CISDL News & Press Releases

New York USA | March25, 2002

WORLD-CLASS LEGAL PANEL ON INTERNATIONAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TO BE HELD AS PART OF UN MEETING WHICH STARTS TODAY

25 March 2002, New York – In preparation for the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD), a high-level panel of international legal experts will convene this Thursday, 28 March as part of the third meeting of the Summit’s Preparatory Committee (PrepCom III) which opens today at UN Headquarters in New York. Entitled "Legal Rules, Common Future 2002: Principles and Best Practices of International Sustainable Development Law", the panel will address key international issues of our day: the environment, the economy, social justice, human rights, health, and the inter-linkages among them.

The panel will provide a key forum for dialogue among international jurists, legal professionals and scholars to evaluate their efforts and develop principles, instruments and compliance mechanisms which address the intersections between international economic, social and environmental law in an integrated and innovative manner. The event will increase understanding, awareness and capacity on international sustainable development law not only within the legal community but also among civil society, the private sector, governments and international organizations.

By assembling key actors, the panel will highlight past, present and prospective contributions of international law to sustainable development, including lessons leant and best practices. Specifically, the session will survey current innovative instruments and produce concrete recommendations and a draft mandate on international sustainable development law by legal experts for consideration at WSSD.

Organized by the Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) and sponsored by the UN Environment Programme and the World Bank as well as the Governments of Canada, Nigeria*, Sweden* and Switzerland, , the panel will feature world-class legal experts such as: Kamal Hossain, Chair of the International Law Association Committee on the Legal Aspects of Sustainable Development, Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan for the UN Commission on Human Rights, former Foreign Affairs and Law Minister of Bangladesh; Peter Leuprecht,* Dean of McGill University’s Faculty of Law, Special Rapporteur for Cambodia for the UN Commission on Human Rights and former Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe; and Alexandre Timoshenko, former Director of Environmental Law at the UN Environment Programme and Visiting Professor at Notre Dame University in Indiana. It will be chaired by CISDL Director Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, and EnviroLaw 2002 Director Francois Joubert. (* pending confirmation)

In conjunction with a similar event held at last week’s Financing for Development summit in Monterrey, Mexico, this panel will set the stage for Sustainable Justice 2002: Implementing International Sustainable Development Law, a global conference to be held in Montreal from June 13-16, 2002. In partnership with Envirolaw 2002, a major conference to be hosted by South Africa’s legal community in Durban from 22-25 August 2002, the Montreal meeting will rally the resources and expertise of the global legal community towards the World Summit for Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 26 August through 4 September 2002 – ten years after the "Rio Earth Summit." For more information, email conference@cisdl.org or see www.cisdl.org/conference

The panel will be held on Thursday, 28 March from 1:00-3:00PM in Conference Room One at the United Nations. For additional information on the New York panel and/or to arrange for individual interviews with panelists or chairs, please contact: Désirée McGraw, Media & Outreach, CISDL
Cell: (514) 867-7463 Email: dmcgraw@cisdl.org