Judicial Round Table Discuss Plan to Establish Green Benches to Prosecute Environmental Cases. Supreme Court justices, judicial experts and environmentalists from government, non-government organizations, and international donor agencies gathered at a round table discussion on July 21, 2006, and discussed the possibility of establishing or designating “green benches” to prosecute environmental cases. The Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA) of the Supreme Court of the Philippines organized the round table discussion with support from the Asian Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Network (AECEN), United Nations Development Programme-Global Environment Facility-Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP), and HARIBON Foundation. Participants discussed current issues and options to improve environmental adjudication, including the development of a continuing training program for judges on handling environmental cases. The round table discussion was an offshoot of the Asian Justices Workshop on the Environment held on April 26-27, 2006, in Bangkok, organized by the Supreme Court of Thailand with support from USAID, AECEN and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Click here to read more about AECEN's Regional Initiative on Environmental Adjudication. |
