Vienna protection on protection of ozone layer- montreal protocol

Unfcc-kyoto protocol- paris agreement

A multilateral environmental agreement is a treaty set up

between three or more countries with the purpose of reaching
an environmental goal.

International Environmental Law (IEL) is concerned with the attempt to control

pollution and the depletion of natural resources within a framework of sustainable
development. It is a branch of public international law - a body of law created by
states for states to govern problems that arise between states. IEL covers topics
such as population, biodiversity, climate change, ozone depletion, toxic and
hazardous substances, air, land, sea and transboundary water pollution,
conservation of marine resources, desertification, and nuclear damage.
Part XII of UNCLOS contains special provisions for the protection of
the marine environment, obligating all States to collaborate in this matter, as well as
placing special obligations on flag States to ensure that ships under their flags
adhere to international environmental regulations, often adopted by the IMO.
States have the obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment. Article 193
Sovereign right of States to exploit their natural resources States have the sovereign right to
exploit their natural resources pursuant to their environmental policies and in
accordance with their duty to protect and preserve the marine environment.
SECTION 2. GLOBAL AND REGIONAL COOPERATION
SECTION 3. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE Scientific and technical assistance to developing
States
SECTION 4. MONITORING AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
SECTION 6. ENFORCEMENT Article 213 Enforcement with respect to pollution from land-
based sources, seabed, by port states, coastal states
SECTION 9. RESPONSIBILITY AND LIABILITY

Aarhus Convention- European only. Place in denmark

The Aarhus Convention establishes a number of rights of the public (individuals and
their associations) with regard to the environment. The Parties to the Convention are
required to make the necessary provisions so that public authorities (at national,
regional or local level) will contribute to these rights to become effective. The
Convention provides for:
 the right of everyone to receive environmental information that is held by
public authorities ("access to environmental information"). This can include
information on the state of the environment, but also on policies or measures taken,
or on the state of human health and safety where this can be affected by the state of
the environment. the right to participate in environmental decision-making.
Arrangements are to be made by public authorities to enable the public affected and
 environmental non-governmental organisations to comment on, for example,
proposals for projects affecting the environment, or plans and programmes relating
to the environment, these comments to be taken into due account in decision-
making, and information to be provided on the final decisions and the reasons for it
("public participation in environmental decision-making");
 the right to review procedures to challenge public decisions that have been
made without respecting the two aforementioned rights or environmental law in
general ("access to justice").

Basel Convention
Basel Convention, is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements
of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent transfer of hazardous waste
from developed to less developed countries (LDCs). It does not, however, address the
movement of radioactive waste.
The Convention is also intended to minimize the amount and toxicity of wastes
generated, to ensure their environmentally sound management as closely as possible to the
source of generation, and to assist LDCs in environmentally sound management of the
hazardous and other wastes they generate.

Trail Smelter Arbitration

In 1935 a Canadian based corporation (defendant) owned a smelter plant
which emitted hazardous fumes (sulfur dioxide) that caused damage to plant life,
forest trees, soil, and crop yields accross the border in Washington State in the
United States (plaintiff). The United States took Canada to court. The same year a
Convention established an arbitral tribunal.
The Tribunal was aided by scientific experts appointed by the governments. In
its first decision, 1938, the Tribunal concluded that harm had occurred between 1932
and 1937 and ordered the payment of an indemnity of $78,000 as the ‘complete and
final indemnity and compensation for all damage which occurred between such
dates’.The Tribunal’s second decision (1941), was concerned with the final three
questions presented by the 1935 Convention, namely, responsibility for, and the
appropriate mitigation and indemnification of, future harm. The Tribunal concluded,
with respect to future harm, that: 'no State has the right to use or permit the use of its
territory in such a manner as to cause injury by fumes in or to the territory of another
or the properties or persons therein, when the case is of serious consequence and
the injury is established by clear and convincing evidence'. 

Corfu Channel Case

This dispute arose out of the explosions of mines by which some British
warships suffered damage while passing through the Corfu Channel in 1946, in a
part of the Albanian waters. The ships were severely damaged and members of the
crew were killed.
The United Kingdom accused Albania of having laid or allowed a third State to
lay the mines after mine-clearing operations had been carried out by the Allied naval
authorities. The case had previously been brought before the United Nations and, in
consequence of a recommendation by the Security Council, had been referred to the
Court.
In a first Judgment the Court dealt with the question of its jurisdiction and the
admissibility of the Application, which Albania had raised. The Court found that a
communication dated 2 July 1947, addressed to it by the Government of Albania,
constituted a voluntary acceptance of its jurisdiction. The Court found that Albania
was responsible under international law for the explosions that had taken place in
Albanian waters and for the damage and loss of life which had ensued. The State
which is the victim must, in that case, be allowed a more liberal recourse to
inferences of fact and circumstantial evidence ; such indirect evidence must be
regarded as of especial weight when based on a series of facts, linked together and
leading logically to a single conclusion. In a third Judgment, rendered on 15
December 1949, the Court assessed the amount of reparation owed to the United
Kingdom and ordered Albania to pay £844,000.

Global security crisis: War or pandemic?

Endemics are diseases that have constant presence in an area such as colds
and seasonal flu. They are endemic because they are expected. Epidemics are often
sudden outbreaks and the tally of new cases exceeds what is expected for an
infectious disease in a given region. Pandemics, on the other hand — like the current
public health crisis caused by coronavirus — not only exceed expected cases, but
also spread over many countries and, often, many continents. 

Statistics reveal that in last 100 years, the Spanish flu (1918) killed over 50 to
100 million people, more than the total combined casualties in World Wars 1 and 2.
The Asian flu killed 2 million in 1957 and H1N1 flu killed 200,000 in 2009.

“A nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought.” Pandemics can
be fought and won by discovery of vaccines as borne out by experiences in the
recent past.

Biological weapons treaty vis-à-vis bioterrorism

Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), which outlaws the use, possession or

development of chemical or biological weapons. It is the first multilateral
disarmament treaty banning an entire category of weapons of mass destruction.
 The scope of the treaty’s prohibition includes all microbial and other biological
agents or toxins and their means of delivery, with exemptions for medical and
defensive purposes in small quantities. Be it known that it is not the biological agents
(e.g., viruses, bacteria, fungi, etc.) or toxins but rather certain purposes for which
they may be employed that are prohibited.

Plague (Y. Pestis) was used by the Tartars hundreds of years ago. It was
passed to humans through the bite of a flea that had fed on infected rodents. If the
infection spreads to the lungs, it becomes pneumonia plague. Cholera. It is a severe
and oftentimes deadly gastrointestinal disease. The bacteria responsible for cholera,
V. cholerae, was reportedly weaponized by some countries years ago. Anthrax. B.
anthracis is the bacteria that causes anthrax characterized by external ulcerating
modules or by lesions in the lungs. It was used via the United State postal system in
2011. Botulism toxins. Allegedly, many World War 2 protagonists were capable of
mass producing such toxins but, thankfully, war ended before they were used.
Human immunodeficiency virus-acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS).
Military scientists were suspected of artificially synthesizing the AIDS virus from two
naturally occurring viruses done in a laboratory. 

Asean diplomacy put to the test: The challenge of Covid-19

 “A calamity is a time of great opportunity,” is applicable in the effort to subdue the
mysterious and infectious Covid-19.
Special Asean-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on the Coronavirus Disease 2019
(Covid-19) was convened in Vientianne, Laos on Feb. 20, 2020, which proposed the
following: 1) strengthening the coordination for joint disease prevention and control;
2) taking a long-term perspective and establishing long-lasting cooperation
mechanisms; 3) nationally dealing with the pandemic and conquering panic; and 4)
turning the crisis into an opportunity and foster new cooperation growth points.
Compared to an epidemic, a pandemic happens when epidemics become
rampant in multiple countries and continents simultaneously.
Many countries resorted to drastic containment measures including, among
others, the lockdown of cities and towns; travel restrictions; health checks at airports,
harbors and border crossings; and mandatory and self-quarantine. The
consequences have been a slump in air travel, plunging stock markets, tumbling oil
prices and cancellation of cultural and sporting events. Surveillance, quarantine and
control zones became very important aspects of health legislation and enforcement.
Countries where outbreaks originated have been stigmatized and their citizens
subjected to xenophobic comments about their food and way of life.
Sharing by Asean states could revolve around setting up confidential
channels or collaborative networks through which governments can freely share
information on emerging health risks or potential outbreaks as a means of
strengthening a regional approach; good, timely and accurate public health
information, awareness and education to avoid misinformation and panic; travel bans
and disruption of economic activities should be supported by scientific evidence and
data; medical supply chains, pharmacies, hospitals and drug manufacturers must
fully understand and decide what supplies are actually needed; and sharing of anti-
virus protocols in ships and airplanes, homes for the aged and prisons, among
others, must be encouraged.

Changing concept of sovereignty over natural resources

Sovereignty in its widest sense means the supreme, absolute and
uncontrollable power by which any independent State is governed. Through the
years, the concept of sovereignty has evolved to include not only territorial
sovereignty but permanent sovereignty over natural resources (PSNR) as well.
PSNR  means the State can freely dispose of its natural wealth and resources within
its territory. Correlatively, the principle brings about the State duty to properly
manage its wealth and resources as well as due care of the environment .

International law: a global perspective. At its core is cooperation aimed at

implementation of the right to development, the wise management of natural
resources, equitable sharing of transboundary natural resources and the global
commons for preservation for the coming generations. 

The general principle that ensues from all this is that the Earth’s
biosphere  is the common heritage of all life on earth of which humanity
is the steward.
Asean activism: Wildlife law enforcement
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is likewise concerned
that biodiversity loss in the member countries continue to intensify as a consequence
of, among others, poaching, trafficking, consumption of wildlife parts and products
with results extending to ecosystems and habitat change as well.
Humans are extracting wildlife from forests at more than six times the
sustainable rate. This is done mainly through the use of forest trails for transnational
smuggling. Increase in commercial logging, on the other hand, opened roads that
links forests to hunters of wildlife.
Fortunately, Asean’s 10 member countries are all signatories to the trade-
control-and-regulation-oriented Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES). In that connection, the problematic
implementation of their respective legislations on wildlife conservation and protected
areas to prevent the loss of biodiversity easily comes to mind. The convention limits
trade in threatened animals and plants by banning imports and exports when they
believe the trade will increase the risk that the species will become extinct.
Asean set up the world’s largest wildlife enforcement network addressing the
issues of wildlife crime in the region known as Asean-WEN (Wildlife Enforcement
Network). It to address the illegal exploitation and trade of CITES-listed species in
the region. Asean-WEN operates on two levels: national and regional. On the
national level, each country operates an inter-agency task force composed of wildlife
traffic monitoring units, police, customs, park rangers, and wildlife enforcement
officers. Together, the national task forces form the backbone of a regional network
dedicated to battling transnational wildlife crimes.
Asean Center for Biodiversity based at UP Los Baños, conducts meetings,
workshops and training, and facilitates increased capacity and better coordination
and collaboration of law enforcement agencies among Asean member states.

Climate action: Legal strategy for disaster resilience in

Asean
DISASTER risk reduction (DRR) refers to all activities of local communities,
government and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) that help reduce in advance
the effects of natural disasters. It is about preparedness and emergency response
aimed at disaster resilience. Resilience, on the other hand, is the ability of
communities exposed to disaster risks or hazards to resist, absorb, adjust, adapt,
mitigate and recover from the effects of hazards in a timely and efficient manner.
The Asean Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response
(Aadmer). It leans heavily toward disaster preparedness and emergency response,
e.g., identification of disaster risk, early warning systems, standby arrangements for
disaster relief and emergency response like faster movement of relief goods, better
utilization of civilian and military response, etc.
Enactment of DRR legislation — Specific legislation on disaster risk reduction
management could be enacted or existing laws could be amended, i.e., climate
change law, to incorporate elements of disaster risk reduction.
Implementing rules for DRR legislation — Rules and regulations to implement
the law should target eco-based solutions so as to harness the power of ecosystems
like wetlands to cushion the impacts of climate change. For instance, the strategy of
planting mangrove saplings could be a continuing year-round activity in the long and
extensive coastlines of Asean countries.
Reforms in building codes — Reforms in building codes could be pursued as
an infrastructure solution by introducing a shift in disaster risk reduction approach
through “build back better” infrastructures, increasing buffer capacity of the
landscape to absorb shocks and long-term changes.
Inclusion of climate adaptation projects in the national budget or
appropriations law — Developing and financing adaptation projects is an excellent
way of building up a country’s resilience to disasters. 
Innovative insurance law-related program to boost disaster management — A
disaster risk insurance to help the Philippines better respond to losses from climate
and disaster risk was launched with the support of the World Bank.
 National Resilience Council — Consolidation of resilience endeavors was
adopted in the Philippines with the launch of the National Resilience Council to align
and integrate various endeavors (science and technology, civil society organizations,
private sector (business), government) in strengthening disaster reduction
governance.
Natural disasters are different. Results are sudden death, physical injuries
and loss or damage to property. Disaster resilience is now a leading concern in the
whole world and people should be made aware of the immediacy of action needed
against disasters.