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Environmental justice

De quoi s'agit-il ?

What is the justice response to the global environmental crisis?

The emerging concept of "environmental justice" seems to be gaining ground in the field of law. This area, which deals with prosecutions and trials related to climate justice, corporate responsibility in environmental matters, or ecocide, is covered and closely monitored by Justice Info, whether before national courts or international justice institutions.

Climate justice - Arnold Kiel Loughman (Attorney General of the Republic of Vanuatu) pleads before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for polluting states to be held responsible for the effects of climate change.
Climate justice: who argued what at the ICJ
9 January 2025 by Margherita Capacci (our correspondent in The Hague)
The hearings in the climate case before the International Court of Justice wrapped up last December in The Hague. The court’s advisory opinion is expected within a year. Countries from the Global South and small states from the Pa [...]
Legal battle for the climate before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Photo: Cyclone Pam (2015) over Vanuatu as seen from a satellite. The battle for the climate takes on the ICJ  
29 November 2024 by Golnouche K. Barzegar (Justice Info)
The COP29 just ended in Azerbaijan with a financial agreement deemed insufficient by many participants. Now states of the Global South and environmental campaigners are pinning their hopes on the legal battle being waged before th [...]
COP29: are climate actions influencing the negotiations? - Photo: People bathing in the Caspian Sea in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the background: oil barges. COP29: do legal climate actions influence the negotiations?
8 November 2024 by Benjamin Bibas (for Justice Info)
The 29th COP on climate opens in Azerbaijan on Monday 11 November, following a series of legal rulings in Europe forcing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. But are they likely to influence the mandates of internat [...]
The Epicentre hypermarket near Chernihiv (Ukraine) in 2022 after it was bombed by the Russian army. Photo: exterior view of the burnt-out hypermarket. At the epicentre of environmental damage in Ukraine
17 October 2024 by Ksenia Rekun (Chernihiv, Ukraine / Suspilne)
The war in Ukraine has led to major environmental damage to soil, air, water, and people, caused by Russian shelling. In the Chernihiv region only, Ukrainian authorities evaluate its cost at about 630 million dollars. How is this [...]
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Ecomafias and waste-related crime in Italy. Photo: A pile of rubbish bins and other waste in a street in Naples.
16 July 2024 by Maria Bolevich (for Justice Info)
Waste crime in Italy: the challenge of environmental justice Considered as one of the sources of income for organised crime, along with drugs, weapons and human trafficking, transnational environmental crimes are rarely brought to justice. Within the European Union, the case of Italy highli [...]
Climate justice in Switzerland - Activists from the Senior Women for Climate Protection association welcome the ECHR verdict.
3 May 2024 by Benjamin Bibas (for Justice Info)
Switzerland condemned by the ECHR: a decisive step for climate justice in Europe The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favour of a group of Swiss women over 64, saying that their State’s inadequate steps against climate change constitute a violation of their human rights. Why is this a pioneering dec [...]
In Colombia, an Awá indigenous leader leads a ceremony prior to a hearing before the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP)
16 January 2024 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (our correspondent in Colombia)
Colombia's Awá Indians, closer to justice but plagued by violence In 2023 the Special Jurisdiction for Peace issued groundbreaking findings on the crimes committed against Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples in Colombia, especially for the Awá. It has notably included the war crimes of destru [...]
Total Energies oil project in Uganda - Environmental activists demonstrate in Kampala against EACOP.
15 December 2023 by Grace Matsiko (our correspondent in Uganda)
Total Uganda: 42 families expropriated in a summary trial While the Cop28 negotiations were taking place in the sumptuous halls of Dubai, no less than 42 families from Uganda's oil-rich regions were expropriated from their homes on a Friday afternoon, in an expeditious court hearing. To [...]
Banks and climate justice - Financiers are now in the sights of NGOs seeking to prove their involvement in global warming.
12 December 2023 by Benjamin Bibas (for Justice Info)
Banks, the new targets of climate action COP28 ended in Dubai on Tuesday December 12 without any credible promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, there are more and more scientific reports describing the humanitarian consequences of climate change. NGOs are [...]
Palau
21 November 2023 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
On the sea frontline of climate change It is the first time an international judicial body has been called upon to consider the responsibilities of countries when it comes to protecting the world’s waters from climate change. Back in December 2022 the International Tri [...]
Following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine, grain silos were flooded in Kherson. Ukrainian justice speaks of ecocide.
10 July 2023 by Franck Petit
Kakhovka dam: Ukraine pioneers prosecution for ecocide The scale of ecological disaster triggered on June 6 by the explosion of Ukraine’s Nova Kakhovka dam, located on a Russian-occupied stretch of the Dnieper River, makes this an exemplary case for prosecuting environmental crimes. T [...]
Ukraine - The Nova Kakhovka dam after its destruction
29 June 2023 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
A dam in Ukraine and the question of ecocide The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in Southern Ukraine early June has been described as ecocide by Ukrainian authorities who accused Russia of being responsible for an action that caused massive environmental damage. Ukraine [...]
Climate change - Following a sudden rise in water levels, two residents of the Marshall Islands are walking with water up to their chests.
16 June 2023 by Géraldine Giraudeau
Why those experiencing "climate hell" are taking their case to the UN Court Those whose feet are already in the water, in the Pacific, have opened a front in the battle for climate justice before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Netherlands. Solicited by a resolution of the United Nations G [...]
Climate change - Cyclone in Vanuatu (2015)
30 May 2023 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
Vanuatu brings climate justice to the ICJ On March 29 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on climate change. The resolution was championed by the small Pacific Island nation [...]
Environmental justice in Colombia - High mountain páramo ecosystems under threat (Cumbal, Nariño).
9 May 2023 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
Colombia's transitional justice cannot agree on how to prosecute environmental crimes In its latest indictment, Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) insisted that "transitional justice is also environmental justice” and deemed ecosystem damage as a war crime. Three magistrates wrote partial dissenting op [...]
Climate Justice Activist Demonstrates Against Total Energies Project in Uganda
6 April 2023 by Mathilde Hautereau-Boutonnet
Climate trials: What to make of multinationals’ string of victories? After the two recent victories in France and Germany of Total Energies and Volkswagen, the author of this Opinion wonders if it is really useful for environmental NGOs and climate justice activists to sue multinationals.
Justice in Amazonia - Indigenous inhabitant of the Amazonian forest, in Brazil, in traditional dress
31 January 2023 by Julia Crawford
Brazil: Can Lula and an NGO appeal to the ICC push justice for crimes in the Amazon? Brazil’s new president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has said he wants to make tackling environmental destruction and human rights abuses in the Amazon a priority. An NGO "Communication" to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in la [...]
Climate change - Thick black smoke billows from an oil refinery. A plane flies in the sky.
24 November 2022 by Benjamin Bibas
Climate justice: Pressure is mounting on fossil fuel producers Climate complaints against States have led to much reflection on legal responsibilities, although COP27 that ended in Egypt on November 20 was silent on this. Responsibilities lead downstream to fossil fuel companies, on whom pres [...]
Global warming - Fire in a coniferous forest in Siberia (Russia)
7 November 2022 by Maud Sarliève
COP 27: When Russian activists dare to take the Kremlin to court Climate justice now also has a Russian front. On September 11, 2022, a coalition of Russian human rights organizations and activists challenged the country's long-term climate strategy before the Supreme Court on grounds that it w [...]
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