Press-anons
On 20-21 September 2014, Lviv will host an international symposium “Human Rights and Environment in a New Ukraine: In Honor of Prof. Svitlana Kravchenko”. Environmental law cannot be treated separately whether through policy options, legislation or judicial doctrine in cases. Law in the field of human rights cannot be alienated from care about life quality on the earth.For decades environmental rights have been recognized by professors and practical lawyers as inalienable part of human rights. International and national courts in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas interpret agreements and conventions, national constitutions and human rights legislation in the way to advance environmental protection. The international symposium to be held in Lviv will be devoted to consideration of environmental issues through the prism of human rights, the role of environmental law in European reforms in new Ukraine.
Participants of the symposium will exchange practical experiences and academic research in human rights and environmental law in order to identify new and fruitful areas for thinking, collaboration, and action.
The symposium is dedicated to the late Dr. Svitlana Kravchenko, professor of law and international law at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Ukraine, and the University of Oregon, USA. She was a pioneer in Central and Eastern Europe in environmental protection, as both a scholar and a practitioner, for three decades.
As a legal scholar and academic expert of the highest order, Professor Kravchenko published more than 190 articles, as well as twelve books and book chapters, in English, Ukrainian and Russian. At the beginning of the 21st century, Prof. Kravchenko concluded that it was crucial to understand the right to a protected environment as a fundamental human right. Her last book – Human Rights and the Environment – was published as the culmination of her insights, bringing together for the first time in world literature, judicial decisions on these topics from every continent and from international institutions that helped develop these concepts.
Dr. Kravchenko was elected the Vice-chair of the Compliance Committee of the UN Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters and worked in the Committee until her last days. In 2011 she received the highest academic award from the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law that recognized her expert knowledge and her impact in the environmental sphere both among scholars and practical lawyers from various countries. During the awarding ceremony Prof. Kravchenko encouraged young scholars not to limit themselves because of thinking through the prism of the past. She advised them to grow their own wings, carve out your own view of environmental law and justice in our societies, and follow their own dreams. By following her dreams and our dreams, we continue the path of Dr. Kravchenko and make progress toward the protection of human rights and the environment.
The symposium is co-sponsored by Environment-People-Law, the Bureau of Environmental Investigation, Ivan Franko Lviv National University, Law Institute of Vasyl Stefanyk Ivano-Frankivsk National University and funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund and SIDA/the Swedish Embassy in Ukraine.
Venue: on 20 September 2014 – the Mirror Hall at Ivan Franko Lviv National University, 1 Universytetska St., Lviv; on 21 September 2014 – Lviv House of Scientists, 6 Lystopadovoho Chynu St., Lviv
For further information please contact us: (032) 2394477, 225-76-82 (contact persons – Roksolana Lemyk, Olena Kravchenko, Hanna Khomechko), e-mail rlemyk@yahoo.com, office@epl.org.ua
