Climate crisis: claim at ICC to end impunity for destruction of the Amazon

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Ruth Green

COP26 has refocused the world’s attention on climate action. And the continuing flurry of litigation suggests citizens are now more serious than ever about pressing those in positions of power to address the climate crisis.

Two weeks before COP26, a small NGO was already taking matters into its own hands, filing a claim at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to end impunity for environmental destruction in the Amazon.

The complaint, submitted by Austrian NGO AllRise on 12 October, accuses Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his administration of committing crimes against humanity for their role in fuelling ‘the mass destruction of the Amazon with eyes wide open and in full knowledge of the consequences.’ Bolsonaro, who has been the subject of three previous ICC complaints since he assumed office in early 2019, denies all wrongdoing.

Published on 01-12-21. Read on here

Climate crisis: Undue influence undermines global efforts

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Ruth Green

As final preparations are being made for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, there are serious concerns that undue influence and conflicts of interest are undermining the global effort to combat the climate crisis. Leaked documents have revealed how a handful of fossil-fuel producing nations have been attempting to influence the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to water down its draft recommendations on steps needed to address the crisis. Tens of thousands of comments by governments, corporations, academics and others were leaked to Greenpeace UK.

An IPCC spokesperson said its processes were ‘designed to guard against lobbying – from all quarters’. However, the leak illustrates how influence ‘can be exerted behind closed doors, including to manipulate science,’ says Brice Böhmer, who leads Transparency International’s work on climate governance integrity. Although not new, when countries are ‘running out of time to solve the climate crisis’, he says such practices ‘are not acceptable anymore’.

Published on 25-10-21. Read on here

Climate Crisis: A Race against Time

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Ruth Green

Ugochi Anyaka-Oluigbo understands the devasting impact of climate change better than most. She was born and raised in the commercial city of Aba, Abia state in Nigeria but regularly travels to her home town, Amucha, in Imo state where she witnessed first-hand how erosion of the local landscape swallowed up her neighbourhood’s homes and farmland, cut off communities and threatened livelihoods.

Today she’s one of Africa’s leading environmental journalists and has made it her mission to give a voice to vulnerable communities in Nigeria and across the continent that continue to grapple with erosion, flooding, desertification and other extreme weather patterns exacerbated by climate change.

African women are particularly at risk, she says. “I think women are hugely affected by climate change. I’ve seen the impact of this, where women have no place to go to: they are threatened, they know that they might sleep and never wake up and that they might be swallowed up.”

Published on 25-10-21. Read on here

Growing urgency to evacuate female judges from Afghanistan

Posted on October 7, 2021 by Ruth Green

Over a month has passed since the last international troops left Afghanistan. The frantic scenes of civilians begging to be evacuated have dissipated, but there remains a sense of urgency for the female judges forced into hiding and fearing for their lives.

‘Now living for us is a time of torture,’ one female judge tells Global Insight over a crackly line from Kabul. ‘Here we are spending days and nights in fear. We are living like prisoners and so are our children. They cannot go out and they are living in fear.’

Nura fled her home in the east of the country last month with her husband and two young children after the Taliban freed thousands of prisoners and began door-to-door searches for judges that had sentenced their members. Like other female judges, her bank account has been frozen and she’s been forced into hiding with relatives in Kabul while she waits anxiously for news on an evacuation flight.

Published on 07-10-21. Read on here.

Russia’s rule of law crisis

Posted on September 7, 2021 by Ruth Green

The September 2021 Duma elections in Russia will define the composition of Russia’s lower house of parliament for the next five years. They come at a testing time for the Pro-Putin ruling party Edinaya Rossiya, whose popularity has plummeted following the controversial decision to raise the state retirement age in 2018 and, more recently, its mishandling of the pandemic.

This IBA Global Insight podcast looks at the continued efforts by the Russian authorities to suppress dissent and silence critics like Alexei Navalny and what these measures mean for the rule of law.

With:

Maria Logan, legal counsel to Mikhail Khodorkhovsky during the Kremlin critic’s imprisonment in Russia for fraud
Galina Arapova, Director, Mass Media Defence Centre, Voronezh; human rights lawyer
Sir Tony Brenton, the United Kingdom’s Ambassador to Moscow, 2004-2008

Released on 07-09-21. Listen here