FEATURING INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

The CISDL, with a network of investigators from leading Canadian and international universities, has embarked on a legal and policy analysis of the implications of a changing climate for governance and interactions with Inuit Land-claims organizations; environmental protection and human rights; and international sovereignty and diplomacy. This four-year initiative, supported by ArcticNet, is leading and coordinating new legal research in several core areas.

To learn more or to get involved - click here.

The ACA Project hosted an Experts Workshop with Latin American and Caribbean research centres, which was held at the McGill Faculty of Law in March, 2004, where new working papers on assessment methods, common hemispheric sustainable development law research priorities, and institutional capacities were reviewed, and a Roundtable Dialogue, held at the University of Ottawa in March, 2004, on linking trade, environment and health issues in the Americas integration process.

The project continues in 2005, leading to the development of a hemispheric course on trade aspects of sustainable development law, a series of short manuals to use in legal training in the Americas by the OAS, the UNEP, the FOCAL, and a larger research project on linkages between health, environment and trade laws in the Americas.

As recognised by the 34 Ministers in the first HEMA meeting, effective and integrated health and environment impact assessments (IA) have the potential to help mitigate serious health and environment risks of new trade and economic development policies, and open space for greater public participation. There is an important need to strengthen laws and policies in this respect, and to build awareness of, and compliance with, these laws. At present, very few IA laws are adequately implemented in the Americas, only a few agencies consistently apply IA guidelines, and most agencies remain unsure how to integrate health aspects into environmental impact assessment laws. To fill this gap, this inter-disciplinary coalition of research institutes from across the Americas, who have a demonstrated track record of successful collaboration, will seek to jointly refine and develop an essential new tool – health and ecological impact assessment laws and guidelines - through a five year research and capacity-building project with the IDRC and other partners.

The project has three objectives.

First, through joint multi-disciplinary field research and information exchange, the research partners will investigate and analyse how IA laws and policies are functioning in practice.

Second, the research partners will organise and host joint capacity building and awareness-raising workshops to build expertise and knowledge in LAC developing countries on health and environment IA research methods and laws.

Third, the research partners will provide recommendations to hemispheric policy-making, through side events at Americas Health and Environment Ministerials, Americas Trade Ministerials, and other upcoming opportunities for consultation with policy makers related to the Summit of the Americas process.

The international law and policy research will be sensitive to gender considerations, and the pressing needs of most vulnerable groups, such as the children, indigenous peoples and the urban poor. It will be conducted with active collaboration between the partners; and will seek to incorporate the relationship between all components of an ecosystem, for recommendations on how impact assessment laws and policies can better define and assess priority impacts on the health of people and sustainability of their ecosystems. The project will culminate with a symposium in 2008 - 2009 to share results, develop final recommendations for policy-makers, and evaluate the achievement of capacity-building and partnership objectives. The research project will also culminate in the publication of a joint book featuring the results of the research. In essence, this innovative hemispheric research project will build on, monitor and analyse existing experiences with integrated health and ecological impact assessment in Americas laws and policies. The partnership seeks to refine and develop a crucial new tool for Americas communities and authorities – integrated health and ecological impact assessment law. The research will be used to influence policy-makers, and can make a significant difference toward protection of eco-health objectives and priorities in the Americas integration process.

The Americas Eco-Health Assessment Law Project relies to a great extent on partnership with leading research institutes and organizations throughout the Americas, including the CEMDA in Mexico, the CINPE in Costa Rica, the FUNSAD in Ecuador, the RIDES in Chile, the ECOS in Argentina, the CIEDUR in Uruguay, the CEDHA in Argentina and the CEHI in the Caribbean, as well as advice from the IISD in Canada, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the Organization of American States.

CISDL has partnered with the National Judicial Institute (NJI), the Canadian Institute for the Administration of Justice (CIAJ) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to put together a series of Curriculum Materials on Sustainable Development Law. Initial activities include the design of a computer taught course / website that focuses specifically on a challenge to a hypothetical Canadian climate change legislation. In Canada, the course materials are being provided for a new seminar that will be facilitated, taught and published by the NJI [LINK] . On the international level, these materials are being reviewed for translation and publication by the International Development Law Organisation and the UNEP.  CISDL members, such as Hon. Charles Gonthier, Wainwright Senior Research Fellow at the McGill Faculty of Law and former Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, are also serving as reviewers for the development of a UNEP Judicial Handbook on Environmental Law and other materials LINK