Can International Law Protect the Environment in Armed Conflict?

Jun 25, 2020 | IISS Conflict, Security and Development Programme
online
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In this discussion, the panel will consider how international law might be able to protect the environment in the increasingly complicated landscape of armed conflict. The laws governing both the environment and the conduct of war have come a long way in recent decades. However, the intersection between the two is an enduring weakness, despite the damage that armed conflict is known to wreak on the natural environment. Complicating the picture is the fact that most conflicts today are not fought between states alone, but with non-state armed actors for whom most of these laws were not designed. Can international law rise to these challenges, and can it shape how armed actors conduct war?

This is the inaugural event in The Climate Briefing series presented by the IISS Conflict, Security and Development Programme. Each month, we examine how environmental security affects our strategic environment, and what can be done to meet these challenges.

Dr Cordula Droege is the Chief Legal Officer and head of the legal division of the ICRC, where she leads the ICRC’s efforts to uphold, implement and develop international humanitarian law. She joined the ICRC in 2005 and has held a number of positions in the field and at headquarter, including as head of the legal advisers to operations, and most recently as chief of staff to the President of the ICRC. She has some twenty years of experience in the field of international law, and in her earlier career worked for the International Commission of Jurists, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Max Planck Institute for International Law. She holds a law degree and a PhD from the University of Heidelberg and an LLM from the London School of Economics.

Jonathan Somer is a Legal Adviser with the Danish Red Cross. He is the founder of Persona Grata Consulting, and has extensive experience working in the humanitarian sector and in engagement with armed actors, including non-state armed groups. He has worked for Geneva Call and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He holds an LLM from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.

Stavros-Evdokimos Pantazopoulos is a Legal and Policy Analyst at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, a UK-based NGO that aims to increase awareness of the environmental impacts of armed conflict. Stavros will soon defend his PhD thesis ‘Protecting the Environment Against the Impacts of Armed Conflict’ at the European University Institute (Florence). He has taught and published in the fields of international humanitarian law and international environmental law.

When: Thursday 25 June, 2020, 14:00 - 15:00 (BST)

Where: Online