The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI), China Dialogue Trust and the Faculty of Law at University of Nairobi are pleased to invite you to attend the webinar Climate Justice, Grassroots Activism and Human Rights Law, which is the open session part of the hybrid conference Environmental Law from Below: Grassroots and Human Rights Perspectives on the Human Environment Agenda (Stockholm+50), and will take place online and in person at University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya, on 27 September 2022.
Webinar date: 27 September 2022
Time: 7:45 am CEST / 8:45 am EAT (90 minutes)
The 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment was a turning point for environmental protection and international law. It also saw the founding, later that year, of the UN Environment Programme, based in Nairobi, and was a critical moment for rights-based movements and the pioneering of legal activism. The “environmental rights revolution” it birthed led to the adoption of laws and frameworks that recognise environmental quality as a precondition for the enjoyment of basic human rights. The Human Rights Council’s recognition of the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment in 2021, echoed by the United Nations General Assembly in mid-2022, are indications of the present momentum, which builds on decades of grassroot lobbying for the respect and protection of rights in this context.
This event will focus on the way that bottom-up pressure to advance the human rights to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment can facilitate positive change in environmental governance and better outcomes for people and planet.
7:45-8:30 CEST / 8:45-9:30 EAT Opening and Keynote
Speaker:
- Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Director of the Law Division, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
8:30-10:00 CEST / 9:30-11:00 EAT Climate Justice, Grassroots Activism and Human Rights Law
Speakers:
- Li Fung, Senior Human Rights Adviser, Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
- Ayman Cherkaoui, Vice-Chair, IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law
- Nyasha Frank Mpahlo, Executive Director, Green Governance Zimbabwe Trust
- Robert Kibugi, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Nairobi
- Claudia Ituarte-Lima, Leader of Human Rights and Environment Thematic Area and Senior Researcher, The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law
Moderator:
- Isabel Hilton, Founder and Senior Advisor, China Dialogue
Supported by The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
Featured image: Herlinde Demaerel / China Dialogue – Creative Commons: CC BY NC ND