GCILS Webinar
Socio-economic and environmental foundations for peace: What role for international law?
A roundtable with panellists: Carl Bruch (Environmental Law Institute), Amanda Cahill-Ripley (University of Liverpool), Brian Lander (World Food Programme)
Contemporary armed conflicts have become protracted, complex and urbanised with far-reaching socio-economic and environmental consequences. In Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Syria, Colombia, Yemen and other parts of the world, populations have been affected by war for years on end and in some instances for decades. Deterioration of basic services and livelihoods, displacement, increase of hunger, and degradation of the environment and natural resources are among the dire socio-economic and environmental consequences of such conflicts.
In this online panel discussion, on Wednesday 2 June 2021, 3.00pm BST, our esteemed speakers will explore how the environment, natural resources, food security, and the protection of economic, social, and cultural rights can be approached during and in the aftermath of armed conflicts to lay the foundations for sustainable peace and development. The moderated panel discussion will be followed by a Q&A session.

Image credit: UNEP Disasters & Conflicts
The event is part of the Endless Conflicts project and the webinar series of the Glasgow Centre for International Law and Security.
Moderators: Dr Asli Ozcelik Olcay, Dr Giedre Jokubauskaite
To register for the event, please visit the Eventbrite webpage: https://bit.ly/2SGI3LQ
Zoom log-in details will be included in your registration confirmation.
Panellists
Carl Bruch is a Senior Attorney and Director of International Programs at the Environmental Law Institute. He is a leading authority on the means to manage natural resources to support post-conflict peacebuilding, on environmental governance and institutions, and on ways to prevent, reduce, mitigate, and compensate for damage to the environment during armed conflict. Bruch has been an attorney with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and an adjunct professor with American University School of International Service, where he teaches a master’s-level course on environmental peacebuilding.
Amanda Cahill-Ripley is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Liverpool. She is an expert in international human rights law, specialising in economic, social and cultural rights. She was Academic Lead on the research and knowledge exchange project “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustaining Peace”, and has provided expert consultation on economic and social rights and peacebuilding to bodies such as the UN OHCHR and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Her second monograph “Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Transformative Peacebuilding: Enhancing Human Security” is forthcoming with CUP.
Brian Lander is the Deputy Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), which was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize “for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict”. Lander oversees and coordinates WFP’s response to complex emergencies in conflict zones. His extensive experience in the humanitarian sector includes his work with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for about 20 years prior to joining WFP.