The Foundation for Environment and Development FEDEV, under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment, Protection of Nature and Sustainable Development has trained over thirty lawyers and magistrates on how to file cases and address climate change-related issues. FEDEV partnered with the Environmental Alliance Worldwide ELAW-USA and the Ministry of Justice.
Drawn from the South West, Northwest, and Center regions, these legal minds crowded the Parliamentarian Flats Hotel in Buea on the 8th and 9th of December 2022. The workshop enabled Magistrates and Lawyers to abreast themselves with climate change-related laws and the concept of climate change. It belts the capacity of judicial officers and lawyers by equipping them with knowledge about climate change and climate justice. This is in order to enable them effectively engage in legal response to climate.
Following FEDEV’s expertise in supporting Magistrates, lawyers, and journalists in environmental law and human rights, participants from previous sessions requested special sessions on climate change. In addition to climate change law, participants seek to know how courts in other countries protect the climate by enforcing climate change law. Climate change is real and has catastrophic effects. Cameroonian courts must play a critical role in protecting people from the harmful effects of climate change. According to Barrister Nchunu Justice Sama, FDEV’s Executive Director, it was essential to bring Magistrates and Lawyers to share experiences and learn from each other as we build a climate justice-friendly judiciary in Cameroon. While Courts are a critical pillar in the fight against climate change, magistrates can only effectively enforce the laws with the participation of lawyers. Lawyers argue cases and help courts to direct their attention to the critical aspects of the law.
Animated by six national and two international experts, the workshop laid an environmentally friendly judiciary to practically enhance the interpretation and enforcement of climate change-related laws. The bench will equally promote respect for the environmental rule of law. It will protect planet Earth against climate and its nefarious effects. The judiciary will, however, enhance Sustainable Development for the interest of the present and future generations.
