NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 29 – Kenya Judiciary will hold the third Regional Symposium on the Greening of Judiciaries across Africa to increase the level of awareness among the judiciary on environmental issues.
The symposium’s purpose is to discuss Climate Change in Africa under the theme “Strengthening the Role of Judiciaries in Tackling Climate Change in Africa”.
It will be anchored on the role of the courts in combating climate change and its impacts in Africa.
The event brings together more than twenty six Chief Justices mostly drawn from African countries, judges, judicial officers, judicial educators, heads of judicial education institutions, practitioners and experts from the continent and beyond.
Justice Smokin Wanjala, a judge on Kenya’s Supreme Court, said during the media breakfast meeting on Wednesday that the event would offer a forum for conversation among judges, practitioners, and subject-matter experts on the experiences, difficulties, and potential solutions in the adjudication of climate change claims
“The symposium is intended to provide much needed leadership in terms of policy direction from Chief Justices present on the enhancement of environmental justice, particularly in disputes arising from climate change and its impacts,” he said.
“It will be an opportunity to reflect on gains made in integrating environmental law and in particular climate change in judicial training amongst leaders of judicial training institutions.”
Wanjala added that the event is in context of Article 69 of the constitution which states that “Every person has a duty to cooperate with State organs and other persons to protect and conserve the environment and ensure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources.”
He added that the judiciary is trying to bring the article to life and breath life into it as an institution.
“Time has come for the judiciaries within this part for the world to establish networks for dialogues, sensitization within and among themselves for the benefits of the society,” he said.
“We want judges and courts and magistrates who are informed and conscious in matters on environment and sustainable development, who are intellectually a depth at these things and who can render decisions that will impact positively upon society.”
The forum will be held under the auspices of AJENEL – Africa Judicial Education Network on Environmental Law which is an initiative established in 2017 to enhance judicial scholarship in environmental matters in Africa.
This network is the embodiment of the collective effort by the continent’s judicial institutions to mainstream environmental law under the clarion call‘Greening the Judiciaries in Africa’.
AJENEL was established to strengthen awareness among judges and judicial officers on existing environmental challenges and the growing jurisprudence in the field of environmental law.
It also strengthens the capacity of judicial officers to manage environmental litigation.
