By Viginía Branco and Amanda Blank
On the 14th of October, Philippe Roman & Virgínia Branco of Université de Versailles St-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) presented EJOLT to students enrolled in the Human Rights, Economic Development, and Globalization Project of the Clinical Program at the Sciences-Po Paris Law School. The Clinical Program is focused around three themes: one local theme is orientated towards the questions of access to the law, the next theme is orientated towards the questions of social responsibility of businesses, and the last international theme is orientated towards “human rights, economic globalization and development.” The presentation on EJOLT was related to the last theme.
Philippe and Virgínia gave a short introduction to ecological economics and the EJOLT project, followed by the EJOLT video on Yasuní. They focused the discussion on the links EJOLT creates between research and activism. Students were lively in participation, especially about the idea of collaboratively mapping environmental justice conflicts.
Currently, some students are working on projects related to EJOLT topics, such as Project 4 of the Clinical program: “International networking for advocacy and the creation of public awareness in the Herakles Farm’s case.” This project, in partnership with Relufa, Greenpeace, Save Wild Life, Struggle to Economize the Future Environment (SEFE), Oakland Institute and Wilmer Hale Law Firm, seeks to provide legal and extra-legal support to the ongoing campaign by a global network of lawyers and NGOs around the human rights impacts of land-grabbing related to a large palm oil plantation in Cameroon. This campaign aims to enable Cameroon’s people to participate in the decision-making process about how their natural resources should be used. Students’ participation includes a study on theoretical and practical aspects of the campaign, as well as dissemination of information, data, documents, etc., within and beyond France.
The presentation was facilitated by Rosmerlin Estupinan-Silva, a Colombian lawyer and Doctor in Law specialized in human rights with extensive experience in Latin America, who is currently teaching at Sciences Po Paris Law School. She is also invited to the Annual EJOLT Workshop in Rome next week and will participate in the WP8/WP9 sessions and present the “valuation” issues in some court cases on the 14th of November.
For more information about Science-Po Law School’s Clinical Program, please see here.
