Framing Environmental Degradation, Human Mobility and Human Development as a “Matter of Common Concern”
On average, 22.5 million people move each year within and across borders because of climate and weather-related disasters. Alongside those who move are those who stay behind or are trapped in severe conditions of vulnerability where habitation on land might no longer be possible. Furthermore, these impacts are not distributed equally; we know that those who have least contributed to anthropogenic climate change are affected the most. Without concerted action and a reconfiguration of State sovereignty and interests, this global problem cannot be effectively addressed.
Prof. Elisa Fornalé appointed as Co-Rapporteur of the ILA Committee focusing on the Protection of Affected Persons in the Context of Sea Level Rise
Prof. Elisa Fornalé hosted the Virtual Meeting of the International Law Association (ILA) on 22 November 2021.
Prof. Fornalé as co-rapporteur of the ILA Committee together with Prof. Davor Vidas (chair) and Prof. David Freestone (co-rapporteur), introduced and discussed with members of the Committee the first draft Report that will be presented at the Lisbon ILA Conference in June 2022.
Two new members who joined the Committee were officially welcomed: Prof. Frida Armas-Pfirter (of the Argentine ILA branch) and Prof. Giuseppe Nesi (of the Italian ILA branch). Prof. Nesi has recently also been appointed as new member of the International Law Commission
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Preparing for sea level rise
18 November 2022
SNSF Professor Dr. Elisa Fornalé will be speaking at the conference titled "Preparing for sea level rise" to be held on 18 November at the Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon in Lisbon, Portugal.
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Confini, Migrazioni e Diritti Umani
22 November 2022
SNSF Professor Dr. Elisa Fornalé will co-organise with the Italian Embassy in Berne the presentation of the book entitled "Confini, Migrazioni e Diritti Umani", curated by Maurizio Ambrosini, Marilisa D’Amico and Emilia Perassi, Milano University Press, Milan 2022.The presentation will be held on 22 November 2022 at the lecture hall Silva Casa, World Trade Institute, Bern University, Bern.
The event will be organised in Italian and is open to the public.
Registration is welcome by writing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
For participants unable to attend in person it will be possible to connect online via the following ZOOM LINK
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The proposed EU directive on combating gender-based violence: towards greater protection of women in Europe? (event in Italian)
28 November 2022
On the occasion of the international day against violence against women, WTI's SNSF Professor Dr. Elisa Fornalé will speak at the conference "The proposed EU directive on combating gender-based violence: towards greater protection of women in Europe?". The conference will take place from 9.30 to 13.30 at Dipartimento di Economia, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia(Italy) or online (Zoom).
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Slow violence, gender, climate agency
5 December 2022
New global crisis such as the COVID19 pandemic, wars, economic crisis and climate disasters are ‘produced and mediated by existing gender inequalities and discriminatory gender norms across societies’ (EGM, 2021). This presentation will explore the gendered dimension of climate change and, more generally, of slow violence. Some attention has been paid to the inclusion of a gender perspective in climate change issues. However, much less attention has been paid to women’s invisibility in the legal and political debate on climate change combined with other situations falling within the definition of slow violence. Slow violence may or may not lead to major disasters but has a disproportionate impact on women and girls. This has been largely overlooked by existing legal debates.
The conference will take place at 18:15 in lecture room Raum A022, UniS, University of Bern.
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