The Climate Accountability Crisis: Human Rights Lessons from Nepal

The Climate Accountability Crisis: Human Rights Lessons from Nepal will explore the intersection of climate change and South Asia through legal, human rights, and health perspectives, with a case study on Nepal and Tibet. We will explore the following, multi-field and interdisciplinary questions: How does the climate crisis affect fundamental human rights and vulnerable communities in Global South States? What can Nepal and Tibet’s avalanches and flooding teach us about climate justice and the unequal distribution of climate impacts? How can these States’ experiences inform more effective legal, policy, and public health responses to the climate crisis?

We will seek support from the Harvard Mittal Institute, HLS Environmental Law Society, SALSA, APALSA, the Harvard Salata Institute, and the Systemic Justice Project. We will get catering from Himalayan Kitchen, a local Nepalese restaurant.

We have secured the following panelists/moderators:

Eugene Richardson, a Harvard Medical School professor who will discuss his research on climate change’s effects on local community health and life outcomes in Nepal through a Mittal Institute grant.

Aminta Ossom, HLS Senior Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law, who will speak to how states and corporations can be held accountable for this issue.

Ioannis Kalpouzos, HLS Visiting Professor, who will share lessons from state accountability and international climate justice in other contexts.