“The World’s Biggest Problems require the World’s Highest Courts:
A youth perspective on how international legal tools can achieve climate and ecological justice”
An in-person youth led event at COP 27
Time: 09:05 GMT / 10:05 CET / 11:05 EET
Venue: Children & Youth Pavilion
Co-hosted by: Youth for Ecocide Law, World’s Youth for Climate Justice and Republic of Vanuatu
In association with Stop Ecocide International
Please note that we are unable to guarantee in-person places for this event at COP 27, so encourage you to add the date to your diary.
We look forward to welcoming you.
If you are unable to attend in person, the event will be live-streamed and available on demand:
Event outline:
A youth led panel event, with interactive audience Q&A session reflecting on how International law could provide powerful levers for positive change for our future, will showcase two international legal avenues to address the climate and ecological crises: criminalising ecocide at the International Criminal Court and seeking an Advisory Opinion from the International Court of Justice.
First, a clear legal Advisory Opinion on climate change will not just summarize states’ existing obligations with regards to human rights and climate change, but it can also deliver a progressive interpretation of those obligations and make global progress toward intergenerational equity and climate justice.
Second, making “ecocide” - severe and either widespread or long-term harm to nature - a crime at the international level could provide a legal guardrail to steer us back from the precipice. It would set an outer boundary to deter, prevent, and sanction the worst threats to ecosystems which are a root cause of climate change.
Speakers:
Jojo is Co-Founder and Executive Director of advocacy organisation Stop Ecocide International and Chair of the charitable Stop Ecocide Foundation which supports the participation of climate-vulnerable states in the growing global conversation on ecocide.
She has overseen the remarkable growth of the movement in recent years, while coordinating legal developments, diplomatic traction and public narrative; the organisation now has committed teams or associate groups in over 40 countries.
She was also the convenor of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide.
World’s Youth for Climate Justice.
Mert Kumru is the former UN Youth Representative on Human Rights & Security for the Netherlands and a campaigner for WYCJ. He combines his Human Rights background with a variety of climate related themes. In his work and activism he focusses especially on Human Rights violations that take place due to the climate crisis. Mert is currently doing a Public International Law LLM at the University of Leiden.
Willy Missack, Secretariat Adviser to the Vanuatu Climate Action Network and Founder & Executive Director of Learn to Serve Vanuatu
Willy is currently working with the Vanuatu government on policy-making and advisory to the Vanuatu Climate Climate Action on disaster risk reduction and climate change programs. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of Learn to Serve Vanuatu, a community-based organisation that are working on Ecosystem Restoration and Sustainable Land Management, Water, and Climate Justice project.
Uno.Cinco.
Daniela is the 26 year-old coordinator of the policy department at Uno.Cinco and young negotiator of the Chilean delegation at COP26 in Glasgow on adaptation and gender issues. Daniela has experience working in the United Nations (FAO HQ, FAO Latin America and currently in UNICEF Chile)... and in academia and research centres in the areas of climate change, disaster risk management and gender. She is the climate change focal point in UNICEF Chile. With a B.A. in Sociology, she is a Master’s student in Political Science and International Relations and currently doing an exchange at the Paris School of International Affairs at SciencesPo.
Moderator:
Climate Justice Activist; Co-Founder, Re-Earth Initiative.
Xiye Bastida is a 20 year-old Climate Justice activist from Mexico where she forms part of the Otomi-Toltec Indigenous community. She is the co-founder of Re-Earth Initiative and studies at University of Pennsylvania where she is pursuing a BA in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Policy. She has written op-eds and contributions in several books including All We Can Save, and has been invited to talk on global platforms to call for immediate climate action on all fronts.
Organised by: Youth for Ecocide Law, in association with Stop Ecocide International
Co-hosted by: Youth for Ecocide Law, World’s Youth for Climate Justice and Republic of Vanuatu.
