Environment, Peacebuilding, and Transitional Justice (A Road to Geneva Series)

May 18, 2021 - Sep 14, 2021 | Bosch Alumni Network in partnership with the Environmental Peacebuilding Association
online

This Road to Geneva series will facilitate discussions on the environment, natural resources and transitional justice in the context of the African continent. From the insights, opinions, and themes shared over the course of the webinars, a set of guiding principles will be developed to inform the integration of environmental and natural resource considerations into transitional justice processes.

Timeframe: 1^st May – 31^st August 2021

Context

In 2019, the African Union (AU) adopted the African Union Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP), which provides AU Member States affected by conflict and war with a framework for mechanisms and processes related to transitional justice. But the AUTJP does not feature provisions on the environment or natural resources, even though these factors often interact with and impact conflict dynamics. Salient conflict-environment links include disputes over access to, use, and ownership of resources, environmental degradation and abuse that occurs during war, and the need for post-conflict rehabilitation and restoration.

Building from the AUTJP, the Environmental Peacebuilding Association’s (EnPax) Africa Interest Group and the Bosch Alumni Network, a cooperation project between the iac Berlin and the Robert Bosch Stiftung, have launched a project to share insights and generate a set of guidelines—focused on the implementation of transitional justice as it relates to the environmental and natural resources within Africa—for AUJTP implementing actors. 

As part of this project, a set of discussions will be convened bringing together a range of stakeholders to capture insights from the African region on the intersection of the environment, peacebuilding, and transitional justice. These conversations will inform the development of the guidelines, which will be shared at the final webinar.

Events

The first 3 sessions set the stage for the series by introducing and then contextualizing the concepts of the environment, peace, and transitional justice.

The bulk of the remaining webinars engage a selection of intergovernmental agreements/organizations to capture insights and input for the development of the guidelines. A commissioned paper is being written following each discussion to highlight key themes and context-specific issues which feed into the guidelines. 

Webinars 4-9 specifically discuss matters relating to conflicts, environment, natural resources and transitional justice in various African regions: 

Across communities and societies that have experienced conflicts where natural resources have been one of the factors, we find an undeniable link between the protection of the environment and the resources in question, and the protection of civilians. Damaged livelihoods that depend on the very environment and its resources for survival require rehabilitation and restoration as much as the human society requires rehabilitation and restoration. Thus, this calls for the diverse actors involved in post conflict societies to adopt environmentally sensitive approaches in their initiatives. Mechanisms that are established to support stabilization and transition, including transitional justice mechanisms in their diversity, can no longer overlook this nexus between environment, peace, and stability.

The project is holding regional discussions to understand environment, natural resources and justice in communities and societies that have experienced conflicts that ravaged their natural resources or are related to the access, use and ownership of the natural resources.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

The final webinar will invite project partners to discuss the major takeaways of the webinar series and share the draft guidelines developed along the course of the project.