New Opinio Juris Piece on Environmental Justice: Between New Frameworks & Challenges

Dive into this new Opinio Juris piece of Maud Sarliève and Pauline Martini, both Associate Research Fellows at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, discussing new approaches and frameworks in the sector of environmental justice and its concordant challenges to operationalise them. 

From the new Policy on Addressing Environmental Damage under the Rome Statute – which offers formal recognition of harms that have long demanded legal redress – to the opening for signature of the Council of Europe’s Council Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, the authors acknowledge the clear shift taking place in the sector of justice and accountability calling for the prioritisation of crimes involving environmental destruction. 

However, to achieve this, overcoming legal, institutional and practical challenges will be critical, as noted by the authors. This includes: 

• Coordinating the multi-party evidence collection and documentation necessary to support criminal prosecutions;

• Promoting ways to include victims and survivors in justice processes; and

• Ensuring access to adequate resources and specialised expertise;

Part of the solution resides in this new initiative that Justice Rapid Response contributed to launch in partnership with the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, Physicians for Human Rights, Source International and TRIAL International to develop practitioner-focused Guidelines on the Documentation and Investigation of Environmental International Crimes. These Guidelines will equip justice actors with practical tools and methodologies for effectively documenting and investigating environmental international crimes.

To blog post on Opinio Juris

For more on the Guidelines initiative, visit JRR’s website.