{"id":5728,"date":"2023-03-23T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T12:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novamondo-dev.de\/hias\/?post_type=events&p=5728"},"modified":"2026-01-05T16:51:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:51:22","slug":"workshop-armed-conflicts-and-the-environment-international-law-and-humanitarian-response","status":"publish","type":"events","link":"https:\/\/hias-hamburg.de\/en\/events\/workshop-armed-conflicts-and-the-environment-international-law-and-humanitarian-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed Conflicts and the Environment – International Law and Humanitarian Response"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Throughout the history of efforts to regulate warfare, the focus has been on humanitarian protection. The extensive body of international humanitarian law is not primarily concerned with the environment, and the rules providing direct protection to the environment are few and substantially limited. The legal developments with regard to conflict-related environmental harm and its prevention and remediation have largely followed their own logic with little connection to the parallel spectacular growth of international environmental law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The understanding of the environmental impact of armed conflicts has developed considerably in recent decades, in particular as a result of post-conflict environmental assessments conducted by the UNEP and others with this regard. Most importantly, the International Law Commission adopted in 2022 \u201cDraft principles on Protection of the Environment in Relation to Armed Conflicts\u201d. Humanitarian response strategic documents also state that \u201cintegrating environmental and climate considerations into humanitarian action leads to a faster, risk-informed crisis response, and contribute to shifting from short-term stability to long-term resilience\u201d (Leadership in Humanitarian Action: Handbook for the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator. OCHA, 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However according to the same strategic document there are only \u201cthree main bodies of international law that guide humanitarian action during the armed conflict: international human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international refugee law, as reflected in treaty and customary law\u201d. What about international environmental law with this regard? International environmental law should utterly guide humanitarian action during the armed conflict as the fourth main body of international law. To extend environmental part of humanitarian response it is necessary to accurately define its place in humanitarian programme cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The objective of the workshop is to facilitate a discussion among UN agencies and academia on current practices in humanitarian response and identify ways to effectively incorporate anticipated environmental impacts into international program planning. The aim is to develop recommendations that promote sustainable humanitarian response strategy, with a focus on avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating any long-term negative impacts to the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants<\/p>\n\n\n\n