Soas Law, Environment & Development Centre

Don't miss our event tomorrow at 7PM!!

UPCOMING EVENT: On WEDNESDAY - we discuss the UK Supreme Court's recent hearing against Vedanta Mining and the impacts of the operation of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) in Zambia. The case, and its potential ruling could have major implications for British multinational corporations’ liability, creating an important precedent for suing parents companies for environmental and human rights breaches.
We are joined by members of Foil Vedanta, the activist solidarity group who have been instrumental in bringing the litigation.
7PM Wednesday 13 March, Room 4426, SOAS. All Welcome!

Date: 13 March 2019 Time: 7:00 PM SOAS, Room: 4426
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A quick reminder of our event tomorrow! 7pm at SOAS (Room G3, main building) All Welcome!

Our next public seminar is on Thursday. We are joined by Dr Sam Gaell, from chinadialogue to talk about the potential of China as a climate leader! We are looking forward to seeing you there! 7pm Thursday! Room G3 SOAS Main Building

7pm, 7 February 2019 Room G3, Main Building, SOAS, Russell Square.
President Trump, who once called climate change a Chinese hoax, has committed to withdrawing the United States from the UN Paris Agreement on climate change. Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping has doubled down on his support for the UN climate accord and the low-carbon energy transition of his country. Xi also claims China can burnish its green credentials through its overseas investments, with the Belt and Road... Initiative. With the United States in retreat and Europe divided, will China really take the lead?
Dr Sam Geall is Executive Editor of chinadialogue.net, Associate Fellow at Chatham House, and Associate Faculty at the Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex. Sam was formerly Departmental Lecturer in Human Geography of China at the University of Oxford. He has a PhD in Social Anthropology from University of Manchester, a BA in Modern Chinese Studies from University of Leeds and was a Kennedy scholar at Harvard University. His research focuses on low-carbon innovation, environmental governance, media and civil society in China. He edited China and the Environment: The Green Revolution (Zed Books, 2013).
Contact email: ledc@soas.ac.uk
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A reminder about our event tonight!!

A reminder of our event on Thursday! Prof Ann Varley will be discussing her research in Mexico, amongst other broader debates around Land.
We also have an event coming up on Thursday 7th February on climate change politics and the role of China! https://www.soas.ac.uk/…/07feb2019-can- china-really-lead-on…

Our first seminar for 2019 is on Thursday 31 January at 7pm. Ann Varley (UCL) joins us to share her work on land, gender and property relations with a focus on urban mexico. We look forward to seeing you there!

"Land Titling & Social Embeddedness: Gender, Property and Formalisation in Mexico’s Informal Settlements"
Speaker: Ann Varley (UCL) Location: SOAS Main Building, Room G3 More information: ledc@soas.ac.uk
... In light of debates that oppose formal titling versus the social embeddedness of rights in customary law to assert that titling is bad for women, this talk focuses on gender and property relations in the informal housing settlements of lower-income groups in urban Mexico. While women are more vulnerable to attempts of depriving them of their homes owing to greater control of family property by men, both women and men nonetheless welcome formalisation and there is little evidence to show that titling has adverse consequences for women. If anything, the opposite applies, because both formal and informal mechanisms work to their advantage. The opposition of individual titles vis-à-vis socially embedded rights is thus misleading and generalising arguments about the supposedly negative implications of titling risks replicating the universalising tendencies of Western property models.
Ann Varley is a professor of human geography and the convenor of gender and sexuality studies at UCL. Her research and publication interests include property formalisation, land and housing, and family law. She holds a first class degree from Oxford, and was one of the first recipients of the new University of London Research Fellowship, enabling her to spend several months at the Institute for the Study of the Americas in 2007. Over a long-spanning career of 30 years, she has worked extensively on Mexico and Latin America generally, and was awarded the Busk Medal in 2010, a prestigious senior award of the Royal Geographical Society, for her field work in Mexico. Her books Illegal Cities and Decoding Gender have been translated and distributed over Latin America.
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TODAY at 7PM! Don't miss out!

6 December 2018 Rooom G3, SOAS, Main Building
On the 2nd December 1984, a gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India caused the world’s worst industrial disaster. The gas leaked killed thousands immediately and have subsequently lead to the death of over 20,000 people and injury and harm to over 500,000. The resultant groundwater contamination and other environmental risks pose a continued further disaster for local people.
... Litigation for corporate responsibility against Union Carbide and its successor Dow Chemicals is an active battleground for justice. As recent as this year, survivors of the disaster have had their petitions dismissed by Courts. Inadequate out of court settlements, dilution of charges, quashing of future litigation, and arguments about jurisdiction have resulted in a litigation process that has often aggravated and accentuated the agony of victims. On the other hand, people’s movement and civil society groups have fought back and maintained pressure for nearly three decades through international campaigning, continuous litigation and political pressure on Dow Chemical.
Join us for the documentary ‘Bhopali’ which highlights the fight for justice and corporate responsibility, followed by a discussion with Tim Edwards, focusing on the questions of the adequacy of the law to address issues of justice in Bhopal.
For more on the film: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1710260/
Tim Edwards cycled to Bhopal in 1999, and has advocated for Bhopal survivors ever since. He’s a spokesman for the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, a coalition of Bhopal survivor groups. He is also a trustee of the Bhopal Medical Appeal, which funds two clinics in Bhopal offering free, first-class healthcare to people affected by the 1984 Bhopal Gas Disaster and the toxic pollution of the city’s drinking water.
All welcome - no registration required
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Event this Thursday! Susie Alegre, international human rights lawyer and the Director of Island Rights Initiative joins us ahead of COP24 in Katowice, to discuss small island states, human rights and climate change

Speaker: Susie Alegre (International Human Rights Lawyer, Island Rights Initiative) Room G3, SOAS Main Building
The recent IPCC report on climate change has highlighted the urgent need to tackle climate change globally, but for many small island communities, the real and imminent threat of climate change is not news. Low lying small islands are on the front line of climate change impacts with rising sea levels threatening their very existence. But they are also on the front...line of global action against climate change. This talk will explore the challenges and opportunities for small island communities to drive the world agenda on climate change to protect their human rights.
Susie Alegre is an international human rights lawyer with 20 years’ experience working on issues related to human rights, the rule of law and accountability. She has worked for international NGOs like Amnesty International and for international organisations including the EU, Council of Europe, UN and OSCE. Her work includes comprehensive research and reporting on human rights, high-level stakeholder engagement and advocacy as well as strategic advice and programme design and management. Susie founded the Island Rights Initiative to bring together her knowledge of international frameworks for human rights and accountability with her insights as an islander to support island communities around the world.
https://www.soas.ac.uk/…/29nov2018-not- waving-but-drowning-…
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We can't wait for our next event on fracking in the UK. This thursday at 7pm. Room G3, Main Building, SOAS. Do come along!

Thursday 15 Nov, 7pm, Room G3, SOAS, Main Building Speaker: Dr Damien Short (School of Advanced Studies, University of London)
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... This seminar will explore the policing of ‘anti-fracking’ environmental protectors' protests and the surveillance and frequent intimidation that accompanies it in the UK context, from the police themselves but also from private security firms and the extractive industries. Via a mixture of interview data and insights from participant observation a concerning picture emerges for those who wish to resist the continuing exploitation of unsustainable fossil fuel development in the era of anthropogenic climate change.
Dr Damien Short is Reader in Human Rights and Co-Director of the Human Rights Consortium at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. His latest book Redefining Genocide: Settler Colonialism, Social Death and Ecocide (Zed Books) is an interdisciplinary investigation into the genocide-ecocide nexus through numerous case studies that show how genocide and ecological destruction are inherent features of our capitalist economic, social and political system. His current research focusses on the social and environmental impacts of unconventional energy development.
NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED. ALL WELCOME
For more information: https://www.soas.ac.uk/…/15nov2018-crim inalising-environmen…
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Great event last night on Loss and Damage! Our previous seminars in this years series on Forest Governance and Plastics Pollution are now on youtube (see below). Enjoy!
We have more seminars on fracking, small island states, and corporate accountability for environmental and human rights disasters in the coming weeks...stay tuned!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1nC-cVma vY
... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wJEslCgE tg
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