UPCOMING EVENT: Climate Change, Mobility and Human Rights [24 November 2022]

Climate Change, Mobility and Human Rights: ‘Slow-onset’ Environmental Change and Displacement in the Mekong Region

24 November 2022, Online (broadcast on CSDS Facebook page; participate via Zoom with registration) and in-person at Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 

Co-organizers: Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Chulalongkorn University; Chulalongkorn University UNESCO Chair in Resource Governance and Futures Literacy; Raoul Wallenberg Institute Regional Asia Pacific Office; and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights

Please download the final agenda with speakers here.

Please register to join the event here.

The connection between climate change and peoples’ mobility is increasingly recognized in academic and policy circles, and popular media. Most visible are the impacts of disasterous events such as flooding on forced displacement, but slow onset environmental changes such as sea level rise and changing seasonal weather patterns are nowadays also crucial in shaping human mobility (or ‘environmental migration’) in various ways. In slow-onset processes, the changing climate intersects with other ongoing economic and social development activities and their associated environmental impacts which influence situations of vulnerability, for example the construction of large hydropower dams. As a result, there is significant debate on how to understand the relationship between pre-existing conditions, slow-onset climate change and human mobility. This lack of consensus has implications for law and policy, as well as responses on-the-ground. 

Climate change poses threats to human rights, including the right to life, the right to health, the right to shelter, and the right to food, and many others amplifying the impacts of structural inequalities and injustices. There is a growing recognition within human rights literature, international and national law, and among practitioners, of the connection between environmental change including climate change, mobility and human rights. These studies are now establishing a framework for determining the duties of states, and the entitlements of rights-holders. Governments in mainland Southeast Asia are increasingly making commitments and policies on climate change mitigation and adaptation, yet human mobility due to ‘slow-onset’ climate change seems to be less acknowledged and addressed.

This full day hybrid public seminar will address the following questions, with a focus on mainland Southeast Asia.

• How are climate change, people’s mobility and human rights connected?

• What is the experience on the ground?

• Is current law and policy adequate to address emerging vulnerabilities, especially regarding ‘slow onset’ environmental change?

• What are the actionable polices and on-the-ground approaches to protect and promote human rights?

• What are the implications for ‘loss and damage’ claims and climate justice?

For enquiries, please contact Dr. Carl Middleton.

UPCOMING EVENT: Blended Learning Course "Climate Change, Disaster and Displacement with Gender and Human Rights- Based Approach"

From 16 November to 7 December 2021, Self- paced learning and 2 hours via Zoom.

CSDS has collaborated with RWI for the online course.

This course focuses on the interrelatedness between human rights, climate change, disaster and displacement. It is recommended that local and national level government officials and other who works disaster and climate change adaptation join this course.

The course will be 14 hours, 3 weeks self- paced learning and 2 hours of Zoom session every week.

Course Directors,

Dr. Matthew Scott, Head of People on The Move Thematic Area- RWI Dr. Claudia Iturate- Lima, Senior Researcher- Environment, Climate Change and Environment- RWI Dr. Carl Middleton of CSDS contributed the module “Political Ecology of Climate Change, Disaster and Displacement: Insights for Human Rights- Based Approach”.

The registration closes on 12 November 2021.

Please click here for the link to register, and for more information about the course please visit the website here.

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: "Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World" [Bangkok, 10-11 October 2019]

Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October 2019, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS); Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC); French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD); French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP); IRN-SustainAsia; POLLEN Political Ecology Network

Panel topics include:

• Resource politics and the public sphere;

• Hydrosocial rivers and their politics;

• Post-development and systemic alternatives from Asia;

• Ontologies of infrastructure;

• Industrialization and ecological justice;

• Particulate matters: the emergence of a political ecology of haze in Asia;

• Asia’s urban political ecologies;

• Human Rights and the Environment in Asia;

• People and the biodiversity crisis: reshaping governance and justice in conservation?;

• Representations of nature and political engagements;

• Interspecies cohabitations in Asia: non-human animals and political ecology.

There are a limited number of spaces remaining for self-funded participants to join the conference either as a paper presenter or participant. For further information, please contact PoliticalEcologyinAsia@gmail.com.

For the most updated information, you can also visit the conference’s landing page here.

UPCOMING WORKSHOP: "2017 Winter School for Young Human Rights Defenders" [10-13 December]

 "Winter School for Young Human Rights Defenders"

10-13 December 2017 at the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Call for Thai participants

Workshop convened by the Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science and The May 18 Memorial Foundation (518기념재단) (Gwangju, South Korea)

Join us in our training program for young human rights defenders, especially for those who are keen to be part of the fruitful networking and mature dialogue between the activism field and that of academe of human rights!

This Winter School will be a rare chance for human rights students and young activists to carefully listen to the witnessing voices over the light and darkness of human rights issues from neighbor countries, energetically to unite the strength and wisdom to help the risks/challenges faced by HR defender friends, and to get to know each other not only as young HR comrades but also as friends who care about other human being.

Program includes:

• Special Roundatable dedicated to Jatupat Boonpattaraksa (Pai Dao Din), the Laureate of 2017 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, facilitated by Asst.Prof. Dr. Pitch Pongsawat

• ”From Gwangju to Bangkok: Lessons Learned from Democratic Movements” by Dr.Kanokrat Lertchoosakul

• ”The Role of Human Rights Organizations in Perpetuating a Culture of Impunity in Thailand” by Assoc.Prof. Dr.Puangthong Pawakapan

• ”Art as a Form of Resistance” by Asst.Prof. Dr.Pandit Chanrochanakit

• Four lectures on Human Rights Situations in South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal and Bangaladesh

• Peer discussion on Human Rights issues with participants from other Asian countries

• Field Visit to Human Rights Defenders w/ Reflection on Judicial System on Political Prisoners in Thailand by Sirikarn Charoensri, The Lawyers for Lawyers Award 2017 Laureate

Interested participants should write a one-page essay reflecting your thoughts and/or experience in human rights issues. Submit the essay to napath_23592@hotmail.com before November 30. 2017.