There are four official and international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crimes of aggression. The Scottish lawyer Polly Higgins thinks we need to add a fifth crime to these violations: ecocide. Will Polly Higgins succeed in her worldwide journey to gain enough support so that the large-scale destruction of our eco-systems will forever become one of the most important topics on the international agenda?
Addis Ababa: Advocaat van de aarde
Lawyer Polly Higgins fights against ecocide: the large-scale destruction of our eco-systems.
10
mei
programma
Dear Addis Abebians,
After long absence (with apologies) we will finally organize a Backlight Meet Up again coming Wednesday, May 10, from 7.30 PM in Wims Holland House.
This time our guest speaker will be Mrs. Kitty van der Heijden, Director Africa and Europe of the World Resources Institute (WRI), former Director of the Climate & Environment Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nr. 5 in the Dutch Sustainable 100 List (compiled by the famous Dutch newspaper Trouw). See also her profile on the site of WRI:
http://www.wri.org/profile/kitty-van-der-heijden
We will start the evening with a few Backlight video fragments from The Earths Lawyer, in which the British Polly Higgins makes a case for a legal offense named Ecocide and calls herself a lawyer with just one client, The Earth. After these video fragments, Kitty will take over with her own material and with an interactive presentation and discussion about the basic question: what can you do in your own life to prevent deterioration of the only Earth we have?
For more inspiration, see also this Ted-talk by Kitty in 2012:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sJ-uixn7Jg
We look forward to an informative and entertaining evening and hope to see many of you in Wims Holland House coming Wednesday from 7.30 PM.
Anniek Elemans
Auke Boere
Backlight Addis Ababa