Unsustainable production and consumption patterns of single use plastics are causing worldwide negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts on land-based and marine ecosystems. Nevertheless, in Latin America, plastics governance is still fragmented across borders because of dispersed normative adoption and limited regional coordination. In this context, the instrumental level of articulation between the international principles of environmental law and the formal legal arrangements from the Pacific Alliance countries is assessed to analyze how this strategic platform can contribute to offering a regional response to the global problem of single use plastics. For this purpose, an illustrative case study of the national and subnational regulation developed by the Pacific Alliance and its members was performed. To this end, a framework analysis was conducted on the official legal documents from Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador. The results show extensive and scattered subnational regulation to control the consumption of plastic bags and single use plastics, with diverse policies on extended producer responsibility, educational and economic strategies to influence mainly the consumer’s behaviour. Recommendations are presented in order to improve plastics governance in the region through the legal component.

The recognition of water as a human and fundamental right in Ecuador, implied countless challenges, including the incorporation of the gender approach in community management of water resources. This necessity has been acknowledged in the law, as well as in public policies, although in practice there is still a gap in the real participation of women due to persistent gender roles that exclude them from the decision making process. This paper develops a normative study, from international human rights instruments to Ecuadorian legislation regarding the incorporation of the human right to water, as well as the implementation of a gender perspective in water management. It also includes case studies, which show that active, free and meaningful participation of women in these communitarian systems is not yet fully achieved. After this analysis and the following discussion, the work concludes that the integration of women in management and decisionmaking of communitarian water committees, is not only done by eliminating physical, but also social barriers to participate, which could prevent women from having a leading role within their communities, in an active and passive form.

El presente artículo describe el marco jurídico institucional del reconocimiento del derecho humano al agua en el Ecuador, con el propósito de contar con el sustento cualitativo para el diseño de una metodología que permita medir la implementación de dicho derecho. Para ello, analiza las circunstancias que influyeron en su consagración y la manera en que las normas deberían emplearse a la hora de garantizar su contenido. La investigación utiliza como base el informe de la Organización de los Estados Americanos sobre el abordaje del derecho humano al agua en algunos países de Centroamérica y lo adapta a la realidad ecuatoriana, así como otros en relación con la inclusión de la población vulnerable. Además, lleva a cabo un análisis exegético, haciendo un recorrido histórico de la protección del agua en Ecuador a nivel constitucional y legal, así como un recuento de los diarios de debates de la Asamblea Constituyente de 2008. Los resultados del estudio se presentan en función de las variables diseñadas por el Relator Especial del Derecho Humano al Agua y al Saneamiento. El trabajo concluye que si bien existe un reconocimiento normativo del derecho al agua, la debilidad institucional influye de manera negativa para su efectiva realización.