September 30th 16:00-17:30 CEST, 10:00-11:30 EST – registration is now open
This webinar will launch a new report from the Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and CEOBS on a newly developed framework to assist victims of toxic remnants of war. The webinar is hosted in association with the Environmental Peacebuilding Association’s Law Interest Group and is a Road to Geneva event. Registration is now open here: http://bit.ly/TRWPrinciples
Armed conflicts and military activities take a toll on the environment that significantly affects both people and ecosystems. Conflict-related pollution inflicts severe and long-term physical, psychological, socioeconomic, and cultural harm on local communities. Peacetime military activities leave a similar legacy, and veterans and contractors have had to fight for recognition of health problems.
While UN bodies have begun to address conflict pollution and toxic remnants of war, a framework to meet the short- and long-term needs of those affected has been absent. The concept of “victim assistance,” however, has become a widely accepted component of humanitarian disarmament law.
Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic and the Conflict and Environment Observatory have adapted humanitarian disarmament’s norms of victim assistance to the context of toxic remnants of war. Our report Confronting Conflict Pollution identifies 14 principles designed to establish the missing assistance framework. It also includes a commentary elaborating on the principles and providing legal and policy precedent for each. The principles embody a collective commitment to work towards victims’ full and effective participation in society and the realisation of their human rights.
At this launch webinar, the authors will introduce the report and its new framework, and experts will offer perspectives on its applicability to environmental human rights, humanitarian assistance and conflict health.
Speakers
Doug Weir (Conflict and Environment Observatory) – Introducing toxic remnants of war.
Bonnie Docherty (Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic) – Introducing the principles.
Discussants
Baskut Tuncak (Former UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur on Toxics)
Emilia Wahlstrom (Joint UNEP/OCHA Environment Unit)
Prof. Richard Sullivan (KCL Centre for the Study of Conflict and Health, King’s College London)
Facilitator
Oli Brown (Chatham House, Trustworks Global, The GCSP)
