Human Rights and the Climate Change Crisis
Human Rights and the Climate Change Crisis
The Right to a Healthy Environment, the Right to Water and the Right to Development
Thursday 26 and Friday 27 November 2020
Zoom Webinar
How should the right to a healthy environment be enforced? Is the right to development compatible with the right to a healthy environment? How should the promotion of collective interests be balanced with individual freedoms? The current pandemic highlights the urgent need for global measures to deal with common threats and the risk that such measures could be taken at the expense of individual freedoms. These uncertain times may present an opportunity to rethink society and the economy to combat climate change more effectively.
THURSDAY 26 NOVEMBER 2020
10–10:35 CET: Welcome and introduction
Nicolas Levrat, Director of the Global Studies Institute (GSI), University of Geneva
Micheline Calmy-Rey, Visiting professor, University of Geneva,
former President of Switzerland
Franz Perrez, Head of the International Affairs Division at the Federal Office for the Environment
David Boyd, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, Associate Professor of Law, Policy, and Sustainability, University of British Columbia (by video message)
10:35–12:35 CET: Balancing individual freedoms and collective interests
Chair: Nicolas Levrat, University of Geneva
Independence, congruity or opposition? Human rights and climate action
Corina Heri, University of Zurich
Collective interests and individual rights in climate change litigation: remarks on an ever-closer relationship
Anna-Julia Saiger, Humboldt University Berlin
A historically sensitive allocation of the remaining global carbon budget. Why it is both justified and dynamically feasible
Lukas Meyer, University of Graz
Empowerment: responsibility and the reconciliation of mitigation and development
Darrel Moellendorf, Goethe University, Frankfurt
13:35–15:05: Enforcing the human right to a healthy environment in Europe
Chair: Mara Tignino, University of Geneva
Bringing the right to water into the spotlight: a civil right before the European Court of Human Rights?
Angela Hefti, European Court of Human Rights
The right to water: a proxy for the right to a healthy environment?
Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, University of Geneva
Natalia Kobylarz, Registry of the European Court of Human Rights and University of Grenoble Alpes
15:05–17:05: Enforcing the human right to a healthy environment worldwide
Chair: Yves Lador, Earthjustice
Enforcement of the human right to a healthy environment through domestic climate change litigation: a comparative case study of Juliana v. US and Future Generations v. Ministry of Environment et al.
Camila Mariño, Consultant at the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights
The right to a healthy environment: re-conceptualizing human rights in the face of climate change
Elena Cima, University of Geneva
Enforcing the right to a healthy environment in the climate emergency:
a view from above
Annalisa Savaresi, University of Stirling
Greening the monitoring of human rights obligations – what role for the human rights treaty bodies in protecting the right to a healthy environment
Sébastien Duyck, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)
FRIDAY 27 NOVEMBER 2020
10–12:15 CET: Reconciling the right to development and the right to a healthy environment
Chair: Makane Mbengue, University of Geneva
Global obligations for environmental justice: reconciling the human right to a healthy environment, the human right to development, and Sustainable Development Commitments
Elena Pribytkova, National University of Singapore
Rethinking the premises underlying the right to development in African human rights jurisprudence
Elsabé Boshoff, University of Göttingen
Climate change, development and human rights: rethinking the bases following the Covid-19 pandemic
Philippe Cullet, SOAS University of London
Energy for sustainable development: realising rights of billions within planetary boundaries
Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, Leiden University
Mitigating climate change through human rights obligations: due diligence and ‘fair share’
Christina Voigt, University of Oslo