scholarly journals A Global Environmental Constitution for the Anthropocene?

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Kotzé
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Regulatory Reform ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The World ◽  
Un General Assembly

AbstractInternational environmental law (IEL) has been unable to respond effectively to the Anthropocene’s global socio-ecological crisis, which is critically existential and requires radical interventions and regulatory reform. This article explores the potential of the recent United Nations (UN)-backed initiative to adopt a Global Pact for the Environment as an opportunity to reform IEL. It does so by (i) reflecting on the Anthropocene’s demands for a constitutionalized form of IEL through the lens of global environmental constitutionalism; (ii) investigating the extent to which the Global Pact could contribute to such a vision; and (iii) suggesting ways in which to strengthen the constitutional potential of the Global Pact in this endeavour. To this end, the article revisits the World Charter for Nature of 1982, which seems to have slipped off the radar in academic as well as policy circles. A case is made for renewed support of the Charter – which already enjoys the backing of the majority of UN General Assembly member states, and which has constitutional qualities – to serve as a ‘best-practice’ example during the ensuing negotiation of the Global Pact.

New Ways to Make International Environmental Law

1992 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Palmer
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Environmental Challenges ◽  
The World ◽  
Environment And Development

The purpose of this article is to suggest new ways to make international law for the environment. The existing methods are slow, cumbersome, expensive, uncoordinated and uncertain. Something better must be found if the environmental challenges the world faces are to be dealt with successfully. Nearly twenty years after the Stockholm Declaration, we still lack the institutional and legal mechanisms to deal effectively with transboundary and biospheric environmental degradation. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development presents an opportunity to make progress. Unfortunately, my reading of the situation in late 1991 suggests that there is no political will to take decisions that will give us the tools to do the job.

scholarly journals The Outcome of the Negotiations on the Global Pact for the Environment: A Commentary

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Géraud de Lassus St-Geniès
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Working Group ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
United Nations General ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
Treaty Negotiations ◽  
United Nations General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations

In May 2018, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution “Towards a Global Pact for the Environment”. This resolution established an intergovernmental working group to discuss the opportunity to open treaty negotiations to codify the fundamental principles of international environmental law into a treaty dubbed the Global Pact for the Environment. In May 2019, the intergovernmental working group completed its mandate and adopted a set of recommendations that were formally endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in August 2019. Contrarily to what the supporters of the Global Pact for the Environment project had hoped for, the working group only recommended the preparation of a “political declaration” without referring to the codification of the principles of international environmental law. This paper offers a critical commentary of the outcome of these negotiations. The analysis suggests that the decision to elaborate a Global Pact for the Environment would have entailed considerable risks for international environmental law and that if adopted, this instrument would not have necessarily helped to increase the problem-solving capacity of international environmental law. Based on the language used in the recommendation to prepare a “political declaration”, the paper also discusses some of the key elements that could shape and inform the upcoming negotiations of this declaration.

Commemorating the International Mother Language Day: Resisting "Banglish"

ICR Journal ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-260
Author(s):  
Tawfique Al-Mubarak
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Cultural And Linguistic Diversity ◽  
International Understanding ◽  
United Nations Educational ◽  
Cultural Organization ◽  
The World ◽  
Unity In Diversity ◽  
Un General Assembly

21 February marks the International Mother Language Day (IMLD). The day was first recognised as an international day for celebration in November 1999 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Since February 2000, International Mother Language Day is being observed globally to recognise and promote cultural and linguistic diversity. In 2007, the UN General Assembly called upon its member states “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world.” This resolution was followed by a proclamation designating the year 2008 as the ‘International Year of Languages,’ aimed at promoting unity in diversity and international understanding through multilingualism and multiculturalism. UNESCO celebrates the day - 21 February - in commemoration of the language martyrs of the ‘Bangla language movement.’  

Women and men in the United Nations: A corpus analysis of General Debate addresses

2021 ◽  
pp. 095792652199214
Author(s):  
Nicole Brun-Mercer
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Corpus Analysis ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Inclusive Language ◽  
The World ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations

The United Nations (UN) has demonstrated a commitment to women’s empowerment over seven decades of work. Yet gender inequality pervades in countries around the world and even within the UN. This corpus analysis investigated collocates of woman(’s), women(’s), man(’s) and men(’s) in 193 UN General Assembly General Debate addresses in fall 2015 to examine gender representation by international decision-makers. The analysis revealed that the plural women occurred more frequently than men and primarily in discussions on gender equality and violence. In contrast, the singular man was identified more frequently than woman, in generic use (e.g. mankind) and in references to eminent male leaders. Despite UN dedication to gender equality and linguistic guidelines promoting gender-inclusive language, these General Debate addresses do not conceptualise women and men equally, more frequently referring to women as a group in need of protection and support and to men as political figures and other distinguished individuals.

Research Note: Reflections on Methods from an Interdisciplinary Research Project in Global Environmental Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louisa Parks ◽  
Elisa Morgera
Keyword(s):  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Benefit Sharing ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
The World ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research Project

AbstractThis research note reflects on the methods (as distinct from methodology) used in a five-year interdisciplinary and multi-site research project in global environmental law, and their links to questions of research ethics. We highlight the iterative processes that proved necessary to compare five case studies on local communities engaged in varied discussions on fair and equitable benefit sharing in different regions of the world and their implications for international environmental law. The note recommends explicit reflection on research methods and ethics to acknowledge and address power relationships in global environmental law research.

scholarly journals International Environmental Law’s Lack of Normative Ambition: an Opportunity for the Global Pact for the Environment?

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis J. Kotzé
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Ecological Sustainability ◽  
Earth System ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
System Integrity ◽  
Radical Critique ◽  
Rights Of Nature

This paper argues that international environmental law (iel) is not sufficiently ambitious to confront the Anthropocene’s socio-ecological crisis. The critique specifically focuses on iel’s lack of ambitious and “unmentionable” ecological norms such as rights of nature, Earth system integrity, and ecological sustainability that are not yet considered to be part of the corpus of iel, but that arguably should be in light of the prevailing and ever-deepening socio-ecological crisis. Assuming that the recent Global Pact for the Environment initiative and its accompanying United Nations-mandated report that assesses possible gaps in iel are indicative of the type of reforms we might expect of iel now and in future, the paper determines if and the extent to which the Global Pact initiative embraces ambitious norms and addresses iel’s “unmentionable” normative gaps. A secondary, but related, objective of the paper is to briefly respond to the recent view that any radical critique of the Global Pact initiative is either unfounded, unwarranted or undesirable.

scholarly journals THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: NORMATIVE VALUE AND CHALLENGES FOR IMPLEMENTATION

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (26) ◽  
pp. 13-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Pavoni ◽  
Dario Piselli
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Environmental Law ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Development Agenda ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
Normative Value

This article explores the implications for international environmental law of the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which occurred at the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. Following a summary of the main outcomes of the Summit, the paper evaluates the process and vision of the SDGs against both the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the past efforts of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in the field of sustainable development. The paper then examines how the environmental dimension of the SDGs is integrated into the general framework of the post-2015 development agenda and addresses two important questions which will most likely prove instrumental in the achievement of the Goals themselves. First, it the light of UN General Assembly Resolution 70/1, it discusses the normative value of the environmental obligations of States enshrined in the SDGs. Secondly, it deals with problems of implementation of the outcomes of the Summit, and accordingly attempts to identify the main legal challenges for the operationalization of the environmental component of the SDGs, in the wider context of the Agenda and taking the recent developments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) into account.

scholarly journals Political rationale, aims, and outcomes of health-related high-level meetings and special sessions at the UN General Assembly: A policy research observational study

PLoS Medicine ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. e1003873
Author(s):  
Paolo Rodi ◽  
Werner Obermeyer ◽  
Ariel Pablos-Mendez ◽  
Andrea Gori ◽  
Mario C. Raviglione
Keyword(s):  
Observational Study ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Financial Investments ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
High Level ◽  
Hiv Aids

Background Recognising the substantial political weight of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), a UN General Assembly special session (UNGASS) and high-level meetings (HLMs) have been pursued and held for 5 health-related topics thus far. They have focused on human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS, 2001), non-communicable diseases (NCDs, 2011), antimicrobial resistance (AMR, 2016), tuberculosis (TB, 2018), and universal health coverage (UHC, 2019). This observational study presents a comprehensive analysis of the political and policy background that prompted the events, as well as an assessment of aims, approaches, and ultimate outcomes. Methods and findings We investigated relevant agencies’ official documents, performed a literature search, and accessed international institutions’ websites for the period 1990–2020. Knowledgeable diplomatic staff and experts provided additional information. Outcomes were evaluated from a United Nations perspective based on national and international commitments, and funding trends. Eliciting an effective governmental response through UNGASSs/HLMs is a challenge. However, increased international commitment was evident after the HIV/AIDS (2001), NCDs (2011), and AMR (2016) meetings. The more recent TB (2018) and UHC (2019) HLMs have received general endorsements internationally, although concrete commitments are not yet documented. Although attribution can only be hypothesized, financial investments for HIV/AIDS following the UNGASS were remarkable, whereas following HLMs for NCDs, AMR, and TB, the financial investments remained insufficient to face the burden of these threats. Thus far, the HIV/AIDS UNGASS was the only one followed by a level of commitment that has likely contributed to the reversal of the previous burden trend. Limitations of this study include its global perspective and aerial view that cannot discern the effects at the country level. Additionally, possible peculiarities that modified the response to the meetings were not looked at in detail. Finally, we assessed a small sample of events; thus, the list of strategic characteristics for success is not exhaustive. Conclusions Overall, UNGASSs and HLMs have the potential to lay better foundations and boldly address key health challenges. However, to succeed, they need to (i) be backed by large consensus; (ii) engage UN authorities and high-level bodies; (iii) emphasise implications for international security and the world economy; (iv) be supported by the civil society, activists, and champions; and (v) produce a political declaration containing specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) targets. Therefore, to ensure impact on health challenges, in addition to working with the World Health Assembly and health ministries, engaging the higher political level represented by the UNGA and heads of state and government is critical.

The Case for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly as a Means of Promoting Just Security

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Cabrera
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Democratic Accountability ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Over Time

This chapter explores the case for a more formalized United Nations parliamentary assembly, including the potential oversight, accountability, and (ultimately) co-decision roles that such a body could play alongside the UN General Assembly. Given difficulties in expecting national parliamentarians to perform such functions continuously, a UN assembly is found to hold greater potential for promoting key UN system aims in the areas of security, justice, and democratic accountability, even as the existing Inter-Parliamentary Union continued to play some important complementary roles. Learning from relevant global and regional parliamentary bodies, the chapter outlines concrete steps toward developing a parliamentary assembly over time, including the creation of a more informal UN network of UN-focused national parliamentarians in the near term.

France Accused: French North Africa before the United Nations, 1952–1962

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Thomas
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
United Nations ◽  
North Africa ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Algerian War ◽  
North African ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Nationalist Parties ◽  
Major General

In the decade after 1952 France faced sustained United Nations criticism of its colonial policies in north Africa. As membership of the UN General Assembly expanded, support for the non-aligned states of the Afro-Asian bloc increased. North African nationalist parties established their permanent offices in New York to press their case for independence. Tracing UN consideration of French North Africa from the first major General Assembly discussion of Tunisia in 1952 to the end of the Algerian war in 1962, this article considers the tactics employed on both sides of the colonial/anti-colonial divide to manipulate the UN Charter's ambiguities over the rights of colonial powers and the jurisdiction of the General Assembly in colonial disputes.

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