Human Rights and Climate Change Workshop

This has resulted in numerous reports and resolutions from the UN Human Rights Council, the inclusion of human rights in the preamble to the Paris Agreement 2015, the inclusion of climate change as an associated issue in General Comment No. 36 on the ‘Right to Life’, and more recently a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment relating to the ‘Right to a Safe Climate’. 
 
These ground-breaking developments have provided a platform for further work to clarify the human rights obligations relating to climate change.
 
This workshop draws on interdisciplinary perspectives to examine the conceptual and practical contours that are faced in this context. Join us online over one and a half days, for a ‘webinar workshop’ that focuses on further developing the associated conceptual and practical understandings in this rapidly developing field. 

The workshop includes five panel sessions. 

See the full programme of the day, which includes an overview of each speaker’s contribution to the workshop.

Please register via Eventbrite. 

Thursday 30 April 2020.
 

Panel One: Institutional understandings of the relationship between human rights and climate change

2.00pm to 3.30pm – UK BST; 9.00am to 10.30am – EST; 6.00am to 7.30am – PST

Chair: Professor Erin Daly (Widener University)

• Professor John Knox (Wake Forest University - Former Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment)
• Dr David Boyd (UBC - UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment)

Panel Two: Human Rights, Climate Change and Transitions to a Low-Carbon Urban Environments

4.00pm to 5.30pm UK BST; 11.00am to 12.30am – EST; 8.00am to 9.30am – PST

Chair: Birsha Ohdedar (University of Essex)

• Dr Ruchi Choudhury (University of Cambridge)
• Dr Silvio Caputo (University of Kent) 
• Naysa Ahuja (Environmental Law Specialist – Consultant at the World Bank)

Friday 1 May 2020.

Panel Three: Litigation on human rights and climate change

9.30am to 11.00am UK BST; 4.30am to 6.00am – EST

Chair: Professor Karen Hulme (University of Essex).

• Ingrid Gubbay (Hausfeld LLP) 
• Richard Lord QC (Brick Court Chambers) 
• Professor James May (Widener University, USA) 

Panel Four: Climate change and rights-based approaches to public health

11.30am to 1.00pm UK BST; 6.30 to 8.00am – EST

Chair: Dr. Avidan Kent (University of East Anglia)

• Dr Judith Bueno de Mesquita (University of Essex)
• Dr Stephen Turner (University of Essex)
• Sam Varvastian (University of Cardiff)
  
  

Panel Five: Conflicts and Contestations in the relationship between Human Rights and Climate Change

2.00pm to 3.45pm UK BST; 9.00am to 9.45am – EST

Chair: Dr Emily Jones (University of Essex)

• Dr Thoko Kaime (University of Essex) 
• Dr Annalisa Savaresi (Stirling University) 
• Patricia Iturregui (Catholic University of Peru, GIDAMB Environmental Law  Research Group )  
• Dr Shanna McClain (NASA) 

How to join this workshop

To join this online workshop please register at Eventbrite. Upon registration you will be send the instructions on how to join as well as the webinar ID’s.

The webinar will be accessible via Zoom. Please make sure you have created a Zoom account in advance of joining the workshop, if you haven’t yet, please create an account here. If you are a University of Essex staff member or student please follow the instructions on how to create an account.

For those who cannot join this online workshop, the videos of each panel will be posted afterwards on our social media channels.  

How to ask questions

Please use the chat box to ask your questions, the chair of each session will take a selection of questions at the end of each panel.

Further Information

If you have any queries, please contact Dr Stephen Turner; or Birsha Ohdedar.

Image Credit: UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré.