IES News

HUGO: Hague Utilities for Global Organisations

IES Report Presents Model for Corporate Social Responsibility Grievance Mechanisms

31 October 2011

Within the programme on Hague Utilities for Global Organisations (HUGO) IES research assistant, Cristina Cedillo (photo) recently prepared a report entitled “Better Access to Remedy in Company-­Community Conflicts in the field of CSR: A Model for Company ­ Based Grievance Mechanisms”. The report finalised in September is now available on the IES website.

The HUGO project was launched in 2010 by the World Legal Forum foundation and others including the IES. The project is supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and the Municipality of The Hague. It aims at facilitating various forms of international dispute management in The Hague – among others in the field of corporate social responsibility and complex financial products -, in particular by establishing or expanding in The Hague one or more institutions for international dispute management.

The IES is involved in the part of the project which focuses on international dispute management related to corporate social responsibility (especially with regard to human rights, labour and the environment). In particular, IES with its partner Bronkhorst International Legal Services (BILS) works to secure the environmental and institutional aspects of a conflict management facility on CSR which is to be established by the end of 2012. In addition, IES and BILS drafted a position paper presenting the various aspects to be taken into account to successfully establish a conflict management facility on CSR. The paper by Cristina Cedillo provides a model for company-based grievance mechanisms to be used by companies operating abroad. Also, IES and BILS assist the World Legal Forum foundation in securing stakeholder support which is the most essential success factor for the conflict management facility on CSR.

Download the report | More about the HUGO programme | More about the HUGO / CSR project

The Health and Security Perspectives of Climate Change - How to secure our future wellbeing

17 October 2011

On 17 October, IES Vice-Chairman, Tom Spencer spoke at the conference in London on the health and security perspectives of climate change.

Climate change is the greatest current threat to public health. This is the view shared by Dr Margaret Chan, director general of WHO, and a growing number of the world’s health professionals. Less well known is the view of leading military experts – those working to prevent and manage conflicts around the world: that climate change is also the greatest future threat to security.

Delegates at the conference heard from leading experts in health, security, economics, and business. Key note speakers, panellists, and discussants will explore the extent and nature of the threat that climate change poses to health and security.

More about the conference: | “Doctors, Soldiers & Climate Change” remarks by Tom Spencer

Protection of the Environment in Armed Conflict: Testing the Adequacy of International Law

17 October 2011

On 7 November 2011, IES Chairman / President, Wouter Veening will speak on the role of international and civil organisations in addressing the environmental consequences of war at a conference on Protection of the Environment during Armed Conflict in The Hague.

The event is being co-organised by the T.M.C. Asser Institute on the day after the official United Nations ‘International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict’.

The protection of the environment during armed conflict has long been neglected and is still underdeveloped. Armed conflict may have severe consequences for the natural environment, with the potential to leave it degraded or even destroyed. Military necessity and the achievement of military goals are generally seen as trumping the need to protect the environment. Most conflicts today are non-international in character, civil wars rather than conflicts between two or more States. According to the United Nations Environmental Programme, 40% of all these intrastate conflicts since 1960 have a link to natural resources and these conflicts are twice as likely to relapse into conflict within five years. The damage to the environment caused during these conflicts is not only of itself deplorable, but may increase the vulnerability of affected populations as well, lead to displacement or increasing numbers of refugees fleeing to other countries.

In the light of this background, the conference intends to examine the extent to which the environment could be protected during armed conflict today by analysing the existing legal framework of international humanitarian and international environmental law. Beyond these two disciplines, the conference aims to reach out to experts in other related disciplines, such as political science and environmental studies, and within the legal discipline, besides international humanitarian law and international environmental law, human rights and refugee law, given that aspects of both sets of legal rules become increasingly influential on the protection afforded to the environment to the armed conflict, but also seeing that the destruction of the environment in these situations bears increasing risks and results in greater difficulties for the protection of refugees, internally displaced persons and the wider population in general.

More about the conference: | Conference Flyer | Preliminary Programme

Climate Diplomacy in Perspective: From Early Warning to Early Action

11 October 2011

On 10-11 October the German Federal Foreign Office organised a conference on “Climate Diplomacy in Perspective: From Early Warning to Early Action” in Berlin. Participants from over 30 countries examined how foreign policy can contribute to climate diplomacy. Tom Spencer, IES Vice-Chair participated on behalf of the IES.

The conference was opened by Minister of State State Pieper who said that “What we’re here to discuss are concrete existential threats that many people are already facing and which we now urgently need to tackle or at least reduce,” Minister Pieper noted at the opening of a conference on climate change at the Federal Foreign Office on 10 and 11 October. Under the motto “Climate Diplomacy in Perspective – From Early Warning to Early Action”, participants from over 30 countries examined how foreign policy can contribute to climate diplomacy.

Three aspects of climate change will be a particular focus of attention: water resource management, global food security and rising sea levels that threaten coastal areas and low-lying island states.
In a video message to the conference, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP warned of the potentially destabilizing consequences of climate change and appealed for the international community to join forces to address this danger.

In the same vein, Minister of State Pieper called on participants to use the gathering for “energetic network-building with other experts and diplomats” and “to intensify cooperation in these areas of crucial importance for our future”.

She went on to explain that the conference was part of a series of activities the Federal Foreign Office had planned this year to highlight “the threat climate change is likely to pose to peace and security”.

With a view to the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Durban in November and December, Pieper noted that “it would be most useful if we could draw up a set of recommendations for international action, especially in the regional organizations represented here today.”

Read more about the conference