit in three areas: translating the 2022 Biodiversity Action Plan into decisive national action, mobilizing and strengthening the means of its implementation, and accelerating progress on access and benefit-sharing.

In the run-up to the COP16, Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, called on delegates to finalize the Global Biodiversity Framework’s monitoring system so that it is based on input from indigenous peoples, peasant and indigenous organizations, and civil society, comprehensively tracks all human rights guarantees and related allocations, and holds states accountable for their failure to comply.

“The Global Biodiversity Framework includes many human rights safeguards, but it will only prove effective if states agree on a robust mechanism to monitor and enforce it,” she emphasized.

Callamard also stressed that monitoring should take into account the rights of indigenous peoples, their knowledge and practices, as well as the rights of descendants of Africans, peasants, and other local communities dependent on the land. In addition, she said the monitoring system should include indicators to track funding for biodiversity conservation for indigenous peoples, as well as legal protection for land defenders.