Session I | Global Justice in Conversation: Pathways toward Environmental Justice

Session 1 is timed for participants in Asia and the Pacific: UTC 5am | Astana 10am | Dhaka 11am | Bangkok 12noon | Tokyo 2pm | Canberra 3pm | Wellington 5pm | Apia 6pm | 1:00am EST

• When: Wednesday, August 21, 2024
• Time: 1:00 – 2:30 AM Eastern Time
• Where: Zoom | Cost: FREE and open to the public

There is widespread recognition that the world faces a moment of profound environmental crisis. And yet, the existential nature of this threat may give a false impression that  actors responsible cannot be identified or are beyond the arm of global justice. Recent years have seen hopeful developments in the attempt to achieve accountability for heinous harms to humanity and the planet. These include: 

• The advancement of both requests for Advisory Opinions and contentious cases on State responsibility for environmental degradation, including climate change, before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS);
• Support for a new Crime of Ecocide to be included by amendment within the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including a robust report by an independent expert panel, as well as the promulgation of a policy by the current Prosecutor to actively investigate and prosecute environmental crimes within the Court’s current jurisdiction;
• Seminal precedential rulings at the regional level, including the Inter-American Court and European Court systems; 
• The historic completion of reparations payments after more than three decades, including for environmental damage, for the illegal invasion by Iraq of Kuwait in 1990; and
• Introduction of proposals for new judicial institutions with distinct subject matter jurisdiction capable of addressing the multifaceted and intersectional challenges of environmental crimes, including an Environmental Court and International Anti-Corruption Court (IACC).

At the same time, experiments like a widely critiqued ICJ Environmental Chamber, active from 1993-1996, provide cautionary tales. 

This webinar, organized by Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS), with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP), will probe potential pathways to environmental justice in international and regional courts and tribunals. The webinar will be offered in two sessions timed for different regions.

Please note that Session 1 will only be in English and Session 2 will only be in Spanish.

Read more about the ImPACT Coalition: Just Institutions & the International Court of Justice (ICJ) webpage.