Side event 1: Focus on legal responses to the air pollution crisis 

Co-Organizers: United States Environmental Protection Agency, United States Department of State, and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

Date: Tuesday, 07 June 2022

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. (Nairobi time).

Location: CR9/Online

Registration link: click here to register. 

Summary:

This side event will showcase the legal regimes that have resulted in air pollution reduction domestically and regionally and highlight the key components of successful legal frameworks for air quality. The event will begin with an introduction on UNEP’s air quality strategy and a presentation of the recently developed First Global Assessment on Air Pollution Legislation (GAAPL) and Guide on Ambient Air Quality Legislation (GAAQL). Speakers will present the main outcomes of the GAAPL and the main challenges faced by some Member States in implementing their air quality frameworks. Then, representatives from the United States and Rwanda will discuss their experiences using legal tools to address air pollution in their countries, with a particular focus on successful implementation and enforcement, citizen participation, and access to information. Speakers will explore next steps in developing model air pollution legislation and/or regulation through the Montevideo Programme that can be implemented at the national level to protect air quality.

The event will conclude with a Question & Answer session to facilitate discussion between the speakers and the audience.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Soraya Smaoun, Air Quality Coordinator, UNEP Economy Division
• Eloise Scotford, Professor of Environmental Law, University College London
• Kathie Stein, Environmental Appeals Judge, United States Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Appeals Board
• Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Rwanda, former President East African Court of Justice, former Dean Emeritus National University of Rwanda Faculty School of Law

 Programme

Side event 2: Focus on legal responses to waste pollution

Co-Organizers: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS secretariat)

Date: Tuesday, 07 June 2022

Time: 11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Nairobi time).

Location: CR9/Online

Registration link: click here to register. 

Summary: National legal frameworks, enforcement and combatting illegal traffic in hazardous and other wastes are among the key matters addressed by the Basel Convention. At the heart of the Convention is the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and other wastes. But this control of international trade is the anchor for broader global efforts to minimize the generation of wastes and to ensure their environmentally sound management. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had many adverse implications for waste management. There were rapid changes in the amounts and types of waste being generated, and some waste management authorities faced challenges in managing it in environmentally sound ways. There were direct impacts – in particular, a big increase in the amount of clinical waste being generated – and indirect impacts such as disruption to the arrangements for collection and handling waste, including transboundary movements. These impacts differed from one country to the next depending on: local circumstances; the severity of the pandemic; the way waste was managed; and the capacity and flexibility of available waste management systems.

This side event aims to discuss legislative frameworks and enforcement mechanisms to tackle the waste pollution crisis. They provide the foundation for environmentally sound management of hazardous, medical, and other kinds of waste and action to combat waste trafficking. The starting point is the Guidance on policy and legislation for integrated waste management during a pandemic, which analyses national experience of measures adopted for COVID-19 waste management and provides guidance on enhanced frameworks. The side event will highlight approaches to foster better preparedness and responses to address health, environment and socio-economic risks associated with waste management in times of pandemic, and will present specific country experiences.  

The Basel Convention is also one of the very few environmental treaties to define a prohibited activity as “criminal”. The fact that illegal traffic is deemed a crime that Parties undertake to prevent and punish says a lot about the international community’s commitment to the environmentally sound management of hazardous and other wastes.

The side event will also discuss the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s legislative guide on waste trafficking, and how it can be used by legal practitioners to strengthen national legislation on waste trafficking. This segment will also touch on legal challenges and opportunities in combatting waste trafficking in Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, and West Africa. The event will also focus on the role of customs and border control agencies in combatting illegal trade in hazardous and other waste and contributing to the effective enforcement and international cooperation efforts. 

Finally, the event will highlight the importance of inter-ministerial cooperation between environmental authorities, ministries of justice, customs, and other law enforcement entities at the national level.

Confirmed Speakers:

• H. E. Aline Kuster-Ménager, Ambassador of France to Kenya and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Nairobi
• Tatiana Terekhova, Programme Management Officer, Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS secretariat)

• Lais Paiva Siqueira, Associate Legal Officer, UNEP Law Division

• Sibusiso Kobese, Director, Law Reform, Department of Forestry Fisheries & the Environment, South Africa

• Roxana-Andreea Mastor, Associate Legal Officer, UNODC Organized Crime Branch 

• Daniel Lago, Director of Legal Affairs, Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS)

• Jackline Wanjiru, Associate Legal Officer, UNEP Green Customs Initiative Secretariat 

Side event 3: Focus on legal responses to the climate crisis

Co-Organizers: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Commonwealth Secretariat, Grantham Research Institute - London School of Economics, Sabin Center for Climate Change Research

Date: Wednesday, 08 June 2022

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. (Nairobi time).

Location: CR9/Online

Registration link: click here to register. 

Summary: Effective implementation of the Paris Agreement and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) will require countries to develop and strengthen their enabling legal frameworks at the national level. To date, nearly a thousand pieces of national level climate change legislation and more than 1500 policy documents have been documented and collected from nearly every country around the world (see https://climate-laws.org). However, many countries require support to develop and strengthen their national legislation to mainstream climate change considerations and effectively integrate key governance functions that adequately reflect and respond to specific and evolving domestic contexts.

This event seeks to showcase the research and tools that are being developed to respond to these needs. It will showcase the Law and Climate Change Toolkit, an online and open database designed to provide a global resource to support the domestic implementation of the Paris Agreement and countries’ NDCs. It will also examine how oversight and accountability mechanisms can be designed into legislation from the outset, helping to ensure the effective implementation of legislation and policy over time. Finally, the event will consider the role of climate litigation in strengthening laws on climate change and improving accountability in their implementation.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Renée Gift, UNEP Law Division (Chair)
• Niklas Hagelberg, UNEP Policy and Programme Division
• Francisca Pretorius, Commonwealth Secretariat
• Anne Amin, Legal Specialist, UN-HABITAT
• Joana Setzer, Assistant Professor, Grantham Research Institute, London School of Economics
• Maria Antonia Tigre, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School

Agenda:

Moderated by

Renée Gift, Legal Officer, UNEP Law Division

Side event 4: Focus on legal responses to the biodiversity crisis: Emerging frameworks for Nature-Related Disclosures  

Organizers: United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI)

Date: Wednesday, 08 June 2022

Time: 11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Nairobi time).

Location: Online

Registration link: Click here to register. 

Summary: This event explores how voluntary initiatives in the field of nature-related risk and disclosure, with a focus on the Taskforce on Nature-Related Disclosures (TNFD), could be complemented through mandatory actions from governmental actors.

The TNFD is a market-led, science-based and government-endorsed voluntary approach with the mission of disseminating knowledge and best practice to build momentum towards longer-term market adoption of a risk management and disclosure framework for nature-related risks. Nature loss poses both risks and opportunities for business, now and in the future. More than half of the world’s economic output – US$44tn of economic value generation – is moderately or highly dependent on nature. Currently, financial institutions and companies don’t have the information they need to understand how nature impacts the organisation’s immediate financial performance or the longer-term financial risks that may arise from how the organisation, positively or negatively, impacts nature. 

Governments and regulators are further considering nature-related risk management and disclosure, expanding the work they have already undertaken on climate-related risks. Eight  jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore and the European Union, have now mandated the incorporation of TCFD recommendations into their national reporting regimes. On the way ahead, further consideration should also be given by governments and regulators to nature and biodiversity – given the intrinsic link of nature-positive activities to deliver appropriate climate change adaptation.

The Montevideo Programme supports the development of adequate and effective environmental legislation and legal frameworks at all levels to address environmental issues. In such sense, this event will explore how further regulatory framework development can support the TNFD framework development and the importance of linking voluntary disclosure approaches and regulatory approaches, as these complement each other.

Confirmed Speakers: 

• Romie Goedicke, Project & Technical Manager Nature, UNEP FI (Moderator) 
• V.B. Mathur, Chairperson of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), India
• Maxim Vergeichik, Senior Nature Economist, UNDP
• Bas Rüter, Global Head Food System Transition, Rabobank Food & Agribusiness
• Erlan Le Calvar, Sustainable Finance Expert within Banque de France’s Climate Change Centre

Agenda: 

Side event 5: The intersection between human rights and environmental laws: synergies and opportunities for enhanced implementation
 

Co-Organizers: Universal Rights Group, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Youth Environment Europe, David Boyd - UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment

Date: Thursday, 09 June 2022

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. (Nairobi time).

Location: CR9/Online

Registration link: click here to register. 

Summary: Since the creation of the United Nations, the international community has taken enormous steps to develop robust frameworks to protect human rights and the environment. However, these two sets of laws remained seemingly disconnected until the 1960s, with the advent of the modern environmental movement. Indeed, environmental concerns were entirely absent during UN discussions on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the negotiation of the two international human rights covenants.

The first significant effort to bridge human rights and the environment at international level came almost 50 years ago, when States adopted the 1972 Stockholm Declaration and Action Plan for the Human Environment. The Stockholm Declaration catalysed a global movement to better connect human rights and environmental concerns in national legislation and even in national constitutions. Increasingly, that included moves by governments to recognise, at domestic level and in regional treaties, the inalienable right of their people to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

Following the Stockholm declaration, multiple efforts have been taken at international and domestic levels to better connect human rights and environmental concerns. Dozens of national laws and of multilateral and international instruments have recognised the intertwined relationship between human rights and the environment in an effort to secure the protection of the people and the planet.

In addition to establishing an international environmental and human rights framework, the international community has invested enormous time and energy in building a system of implementation measures and mechanisms to oversee State compliance with these international legal obligations and recommend domestic legislative and policy reforms to improve compliance in the future.

However, the implementation systems of both sets of norms, namely, human rights and environmental protection, continue to appear as disconnected mechanisms for most citizens, including environmental defenders.

Breaking these silos and leveraging synergies between the two sets of mechanisms can contribute to enhanced implementation of both human rights and environmental protection standards, and therefore, to more robust action to address the three interlinked environmental crises, namely, pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change.

Against this backdrop, the Universal Rights Group (URG), the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment Professor David Boyd, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are proposing a side event to incentivise international debate and action on how to identify and leverage synergies between the mechanisms devised to secure the implementation of human rights and environmental norms as a fundamental strategy to address the three interlinked environmental crises.

The event is expected to achieve this objective by 1. facilitating access to information and increasing the knowledge of key stakeholders on existing environmental human rights standards (including norms and principles) and the relevant implementation mechanisms; and 2. showcasing synergies between human rights and environmental protection standards and implementation mechanisms.

Draft agenda/programme: 

1. Why a human rights-based approach can enhance environmental protection efforts, David Boyd, Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment (Video message)
2. Protecting the environment and the rights of youth, children and the future generation: the role of youth in enhancing the rule of law, with a focus on access and participation rights in environmental lawmaking, Emma Pagliarusco, Liaison Officer, Youth Environment Europe
3. How human rights mechanisms have contributed to enhanced implementation of environmental standards, Marc Limon, Executive Director of the Universal Rights Group
4. Provisions and mechanisms to secure the protection of environmental rights and the importance of the right to a healthy environment, Mohammed BARAOUI (Morocco) and EU Speaker TBC
5. Why strong environmental protection frameworks can contribute to enhanced human rights protection, Hannah Wamuyu
6. Q&A

Side event 6: Strengthening Action for Nature and Environmental Governance: Approaches by Faith-based Organisations, Indigenous and Local Communities 

Organizer:  United Nations Environment Programme Faith for Earth Initiative

Date: Thursday, 09 June 2022

Time: 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m (Nairobi time).

Location: CR9/Online

Registration link: click here to register. 

Summary: Although religions come from different belief backgrounds, all agree on the human spiritual and moral responsibility towards Earth. Studying the existing programmes and relationships within local communities (with faith-based organisations (FBOs), indigenous groups, etc) is imperative to effectively demonstrate the value of belief systems and environmental policy, especially the role of religious and faith actors in promoting environmental governance.

FBOs present an opportunity to enrich and support decision-making processes informed by local and grassroots experiences, promoting a harmonious relationship between people, nature and the environment.

Belief systems, including faith, values and ethics are instrumental to enacting behavioral change that is invaluable in efforts to prevent, halt and reverse environmental issues. Engaging faith actors on climate change, biodiversity and nature loss, and pollution and waste present an untapped avenue to accelerate and amplify holistic solutions – and towards a new narrative - for sustainable development.

Leveraging their significant socio-political power, the participation of all concerned citizens is required to strengthen the policy-making space informed by timely and accurate environmental information an ethical and moral responsibility. As a conciliatory effect, legislation with effective public participation enables peacebuilding, sustainable use of land resources, conflict prevention and remediation.

UNEP Faith for Earth and its partners are strategically placed to offer support and assistance in the implementation of the Montevideo Programme V through it’s vast and diverse network comprising of faith leaders, faith-based organisations, and faith, traditional and indigenous communities.

The side-event will demonstrate how faith-based engagement through effective public participation has contributed to better uptake of environmental laws and policies with an emphasis on:

• Exploring and promoting the influence of beliefs, values, culture and traditional practices on environmental law, particularly in advancing the environmental rule of law;
• Exploring the role of faith actors in advancing environmental rule of law;
• Demonstrating the support religious and indigenous leaders, youth movements, policymakers, and scientists require to work together to create harmonious environmental policies that capitalize on the power of values, ethics, and religion;
• Introducing a partnership with a university and researchers to amplify the nexus between traditional and religious beliefs, spirituality and environmental governance within the African region; and
• Supporting accredited FBOs to engage in policy dialogue at the UN, highlighting the positive influential powers and perspectives of spiritual and moral responsibilities to environmental governance brought about by religions

The First Global Meeting of National Focal Points as an opportunity to demonstrate evidence-based arguments and reasons to support and strengthen a multistakeholder approach – particularly the inclusion of faith leaders, faith-based organisations, and faith, traditional and indigenous communities -  to governments and major groups and stakeholders present.

Draft agenda/programme:

Introduction

UNEP Faith for Earth Framework to strengthen support for the Montevideo Programme V (the role of faith actors)

• Ms. Azmaira Alibhai, Faith & Ecosystems Coordinator, UNEP Faith for Earth
• Mr. Eric Muhia, Faith for Earth Intern, UNEP Faith for Earth

Promoting Beliefs and Values for Positive Behavioural Change

How the Misali Islamic Environmental Ethics Project halted fishing with dynamite in Zanzibar through Islamic principles.

• Mr. Sidi Fazlun Khalid, Founder and Director, Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences.

Case Study: Cooperation of Interfaith Leaders, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities facilitated by IRI Colombia

Demonstrate the contributions made by indigenous groups towards the protection of a rainforest ecosystem and the challenges encountered.

• Mr. Charles McNeill, Senior Advisor, Forests & Climate, UNEP

Unlocking the African-regional Perspective: African Interreligious and Traditional Belief Systems and Practices in Enhancing Environmental Rule of Law

The Case of the Endorois People: Indigenous faiths perspectives and approaches to environmental protection and governance and launch of a call for papers towards a Yearbook series on African interreligious beliefs and practices that promote environmental protection, compliance with environmental law and as a means of peacebuilding.

• Mr. Humphrey Sipalla, Editor In Chief, Kabarak University Press / Lecturer
• Mr. Carson Kiburo, Executive Director at Jamii Asilia Centre, Bachelor of Laws Candidate, Kabarak University

Side event 7: The role of global networks of legal experts and practitioners to assist in designing and implementing legal responses to address the triple planetary crisis 

Organizer: IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law

Date: Thursday, 09 June 2022,

Time: 12:15 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Nairobi time).

Location: CR9/Online

Registration link: click here to register. 

Summary: Addressing multiple environmental crises through law requires extensive capacity and experience. Designing new laws and regulations demands of decision-makers not only in-depth scientific understanding but also a comprehensive overview over legal tools and applicable principles and rules. Equally, the effective implementation and compliance with laws addressing biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution in a comprehensive and holistic manner depend on the expertise and capacity of the executive and the judiciary. In many places, such capacity is constrained.

Networks of international legal experts, as well as networks among members of the judiciary have long been instrumental in enhancing legal capacity on the environmental rule of law globally. Many networks operate worldwide and react to immediate and systemic needs.

This side event aims at familiarizing the audience with various networks of legal experts and practitioners, how they work and what impact they have.

Of particular interest are specific examples of how networks of legal scholars can help design legal strategies and tools to address environmental challenges. Moreover, the “transition” of innovative environmental legal tool, from scholarly ideas to impactful legal principles applied in courts, is another phenomenon that the seminar will address. Finally, legal networks of judges give rise to so-called “cross-referencing” of judgments across various jurisdictions; a phenomenon widely observed in current climate litigation cases. Behind these transitions and “cross-fertilizations” lies the active involvement of networks that brings together experts and decision-makers in multiple formal and informal ways. This seminar aims to shed light on the operation of networks and the tools and strategies they deploy to enhance capacity and impact.  

Draft agenda/programme:

12:15:-12:20:

Introduction: From ideas to initiatives and the role of expert networks: Mr. Ayman Cherkaoui, Hasssan II International Center for Environmental Training & Regional Facilitator, Major Groups and Stakeholders, Africa

12.20-12.25:

Climate justice in the Law of the Sea: Ms. Nilufer Oral, University of Singapore

12:25-12.30:

From an idea to a legal definition: Ecocide and the role of activist and expert coalitions: Ms. Jojo Mehta, Stop Ecocide Foundation

12.30-12:35:

Water justice (in dubio pro aqua): A concept on its way to legal application by courts: Mr. Antonio Herman Benjamin, National High Court of Brazil

12:35-12:40:

“Urgenda” all over the world: cross-fertilization by a single judgment: Ms. Margaretha-Wewerinke Singh, Leiden University

12:40-12:45:

Role of academics in enhancing legal environmental capacity: Ms. Agnes Michelot, University of La Rochelle

12:45-12.50:

From science to law: “fair share” to address climate change as applied by courts: Ms. Lavanja Rajamani, University of Oxford

12:50-12.55:

Role of parliamentarians in environmental law, Ms. Kareen Jabre, Director, Division of Programmes at the IPU

12:55-1:00: Closing: Ms. Christina Voigt