Atmospheres of violence: conflict, gender and environmental rights

This event is part of the British Academy's season on Sustainable Futures

The global demand for natural resources causes environmental damage on an unprecedented scale. This demand in turn fuels armed conflict as activists – often women and girls – take on visible and vocal roles as environmental defenders to protect ecosystems and empower their communities. As more defenders risk violence and death, there are growing calls for states and international organisations to draft gender sensitive laws and policies more closely aligned to the lived experiences of women in conflict and conflict-affected situations. Join our panel as they discuss atmospheres of violence across Africa, Asia and Latin America, the relationship between economic demand, conflict, gender and environmental rights and the action policymakers urgently need to take to protect defenders.

As part of the event we will be displaying photographic prints that depict the aftermath of violence, ‘slow violence’ and acts of resistance in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Brazil. The images are by human rights defenders in most cases and were originally displayed at an ‘Atmospheres of Violence’ exhibition at the ONCA Gallery in Brighton in November 2019. 

Speakers:
Hannah Bond, Director, Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS)
Mary Menton, Research Fellow in Environmental Justice, University of Sussex
Claudelice Santos, Environmental and Human Rights Activist 
Dr Keina Yoshida, Research Officer, Centre for Women, Peace and Security, London School of Economics; Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers

Chair:
Dr Fran Lambrick, Co-founder and Director, Not 1 More

Booking required 
£5, £3 concessions

The concession rate applies to: unwaged / retired / students / disabled / stagetext attendees. Free entrance is offered to companions or carers of disabled visitors.

If you have any questions about this event, please refer to our Public Events FAQ. If your question is not answered, please email [email protected].

Image: Terra Livre / Free Land. Brasilia, April 2017, peoples from every region of the country and from diverse ethnicities gathered: thousands of leaders, youth, Indigenous people making the biggest Free Land Camp in history, to fight for their rights that have been systematically vilified.

© Photographed by Edgar Kanaykõ Xakriabá.