Judges Day is one of the major parallel events that will be held during the Seventeenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17).
CBD COP17 marks the first global review of progress under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), providing an important opportunity to assess whether international commitments and national biodiversity targets are being translated into measurable actions and outcomes. Effective implementation of the KMGBF requires more than policy commitments. It depends on sustained collaboration among legislatures, executive agencies, regulators, courts, communities, and other stakeholders, as well as integrated responses to the interconnected challenges of biodiversity loss, deforestation, climate change, water insecurity, land degradation and pollution.
By linking biodiversity legal frameworks and justice institutions, Judges Day offers the wider CBD COP17 community a unique platform to examine how global biodiversity commitments can be embedded in domestic legal frameworks, implemented by capable and accountable institutions, and enforced through the rule of law. In doing so, it helps bridge the gap between international commitments and practical implementation on the ground.
It will be comprised of two complementary events:
1) Launch of the Model Framework Forest Act – From Global Partnership to the Legal Protection of Forests;
2) Judicial Dialogue on Nature: The Role of the Courts in Biodiversity, Climate, Water and Forest Protection.
Key speakers will include:
- Srbuhi Galyan, Minister of Justice of Armenia
- Inger Andersen, Executive Director, UNEP
- Justice Antonio Herman Benjamin, National High Court of Brazil, President of GJIE and Chair of the Model Forest Act Initiative
- And many others to be confirmed.
Organizers: The Global Judicial Institute on the Environment (GJIE), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law (IUCN WCEL) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), with support from the CBD Secretariat and Brazil