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

May 18, 2021 - Aug 31, 2021 | Bosch Foundation International Alumni Centre and Environmental Peacebuilding Association
Online

18 May 2021 – 31 August 2021 | online

Bosch Foundation International Alumni Centre and Environmental Peacebuilding Association

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.

Time-frame: 1st May – 31st 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 will set the stage for the series by introducing and then contextualizing the concepts of the environment, peace, and transitional justice.

 Session 1: “A Global look at Environment, Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice” will be a case clinic that will explore diverse themes in environmental peacebuilding and transitional justice from global perspectives. This event will be an internal meeting with experts and will not be publicly accessible.  Session 2: “Environment and Peacebuilding in Africa. This webinar will discuss diverse themes relating to the environment and peacebuilding within the Africa region, including the development and progress of the field, challenges, successes, and the future of the field. We will hear from the academics and practitioners who are involved in these topics within the Africa region. Wednesday 26th May 2021 at 4:00pm GMT+3 (9:00am Washington DC time, 4:00pm Nairobi time, 3:00pm Berlin time) Register in advance for this webinar:https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sB7FnP1kTgG5SuefayexkA After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Session 3: “Environment, Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice: An African Perspective." This webinar will introduce the aspect of transitional justice (TJ) and the African Union Transitional Justice Policy. It will discuss how TJ relates to environmental peacebuilding. We will hear from the practitioners in the field who have engaged with the themes relating to: a)    The concept of Transitional Justice and the African Union Transitional Justice Policyb)    Transitional Justice in Africa and environmental justice c)    Contextualizing the African Union Transitional Justice Policy in natural resource-based conflict realities Thursday 27th May 2021 at 4:00pm GMT+3 (9:00am Washington DC time, 4:00pm Nairobi time, 3:00pm Berlin time) Register in advance for this webinar:https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YOGClOovRJCJiugK5aMtaw After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.​ 

The 8 subsequent webinars will engage a selection of intergovernmental agreements/organizations to capture insights and input for the development of the guidelines. A commissioned paper will be written following each discussion to highlight key themes and context-specific issues which will feed into the guidelines. More information about these webinars will be available in due course.

 

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.