International law

A4ID recently hosted a discussion on the impact that access to information can have on the achievement of development goals, and the role of the media as a communicate channel between society and government.

A4ID is delighted to welcome Andrew Smith (legal advisor, Article 19) and Mark Wilson, (executive director of Panos London) to consider the impact access to information can have on the achievement of development goals and how the media, in its many guises, can shape civil society’s ability to demand state accountability.

A4ID Chief Executive Yasmin Batliwala was invited to speak alongside Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, philosopher Thomas Pogge and homelessness campaigner Sister Stanislaus Kennedy at this year’s International Bar Association Conference.  

A4ID recently hosted a discussion on how groups vulnerable to climate change related loss and damage might mitigate such losses by insuring themselves against climate change related harm. We heard from three speakers: Christoph Schwarte of the Legal Response Initiative, Aaron Oxley of Results UK and Dr Swenja Surminski of the LSE.

What is Micro-insurance?

In this presentation, Dr. Swenja Surminski examines the legal and regulatory issues that surround the implementation of microinsurance schemes in the developing world. Without understanding the legal needs of stakeholders and without an adequate system of legal safeguards, the world’s poorest (to whom insurance of any kind might be a new concept) cannot fully benefit from such schemes.

In this presentation, Aaron Oxley considers the structure and operational practice of microfinance organisations, looking too at how the model is financed and at the role of key stakeholders from beneficiaries to NGOs and governments. Setting out some of the challenges for the microinsurance sector, Aaron considers how the biggest challenges for climate change microinsurance are the lack of accurate, timely data on weather patterns and the particular nature of climate change harm, in that it causes gradual rather than sudden harm, is difficult to insure.

In this presentation, Christoph Schwarte reviews how international law provides for compensation for victims of environmental damage, and outlines the objectives of the loss and damage working programme set up under the United Nations Framework on Climate Change to address harm arising from human-induced climate change. Drawing on the work of the working group, Christoph considers how insurance could play a role in supporting populations mitigate climate change risk.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) came into force in 1995. For many developing countries this required changes in their national intellectual property legislation particularly in the area of protection over plants and plant varieties

TRIPs in practice