Members of the Public Interest Lawyering Initiative for West Africa (PILIWA), a regional movement of lawyers driven by social justice to serve threatened communities, have rounded up their conference in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
It was a collaborative conference for PILIWA, Environmental Rights Africa (ERA), Africa Climate Platform (ACP) and Mano River Union Civil Society Platform (MRUCP) to share updates on their activities and explore further ways of supporting each other.
Exchange of contextual experiences, legal advocacy, strategic planning and enhancing regional collaboration and collective advocacy for environmental justice were some of the key issues that took center stage during the conference.
Among others, the conference called for strengthening regional networks and collaboration by formalizing and expanding the collaborative networks.
The conference emphasized the strengthening of PILIWA as a regional hub for public interest lawyers to coordinate on environmental cases while the Mano River Union Civil Society Platform on Natural Resources should be enhanced to step up cross-border advocacy.
It further called for the establishment of regular communication channels through focal persons (monthly calls, online forums) and annual meet-ups to sustain the momentum in view of the fact that through the sharing of information and tactics in real time, activists could respond faster and more effectively to emerging environmental threats.
The conference provided PILIWA an opportunity to share its experiences in the West African sub-region about some successes and challenges over the years, especially on access to information and enforcement of judicial decisions.
These experiences were well received as participants considered them very relevant to their respective organisations and therefore had further deliberations regarding them.
Participants also focused their attention on protecting environmental defenders and resolved to develop and implement measures to protect them and other activists who face risks due to their work.
The conference therefore recommended that African governments, in partnership with civil society, should establish protocols or focal points for defender protection – such as emergency contact networks or rapid response units to investigate and address threats or abuses against activists.
The conference also called for the establishment of solidarity networks, where defenders in different regions support each other’s safety through visibility and advocacy, should be nurtured.
Touching on capacity building, the conference emphasized the need to invest in continuous capacity building for those working on environmental rights. This includes training more community paralegals and public Interest lawyers at the grassroots to empower local communities with legal knowledge. Workshops and exchange programs for lawyers and NGO staff should be organized, covering topics like environmental law litigation techniques, scientific evidence collection, and negotiation skills.
Participants further recommended the creation of mentorship programs where seasoned public interest attorneys can guide younger lawyers in developing strategic cases.
Another area of concern to the participants was community engagement and public awareness. Here, they stressed the need to enhance efforts in community engagement and raising public awareness on environmental rights.
They emphasized the need to amplify environmental education at the community level— through local workshops that explain rights in local languages and through school programs that teach youth about conservation and climate change.
The participants called on NGOs and community groups to employ creative media (community radio, theater, storytelling) to make complex issues understandable and relatable.
On the promotion of corporate accountability mechanisms, participants encouraged the adoption of robust corporate accountability mechanisms and proposed to African states to tighten environmental regulations—for instance, by requiring companies to post reclamation bonds for mining (so funds are available for cleanup), and by increasing fines or penalties for violations to truly deter harmful practices.
The conference encouraged civil society to advocate for governments to sign on to international initiatives for openness in oil, gas, and mining revenues, and to support the development of a binding international treaty on business and human rights.
A further recommendation by the conference is the setting up of independent monitoring bodies, possibly with civil society participation, that can conduct audits of corporate environmental performance. Meanwhile, NGOs can make use of existing tools like the OECD complaint procedure or bring cases to international platforms when local remedies fail; building expertise in these processes is advised. Naming and shaming through public campaigns remains a powerful tool—creating “scorecards” or reports ranking companies on environmental criteria can pressure them to improve.
Some of the key outcomes of the conference centered on Natural Resource Governance as participants underscored the critical need for transparent, accountable management of natural resources and advocated robust legal frameworks that guarantee community participation and equitable benefit sharing.
On legal advocacy and litigation, the conference agreed to develop and disseminate legal toolkits for public interest litigation as a way of empowering communities to hold both state and corporate actors accountable for environmental degradation and human rights abuses.
Participants further resolved to form a coalition to monitor and report environmental abuse by multinational corporations, ensuring that companies are held to internationally recognized standards and face appropriate legal consequences to ensure corporate accountability.
They also reiterated that climate justice is not merely a legal issue but a moral imperative and endorsed the formulation of a comprehensive policy package, which includes lobbying for increased climate finance, enhancing adaptation strategies, and ensuring that the principles of equity and justice guide all climate-related policymaking.
The Legal Clinic team of the Caleb University, as part of the conference, presented a gift to ACA for its immense support in setting up the clinic. ACA’s Executive Director, Jonathan Kaufman, received the gift on behalf of the organization.
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