The new clash of generation

Unlike in the sixties, today's clash of generations is not about creating (post-)materialistic values. It is about human species survival. The fear of decay (of the Empire through war) and the hope of revolution ( coming back a new to a starting configuration) are similar. Social State´s financial sustainability or the new generation of energy sources are partial problems. How to have justice for all, including the environment?, that´s a global problem. The main and also repressed question is about how climate change will impose new ways of living on us all.Political and cognitive alienation from the main human problems is pushing emotional responses in different directions. Alienation closes political systems from population and from it springs populist irrationality in politics, racist and sexist scapegoating, consumers street uprisings, etc. Considering the regulatory function of the law over technology, social exclusion, war, one can assess the way modern law focuses on intergeneration relationships and how a healthy environment has been dismissed as a human right. For this propose one will consider the ongoing legal attempts to criminalize ecocide.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Environment as an Ideological Weapon: A Proposal to Criminalize Environmental Terrorism

Global ecosystems are emerging as both targets and conduits of terrorist activity. The end of the Cold War and the changing face of terrorism have contributed to this development. Domestic law has not, however, kept pace with this threat. Applicable legal doctrines do not operate effectively with existing anti-terrorism strategies and fail to express adequately societal outrage at such conduct. A new criminal law of ecocide will provide more appropriate mechanisms for confronting this emerging threat

The European Citizens' Initiative: the territorial extension of a European political public sphere?

A key aim of the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) introduced in 2012 was to promote transnational discussion and deliberation, but there is relatively little analysis of the impact of this feature. We use primary and secondary data collection to examine the legacies left by almost 50 ECI campaigns at the conclusion of their official status, identifying mixed results. Using data drawn from interviews with 22 Citizen Committees, we identify and assess ECI campaigns which have disappeared with little trace of continued networks of communication, and at the other end of the spectrum, we find a notable reach of campaigns into some Central and East European countries, in which a young cohort of post-student campaigners attracted by the use of new technologies for campaigning feature prominently. In recognition of debates about the prospects for EU democratisation which transnational contestation might provide, we identify from continuing campaigns shared features which may provide clues as to the formation of political public spheres across national boundaries

The European Citizens' Initiative: bringing the EU closer to its citizens?

In defiance of accounts which see the European Union (EU) as structurally incompatible with democracy, the Lisbon Treaty set out the general right and specific means for citizens to participate in EU decision-making. Whilst the Treaty codified long-established practices of representative democracy and of dialogue with civil society organizations, it also notably introduced a new measure, the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), commencing in 2012. The ECI has limited formal powers, with no ability to mandate political institutions. It is promoted by the European Commission as an agenda-setting and participatory democracy measure, rather than one of direct democracy. Nonetheless, it has an elevated status within one of the current European Commission’s ten strategic priorities and is remarkable in a number of ways. First, it differs from the European Commission’s established partnerships and dialogue with organized interests by focusing on direct forms of wider citizen participation. Second, it is the world’s first transnational citizens’ initiative, with aspirations to help build an EU-wide public sphere. These aspirations were assessed in a 2017 review of the measure, proposing the introduction of a number of reforms aimed at tackling limited impact to date. This article evaluates the impact of the ECI in its first 5 years and then discusses the proposed reforms in terms of their potential to increase public deliberation. It develops and appraises evaluative criteria that help to assess whether institutionalizing contention, even in ways highly critical of EU institutions, might enhance public deliberation and bring the EU closer to its citizens

The Continuation of Genocide without Mass Murder: The cases of 'cultural genocide' and 'ecocide' in Australia

Masters dissertation submitted in September 2012

DIGITAL ACTIVISM IN PROTECTING LOCAL COMMUNITIES FROM ECOCIDE THROUGH HASHTAG SAVESANGIHEISLAND ON TWITTER

The extractive industry in Indonesia has become a priority to attract investors. The presence of an exploitative industry is feared to cause ecocide and the destruction of natural resources and ecosystems. This ecocide also occurred in the Sangihe Islands. The government gave gold mining exploitation to PT. Tambang Mas Sangihe (TMS). These concessions led to rejection and resistance from the people of the Sangihe Islands. The resistance was through demonstrations and Twitter, with the main actor being The Network of Mining Advocacy (Jatam) through the @Jatamnas account. This study aims to analyze @Jatamnas’ digital activism against ecocide in the Sangihe Islands. This study used the qualitative approach with the virtual ethnography method. The data used is the content of the @Jatamnas account on Twitter in the period June-December 2021. The results show that the campaign with the hashtags #SaveSangiheIsland provoked netizen reactions to support the Sangihe communities. The online conversations at #SaveSangiheIsland on the Jatamnas account revealed the dynamics of the need to embed local communities from the clutches of the oligarchs who hide behind the terminology of investment and employment. Furthermore, the conversation also tends to weaken the local community struggle because of the many accounts suspected to be pro-government which enter into the discussion with local wisdom-biased. However, the #SaveSangiheIsland serves as a public space for open debates on ecological issues

Environmental Transformative Justice: Responding to Ecocide

My dissertation’s central objective is to normatively devise ethically appropriate sociopolitical and juridical responses to ecocide (i.e., grave environmental harm). More specifically, the work seeks to philosophically engage the ethical question of what is owed to human societies that are displaced due to intentional environmental destruction. The motivation behind the project stems from the lack of academic research (excluding a pocket of recent analysis of the international community’s obligation to assist ‘climate refugees’) involving the question: “What ought to be afforded victims of environmental harm?” The dearth of scholarship is surprising, considering growing global concerns, vis-à-vis accelerating rates of environmental degradation, which if allowed to continue, will generate wide-ranging national and international environmental crises and disasters in the twenty-first century and beyond. The dissertation attempts to remedy this situation by bringing environmental issues under the purview of the philosophical species of justice known as Transitional Justice. The novelty of such an approach is its assertion that ‘social transformation’ rather than merely ‘correcting the harm done’ or ‘restoring the status quo’ is necessary for overcoming these kinds of wrongs because absent social change, the conditions that reinforce, entrench, and reproduce these sorts of injustices remain in place. Since the focus is on transforming communities’ relationships and interactions with their environment, instead of simply repairing the damage from past injuries, the dissertation offers a full account of what I call environmental transformative justice. To achieve this the dissertation establishes the context in which environmental transformative justice is operative because of harm suffered (i.e., social death and loss of vital interests stemming from intentional environmental destruction) and the manner in which the harm occurred (i.e., direct, indirect, or negligent state action); employs a Rawlsian constructivist theory of justice to determine its ideal aims; offers guidance on how to pursue these aims by exploring the relationship between constructivist and comparative approaches to justice (e.g., Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum); identifies actors’ responsibilities for pursuing these aims by developing a notion of common but differentiated responsibility based on Iris Young’s two-tiered model of responsibility, and supports the assertion that environmental transformative justice ought to be pursued from within a Transitional Justice framework, by demonstrating ways in which Transitional Justice mechanisms (e.g., criminal tribunals, truth commissions, public apologies, pardons, lustration, memorialization, reparations, and constitutional conventions) can assist in furthering environmental aims (i.e., promoting ecological sustainability, preservation, and restoration)

Towards a Holistic Consideration of Crimes Against Nature Committed in Times of Armed Conflict: A Critical Approach to the Case of Iraq

During the armed conflict in Iraq between 2014 and 2017, Daesh committed crimes with clear environmental effects and consequences; however, these events have not been adequately clarified. The investigation of these crimes by official bodies, such as the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh, is required and is still possible. Even if UNITAD’s investigative action would be mainly symbolic, it would be important because it could help to raise awareness of environmental crimes and thus also advance the emerging international agenda in the field of environment, peace and security and clarify the connection between environment and human rights. Additionally, it could have the more practical and strategic functions of laying a firm foundation for expanding the jurisdiction to pave the way for environmental peace building and helping to strengthen certain components of transitional justice in the country, in particular, by providing some reparation to victims