CISDL Peace, Justice & Governance Programmes
Responds to SDG 4 Quality Education, SDG 16 Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions, SDG 17 Partnership for the Goals
Dr. Fabiano de Andrade Correa, Lead Counsel & Adv. Neshan Gunasekera, Lead Counsel
Dr. Odeeth Lara-Morales, Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative Manager
Changing the development path towards sustainability is the most serious challenge our societies have ever faced, globally, nationally, and locally. Sustainable development is a matter of governance, accountability, equity and justice within and between present and future generations. Unfortunately, environmental degradation and the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change has become so pervasive it is considered the biggest threat to human rights of our time globally, while affecting most severly those more vulnerable sectors of populations around the world. Moreover, despite the multitude of international agreements and national legal frameworks that address these matters, global governance for the environment remains fragmented and ineffective; further implementation and enforcement of these instruments remains a major challenge for the environmental rule of law. Legal and economic instruments aiming to integrate environmental and social considerations into national and global economies have not been sufficiently effective to change this path. At the same time, these instruments are the default mechanisms used to address issues of sustainability, meaning that it is necessary to truly understand how they might be crafted in a meaningful way and how to remedy the gaps they present.
No international treaty can be implemented effectively without governance and robust accountability. With countries working in the difficult process of reforming their laws and institutions to implement myriad new international instruments for sustainable development, and the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals for the UN and international partnerships, there is a pressing need for a new generation of expertise, capacity and advice.
Through the cross-cutting Peace, Justice & Governance Programme in 2022-2027, CISDL aims to:
- Advance knowledge and understanding of global governance and accountability mechanisms linking the environment, justice and human rights, the economy, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals, building global legal research and advisory capacity, and disseminating key findings through national and international means.
- Lead new legal research and education on emerging areas of international law that can promote catalytic effect for enhancing justice and governance for sustainable development, such as: the newly universally recognized human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable development, and its implementation pathways; rights of nature, rights of future generations and inter-generational equity. On the latter point, including serving as secretariat for the Voices of Future Generations Children’s Initiative which supports international and domestic legal instruments to promote respect for the rights and voices of future generations through education, engagement and empowerment, and to prevent crimes against future generations.
- Lead new legal research and education on cross-cutting instruments, institutions and dispute settlement mechanisms related to sustainable development, including public participation backed by access to information and justice, inter-related health protections, and respect for human rights in corporate social responsibility and accountability.
- Advance knowledge and understanding of sustainability and sustainable development principles in the creation, implementation and resolution of disputes involving land claims and self-government agreements between governments and indigenous communities, and constitutional norms and constitutional drafting.
Lead Counsels: Dr Fabiano de Andrade Correa LL.B., M.A., LL.M., Ph.D. (Brazil) & Adv Neshan Gunasekera LL.B., M.A. (Sri Lanka)
VoFG CI Programme Manager / Coordinator: Dr. Odeeth Lara-Morales, B.Comm., M.A., Ph.D. (Mexico/Canada) & Ms. Ela Martinez, B.Sc., M.Ed. (Dominican Republic)
Legal Research Fellowship: Adv. Wayne Garnons-Williams, B.A. (Windsor), M.P.A. (Dalhousie), LL.B. (Queens’), LL.M. (Oklahoma) (Canada); Adv. Miguel Saldivia B.A., LL.B. (Chile), LL.M. (UCL) (Chile); Dr. Odeeth Lara-Morales, B.Comm., M.A., Ph.D. (Mexico/Canada); Ms. Ela Martinez, B.Sc., M.Ed. (Dominican Republic); Ms. Allison Lalla, B.A.&Sc. (Canada); Ms. Hyfa Azeez, LL.M., LL.B. (India); Adv. Tejas Rao, LL.M., LL.B. (India)
CISDL Legal Specialist Award
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2022: Dr. llaria Bottigliero, International Development Law Organisation
CISDL Legal Specialist Awards 2021: Justice Antonio Herman Benjamin, High Court of Brazil and Mr. Pulasthi Hewamanne, Sri Lanka
CISDL Legal Specialist Awards 2020: Adv. Wayne Garnons-Williams, International Inter-tribal Trade sand Investment Organisation & Adv. Patrick Reynaud, Torys LLP
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2019: Prof Sara Seck, Dalhousie University, Canada
CISDL Legal Specialist Award 2018: Adv Freedom-Kai Phillips, Canada
Key Publications
- Alastair Marke, Michael Mehling, Fabiano de Andrade Correa (eds.), Governing Carbon Markets with Distributed Ledger Technology (Cambridge University Press, 2022): This volume offers the first book-length exploration of how carbon markets can be governed using Distributed Ledger Theory (DLT), offering conceptual and theoretical analysis, practical case studies, and a roadmap for implementation of a DLT-based architecture in major existing and emerging carbon markets. It surveys existing expertise on distributed ledger technology, provides progress updates from industry professionals, and shows how this technology could offer a cost-effective and sustainable solution to double-counting and other governance concerns identified as major challenges in the implementation of carbon markets.
- Fabiano de Andrade Correa, Environmental Justice: Securing Our Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment, United Nations Development Programme (2022): This contribution presents a comprehensive technical framework for the strategy y for engaging in environmental justice as an integrated and collaborative effort that brings together the rule of law, human rights, governance and nature, climate and energy workstreams, and summarizes insights and key findings from an extensive process that included a desk review of existing materials related to environmental justice within UNDP, and interviewbased consultations with colleagues across relevant UNDP teams.
- Tejas Rao, Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger et al. (eds.), Intergenerational Justice in Sustainable Development Treaty Implementation. Advancing Future Generations Rights through National Institutions (Book Review), Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law (2021): This chapter profoundly analyses the concept of intergenerational justice for sustainable development as given with Cordonier Seggers contribution. Rao concludes that gives us a chance to use a new wealth and depth of vocabulary to confront the challenge of climate change and development..
- Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Marcel Szabó, Alexandra R. Harrington, Intergenerational Justice in Sustainable Development Treaty Implementation: Advancing Future Generations Rights through national Institutions (Cambridge University Press 2021): This work investigates treaty commitments related to intergenerational equity, explore linkages between regimes, and offer insights from diverse experiences of national future generations’ institutions.
- Alexandra R. Harrington and Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, Chapter 10 – Environment and Sustainable Development, in Oxford Handbook on United Nations Treaties (Oxford University Press, 2019): This book argues that the greatest contribution of the UN is not what it has achieved (improvements in health and economic development, for example) or avoided (global war, say, or the use of weapons of mass destruction) and offers the first sustained analysis of the UN as a forum in which and an institution through which treaties are negotiated and implemented.
- Children’s Rights and Sustainable Development: Interpreting the UNCRC for Future Generations by Claire Fenton-Glynn (Cambridge University Press 2019): In taking a child rights-based approach to sustainable development, this volume defines and identifies children as the subjects of development, and explores how their rights can be respected, protected and promoted while also ensuring the economic, social and environmental sustainability of our planet.
- Sustainable Development Principles in the Decisions of International Courts and Tribunals: 1992-2012 by Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger and HE Judge Christopher Gregory Weeramantry (Routledge 2017): This book explores the expanding international jurisprudence incorporating principles of international law on sustainable development and documents the application and interpretation of these principles, demonstrating how courts and tribunals are contributing to the world’s Sustainable Development Goals.
- Fabiano de Andrade Correa, Christina Voigt, ‘The Paris Agreement and Net-Zero Emissions: What Role for the Land Sector?’ (2021) Carbon & Climate Law Review.
- Alexandra R. Harrington, ‘Settling Sustainably: the SDGs and the Dispute Settlement at the World Trade Organization’, McGill Journal of Sustainable Development Law (2020).
- Valentina Durán Medina, Capítulo IX Marco jurídico de la gestión de residuos sólidos, en Ezio Costa y Eduardo Astorga (2021), Derecho Ambiental parte especial, Thomson Reuters. pp435-488.
- Valentina Durán y Constance Nalegach, ‘¿Por qué Chile debe adherir al Acuerdo de Escazú’ (2020), Repositorio Uchile.
- The Children Who Saved the Mangroves by Rehema Kibugi (2021) (Africa) on Climate action (Goal 13) and life on land (Goal 15)
- Finding the Language by Adelyn Newman-Ting (2021) (Global Indigenous Child Author) on quality education (Goal 4) and life on land (Goal 15).
- The Girl Who Changed Everything by Freya Tikva(2021) (Europe) on sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11) and responsible consumption and production (Goal 12).
- The Challenge of a Generation by Christina-Angelina Kassongo (2021) (Africa) on quality education (Goal 4), sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11), and peace and justice (Goal 16).
- Le défi d’une generation by Christina-Angelina Kassongo (2021) (Africa) on quality education (Goal 4), sustainable cities and communities (Goal 11), and peace and justice (16).
- The Chess Game Secret by Saoud Ahmad Al-Kaabi (2022) (Middle East) on inequality (Goal 10) and peace and justice (Goal 16).
- The Green Warrior by Saira Thomas (2022) (Middle East) on gender equality (Goal 5), life on land (Goal 15) and partnerships for the goals (Goal 17)
- Trouver la langue by Adelyn Newman-Ting(2022)(Global Indigenous Child Author) on quality education (Goal 4) and life on land (Goal 15)