Announcing the Writing Competition Winner

The Climate Justice Programme is delighted to announce that Keely Boom, an Australian lawyer, has won the writing competition on how international law can help protect people from climate change.

Ms Boom is the Executive Officer of the Australian Climate Justice Program, housed within the Climate Action Network Australia. She is a PhD researcher at the University of Wollongong, undertaking research on exposure to legal risk for climate change damage under international law.

Ms Boom’s entry took the form of an inter-country complaint against Australia under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Read Ms Boom’s winning entry.

Read more about the Australian Climate Justice Program

Read ‘Boom with a view’ in the UK Law Gazette

The Competition

Why this competition?

Climate change is creating an unprecedented challenge for the international community, and international institutions must rise to meet it. The current negotiations under the UNFCCC are a crucial route to getting an effective and fair approach to tackling climate change, but evolution in international law is likewise an important tool for providing affected people a means to defend their human rights.

In order to emphasize the international obligations of states, stimulate innovation and progress in international law addressing climate change, and to bring public attention to the urgency of the matter, the Climate Justice Programme has joined Oxfam International and Advocates for International Development in launching a climate law competition. We are calling on lawyers, academics and law students worldwide to put forward the strongest legal case possible to demonstrate that rich countries’ greenhouse-gas emissions are violating the human rights of people in developing countries (see the competition question for more details below).

The competition will be judged by a panel of eminent international lawyers, drawn from backgrounds covering both international human rights law and environmental law. There are two categories for entries: one category for practising lawyers and academics, and another for law students, and this should be clearly marked on the submission. Entries can be submitted in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese, and should be sent by email to climatechangecompetition@a4id.org by 31 December 2008.

The winning entries in each category will be announced by the panel in March 2009. The top entry in each category will be announced and published on the websites of all three organizations, and the two winners will also each receive a £100 voucher for purchasing books or climate-friendly goods.