Concurrent Session organized by the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in partnership with Rights and Resources Initiative, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and Generation Equality Action Coalition on Feminist Action for Climate Justice on the occasion of the Women Deliver 2023 Conference
Women and girls have a right to effectively participate in and lead efforts to achieve climate justice, as equal rights holders and agents of change. To the extent that climate mitigation and adaptation measures disregard women’s agency and the vital contributions of women’s collective action, these measures are unlikely to deliver just, effective or durable solutions to the climate crisis.
The persistence of gender-based discrimination, inequality and patriarchal institutions contributes to women disproportionately experiencing harmful effects of climate change. Women and girls, especially rural, indigenous and poor women, remain among the most impacted by climate, especially as they struggle pre-existing inequalities on many fronts, including equal access and control over land and natural resources, limited economic opportunities and social protection and lack of representation and voice in decision-making, discriminatory family and inheritance laws, inability to access justice, among others.
As the impact of climate change on women and girls is multifaceted, so are the solutions. For this reason, to complement existing efforts to advance climate justice for women and girls, this session seeks to explore legal, regulatory and justice interventions that can contribute to climate action.
The rule of law is a critical enabler for advancing feminist climate justice and in ensuring that women are central to climate action. A rule of law approach can support the development of strong gender-transformative legal and judicial frameworks and mechanisms, enable institutional capacity for climate resilient development, promote and protect women's rights within the context of change and empower women and girls to actively participate in decision-making.
This session will address the huge gap in optimizing the potential of the rule of law and justice approaches in collective action to advance climate justice for women and girls. It will explore good practices and promising approaches on how legal and justice interventions have been utilized to achieve gender-transformative climate action and strengthen accountability for the promotion of women and girls’ human rights.
The panelists will share their expertise and experiences on using legal and justice approaches to promote women’s environmental rights, build their resilience to climate impacts and strengthen women's leadership in climate decision-making processes.
Key questions:
- How can legal and justice institutions strengthen feminist climate action?
- What can legal, regulatory and justice frameworks do to secure women’s rights in the midst of climate change? What pilot approaches have shown potential for scale up and replication?
- How can the law protect and promote the rights of specific groups of women disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis?
The session builds on IDLO’s commitments to the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Feminist Action for Climate Justice and will be informed, among others, by IDLO's Policy Brief on Climate Justice for Women and Girls: A Rule of Law Approach to Feminist Climate Action.
Agenda
Moderator: Dr. Ilaria Bottigliero, Director of Research and Learning, IDLO
Special Remarks: Mary Robinson, Chair, The Elders and Former President of Ireland
Interactive Expert Panel
- H.E. Ms. Lynda Tabuya, Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Fiji
- Esther Mwaura‑Muiru, Global Advocacy Director, Stand for Her Land, Landesa
- Sara Omi, President of the Coordinator of Territorial Women Leaders of Mesoamerica and Embera Leader, General Embera Congress of Alto Bayano, Panama
- Joanita Babirye, Co-Founder and Women and Girls Program Lead, Girls for Climate Action, Uganda
- Carla Manjate Rombe, Regional Gender Officer for the Eastern and Southern Africa region, International Union for Conservation of Nature
Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in English, French and Spanish.