Bill 630, formerly Pre-Bill 440, proposes establishing protective measures against strategic legal actions targeting public participation and protecting environmental defenders. The initiative was introduced by Representative Alexandra María Brenes Samaniego, member of the National Assembly for Circuit 8-2. According to the text, the bill arises from the need to safeguard active citizenship in the protection of natural heritage in the face of the use of the judicial system as a harassment mechanism through civil lawsuits and criminal complaints aimed at exhausting resources, intimidating, and silencing criticism on matters of public interest.

Article 1 sets as its purpose the protection of environmental defenders and any person exercising their right to public participation in environmental matters against unfounded or abusive legal actions. Article 2 defines SLAPPs as civil lawsuits, criminal complaints, administrative appeals, or other legal actions whose primary purpose is to silence, intimidate, censor, or exhaust the resources of those exercising environmental public participation. The same provision includes as defenders individuals, groups, or organizations, with or without legal personality, that peacefully defend, promote, protect, or restore the environment, including community leaders, environmental journalists, scientists, academics, and citizens.

The proposal creates an Early Dismissal Incident as a summary and preferential mechanism to close a case when there are indications of a SLAPP before the evidentiary phase, in accordance with Article 2. Article 4 provides that, in any civil, administrative, or criminal proceeding initiated against an environmental defender for their public participation, the defendant may file that incident within fifteen business days of notification. The provision also establishes that the judge may recognize it ex officio in the judgment even if it was not filed.

Article 5 grants a suspensive effect to the filing of the incident: the main proceedings and the evidentiary deadlines are suspended until there is a final ruling. In turn, Article 6 introduces reversed burden of proof. Once the incident is admitted, it falls to the original plaintiff to demonstrate, through summary evidence, that the lawsuit has a solid legal basis and a real probability of success, and that the proceeding does not seek to intimidate, silence, or economically exhaust the environmental defender.

The sanctions and reparations chapter provides for specific consequences if the court determines that the action is a SLAPP. Article 7 orders the plaintiff to pay procedural costs and to fully reimburse the defender's fees and expenses. Article 8 allows the defendant to request that the plaintiff deposit costs and expenses following admission of the claim; the deadline to deposit is five days and, if payment is not made, the case lapses and is closed. Article 9 empowers the judge to impose a recklessness fine payable to the National Treasury of up to 25% of the claim amount, or between B/.5,000 and B/.50,000, if bad faith or abuse of rights is proven.

The explanatory memorandum links the initiative to the constitutional right to a healthy environment set forth in Article 118 of the Constitution and to Panama's commitments as a State Party to the Escazú Agreement, approved through Law 125 of 2020, in particular the obligation to guarantee a safe environment for those who defend human rights in environmental matters. The bill was championed by the Committee on Government, Justice, and Constitutional Affairs, chaired by Representative Luis Eduardo Camacho Castro, on April 29, 2026. Its current status is pending first debate.