International Environmental Law Research Centre (IELRC)
From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations
Dr. Patricia Kameri-Mbote
Executive Director
International Environmental Law Research Centre
Kenya Office
Faculty of Law, Parklands Campus, Parklands Road
P.O. Box 2394 - 00202 KNH Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: +254 20 375 42 06
Fax: +254 20 374 42 84
Website: http://www.ielrc.org/africa/index.php
Description
Headquartered in Geneva (Switzerland), the International Environmental Law Research Centre (IELRC) is an independent, nonprofit research organization established in 1995 to provide a unique forum for collaborative research between researchers in the North and South. It is a legal organization under the Swiss Civil Code. IELRC has regional offices in Nairobi (Kenya) and New Delhi (India). The offices in Geneva and Nairobi give researchers access to primary international materials for research.
The vision of the IELRC is to contribute to the establishment of legal and institutional frameworks which foster sustainable environmental management in developing countries in an equitable international context. Its mission is to undertake policy-related academic research about the environment in a North-South context. IELRC specifically seeks to contribute to the development of legal and institutional frameworks that foster equitable and sustainable environmental management at the local, national and international level by fostering links between research communities and policy-makers in the North and South, as well as South-South.
In operationalizing its mission, its work focuses on the following pillars:
Firstly, international environmental legal issues including biodiversity, climate change and desertification where they are specifically examined from an international perspective in view of their North–South dimension, then nationally or from a local perspective all in relation to international law.
Secondly, given the increasing and changing technological innovations, IELRC looks at the impact of intellectual property rights and environmental management, in the context of particularly emerging biotechnologies and their relationship with human rights and sustainable environmental management.
Thirdly, general policies and issues as well as specific case studies to highlight the necessity to go from the general to the specific and the converse. For instance, the question of equity in international environmental agreements, or, development of biosafety frameworks and the introduction of WTO-mandated intellectual property rights in agriculture.
Several organizations have played significant roles in the achievements of IELRC, although its key partners have been its members, who are largely drawn from the teaching fraternity at various universities in the developing world. This team of researchers has given IELRC much of the expertise it required in the field of environmental law. Other important partners include governments—especially those of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, India, and Sweden—as well as the UNEP, IUCN, NEPAD, IPGRI, and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
Track Record
With its network of regional and national expertise in East Africa, ILERC has carried out research, developed publications and provided consultancy services, as well as engaged in teaching and training.
With the South-South relationship increasing, ILERC engages in policy-relevant academic research in both India and East Africa that entails collaboration between researchers from both developing and developed countries on interdisciplinary projects. To this end it has been able to generate a lot of knowledge and information on environmental law, human rights and development.
Further, the findings of researches that it undertakes are published for dissemination to the public in scientific journals, books, newsletters and website. Some of its published books include: Intellectual Property Protection and Sustainable Development, Key Materials in International Law, Differential Treatment in International Environment, among others.
As a knowledge management organization, it has set up a resource centre for its collaborators and interested parties to access information and expertise. In this manner it has emerged as a platform for the exchange of ideas on environment, development and human rights issues. As part of its service provision, IELRC provides consulting services in terms of legal advice to international organizations, governments and other partner organizations on the development of international standards, their implementation in specific countries and regions, and their enforcement. Further, it provides legal advice and representation to individuals and groups on violations of international law in the field of environment. In its consulting services, it offers to clients an unrivalled concentration of expertise on international law and policy issues spanning three continents as well as the benefit from local expertise in India and East Africa.
On the consulting platform and information dissemination for instance, in 2006 it assisted the Government of Ghana in developing a framework for biodiversity policy. Within the same year, it carried out a review of IFRI work in East Africa. The outcome of this was an assessment of the impacts of IFRI work on theory and knowledge of local forest governance, capacity-building of researchers and practitioners to generate new knowledge and policy changes at the national and international levels.
A further illustration of IELRC’s deliverables in consulting work and clientele include: Review of the Nairobi + 20. This was a consultancy under the FORD Foundation and resulted in the report on the review of the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies; The Beijing Platform for Action and Country-based reviews for Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda focusing on the links between the Environment, Gender and Sustainable Livelihoods; development of the Draft National Land Policy; Evaluation of the Project on a Partnership for the Development of Environmental Law and Institutions in Africa (PADELIA) (2005-2006) of UNEP; contributions to the establishment of an African working group on intellectual property submitted to NEPAD's Steering Committee for Science and Technology (2004-2005); Three-member review team for the External Review (CCER) of IPGRI's work on Policy and Legal Aspects of Genetic Resources (2004); For the Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscapes (SAEFL), it helped organize two side-events on liability at the first Meeting of the Parties of the member states to the Biosafety Protocol (2004); Under the UNEP Department of Early Warning and Assessment (UNEP-DEWA), IELRC provided expertise in Environmental Law and Policy and facilitation of Stakeholders’ Meeting on Environmental Issues in the Great Lakes Region Conference Themes, UNEP, Nairobi 8-9 September; the identification of opportunities for increasing access to justice in environmental matters in Kenya and the review of the Lesotho Justice Sector Development Program respectively for the Department for International Development (DFID) were major activities in the same year. In addition IELRC reviewed the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s program in Nairobi resulting in a broader understanding of the issues of Gender, Environment and Conflict and the linkages. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) also used their expertise in the assessment of the Kenya Wildlife Sector.
It is noted that the heavy involvement of IELRC’s members in academic teaching has strongly influenced its research output. Most of the IELRC researchers lecture environmental law and other courses in selected universities, a factor that gives the organization strong capacity to handle diverse legal issues related to the environment. They have also made several significant guest appearances around the world.
On a more regular basis and in the context of South-South relationship, they provide legal advice and training to individuals, public interest lawyers, NGOs and government institutions such as: The Government of Kenya; The Government of Uganda; The United Nations Convention on Climate Change Secretariat; National Centre for Agricultural Economics & Policy Research - New Delhi (India); Plant Breeders’ Association of Kenya; Public Interest Legal Support and Research Centre, New Delhi (India) among others.
Most of the organization’s knowledge is shared at various conferences organized by other partner organizations or IELRC itself. Among its conferences and workshops, IELRC has organized a number of activities such as the workshops on Legal Aspects of Water Sector Reforms.
Challenges
Since its formation, the regional office of IELRC has shown strong evidence of delivery on their mandate. This might partially be explained by the well versed base of research, trainers, lecturers and practitioners in environmental law. Today, however, there are many emerging issues in the field of environment such as biodiversity, climate change, desertification, intellectual property rights, and technological innovations among others that require a continuous expansion of the knowledge base of the organization.
Further, while IELRC has shown the possibilities of a successful South-South collaboration especially in environmental related legal issues, more needs to be done to firm this kind of relationship and proof that the South-South link can be able to solve the myriad of environmental problems in the South.
Other increasingly important challenges that face IELRC is how to balance changing technological innovations and the impact of intellectual property rights and environmental management, especially in light of emerging biotechnologies and their relationship with human rights and sustainable environmental management. For instance it has been argued that biotechnology will enhance food sufficiency for food starved Africa, yet, some of this technology is rejected in Europe. Most of Africa is likely waiting to hear the advice of institutions such as IELRC based in the South.
In conducting successful research and disseminating the findings through publications and other fora for both public and private consumption, IELRC requires substantial funding and a variety of partners with interests in their work.
Opportunities
IELRC has to a large extent fulfilled most of its mission and objectives amidst the constraints. Looking through its archive of successes, several opportunities can be seen. Key among them is an understanding of legal issues and the environmental. Every human being interacts with the natural environment everyday. Yet very many people especially in the developing world are oblivious of the environmental issues that surround them. Opportunities therefore exist for IELRC and partners with like mind to expand the teaching and understanding of environmental legal issues to as many institutions and public as possible.
Further, one notes that IELRC have quite a substantial array of publications that are definitely useful to policy makers, planners, researchers among others. It will be more beneficial if the IELRC resource centre is made virtual so that many can access such information. Besides, IELRC could be assisted in further publication and distribution of its works to many institutions in both the south and north.
It is evident that IELRC is one of the best examples of the South-South and North cooperation, implying opportunities exist for a diversity of people and knowledge bases to interact constructively and symbiotically. Consequently possibilities to access different sources of both financial and technical support exist not only for IELRC but for many institutions that will attempt a south-south north relationship.
