CILG Lunch Seminar: Human Rights and the Environment Collective Human Rights and the Material World
Human rights have been increasingly used to address the environmental crises as evidenced through the proliferation of climate litigation and the recent adoption of a UN General Assembly resolution on the right to a healthy environment. The dominant human rights paradigm, however, also has shortcomings when it comes to addressing the environment. Its Kantian and Cartesian roots in particular make that it firmly embraces the immaterial - the human ratio - and submitting the material to this biased ratio. This exploitative relationship is also applicable to the environment which is viewed as a thing to be probed and appropriated. This seminar will explore the notion of collective human rights as an expression of a different way of viewing the world, or ontologies, and their relationship to the environment. It will analyse what an ontological theory of collective human rights looks like and how it can be contrasted to current human rights approaches to the environment, in particular climate change.
About the presenter:
Jolein Holtz is a PhD Candidate at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at the University of Leiden. Her research focuses on collective human rights and climate change, exploring how collective human rights as a category of rights can contribute towards a more effective human rights approach to climate change by approaching it through an ontological lens. Her research interests include land rights, indigenous peoples' rights, the African rights system and climate litigation. Prior to joining Leiden University as a PhD Candidate, Jolein worked for various NGOs on the interplay between human rights and the environment.
Information:
Venue: University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Law, Meeting room 8, 4th floor, room 6B.4.04, South Campus, Njalsgade 76, DK-2300 Copenhagen S and Online on Zoom (link will be provided after registration)
Time: 12:00-13:00
Registration: please click here