Climate Breakfast Seminar Series - Legal advancements in environmental peacebuilding

Exploring the jurisprudence of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace in Colombia and its quest for ecological reconciliation

The presentation focuses on the jurisprudence of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in Colombia and its unique declaration of indigenous territories as victim of the Colombian conflict. The article explores how these developments may impact legal scholarship on environmental peacebuilding, for instance how it can re-think environmental reparation and remedies in the aftermath of armed conflict. The notion of ‘environmental peacebuilding’ seeks to achieve a durable peace in states emerging from armed conflict by integrating environmental concerns in peacebuilding strategies. So far, international law has mainly dealt with protection of the environment during armed conflict and less with environmental peacebuilding. Nevertheless, international law provides a universal normative framework ensuring minimum safeguards and legal procedures in post-conflict states while protecting the environment. However, international law in particular in regard to environmental concerns adopts an anthropocentric view mainly protecting the economic or recreational values of the environment, leaving out cultural and spiritual ones. In the Colombian context, the inclusion of local and indigenous communities in the peace process has resulted in the innovative approach adopted by the JEP towards the environment. This development is also fostered by the progressive national jurisprudence guided by indigenous law and legal pluralism in Colombia. The JEP’ approach has the potential to create new opportunities for the advancement of legal scholarship in the realm of environmental peacebuilding, that also may address the slow violence and, in the end, contribute to ecological reconciliation.

About the presenter: 

Britta Sjöstedt is a senior lecturer and researcher at the department of law at Lund University. Her research areas concern mainly environmental law, envionmental peacebuilding and law of armed conflict. Currently, I am involved in a research project funded by Formas mapping the international legal framework in regard to peacebuilding activities aiming at restoring and protecting the environment. The project studies the practice of stakeholders acting on the behalf of the international community to protect the environment by taking over state functions in developing states in the aftermath of armed conflict (post-conflict). It also looks into the tensions that may arise in such practice between the global, national and local stakeholders participating in peacebuilding.  

Time: 22 May, 2024 from 09:00 to 10:00

Venue: Room 7A.0.16 (Pejsestuen) and online via zoom (link will be provided upon registration)

For registration, please click here.