How did this year’s UN Environment Assembly address environmental security and the environmental dimensions of armed conflicts. Doug Weir reviews what was achieved and considers how future meetings could provide an important platform for the topic.
This year could be a significant one for how the international community interprets the law protecting the environment in non-international armed conflicts. Right now, protection is minimal and, as Jeanique Pretorius explains, addressing this is likely to require that we also look to human rights and environmental law for inspiration.
After two game changing resolutions at its second and third meetings, Doug Weir looks ahead to the Fourth UN Environment Assembly this month to gauge the level of interest in the environmental dimensions of armed conflicts, and finds that the concept of environmental security remains as contested as ever.
A new study has examined the causes and extent of infrastructure damage in Gaza and the West Bank. Leonie Nimmo takes a look at both the consequences of slow violence under occupation, and periods of armed violence for the environment and for the viability of life.
Report assessing the reverberating effects of the use of explosive weapons in Syria, which considers the environmental legacy of UXO and of the destruction to agricultural and industrial areas during the conflict.
Israel, Palestine, and Jordan are all grappling with water scarcity in different ways and to different degrees. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is considered a climate hotspot due to its natural water scarcity, low levels of socio-ecological resilience, social tensions and political conflicts, and ongoing immigration crisis. Over the course of the…
The first-ever global assessment of environmental rule of law finds weak enforcement to be a global trend that is exacerbating environmental threats, despite prolific growth in environmental laws and agencies worldwide over the last four decades.
Open source analysis of the impact of unseasonably heavy rains in northern Syria on IDPs and damaged oil infrastructure. When the season of heavy rainfall began in war-torn Syria, the misery local residents and internally displaced persons (IDPs) have faced over the years was compounded by environmental setbacks. This open-source monitoring blog of the situation…
