27 July 2023
Vance Culbert is a senior development and humanitarian professional who has managed operations for non-governmental organizations and United Nations (UN) agencies over the past twenty years. He has focused on humanitarian protection programming and policy, the promotion of international humanitarian law (IHL), and the protection of civilians. He has also worked extensively in the field of education in emergencies and post-disaster reconstruction.
He just started as a Visiting Fellow at the Geneva Academy and will stay with us until the end of October.
I have worked in collaboration with researchers and experts from the Geneva Academy during the past several years on initiatives including IHL opinions on housing, land and property issues in Palestine, and IHL promotion with non-state armed groups across the MENA region. I look forward to positive collaboration on exploring legal protection aspects of global climate debates.
Most of the global policy processes on addressing climate change mitigation, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), have been on emissions reduction. There have been few initiatives on supply-side limitation, despite the fact that the large majority of global production is concentrated in a dozen countries. My research will look at the geopolitical and economic barriers to bringing about such an agreement, and how this could be brought in line with protection considerations required for a just transition.
Many of those oil and gas-producing countries who have made significant commitments to emissions reductions continue to invest heavily in production capacity expansion. There is currently no linkage between UNFCCC emissions goals and global production, making possible pathways to a just transition less likely and more chaotic.
Additional research can directly inform increased calls for new policy initiatives. Pressure for a new global agreement on production regulation is increasing. Data is lacking however on the economic implications of such an agreement, and policy options for how such an agreement could ensure fair usage of remaining resources.
Given the breadth of expertise at the Geneva Academy, I look forward to exchanges with colleagues on legal and protection aspects of global policy options. I also hope to be able to engage the Geneva Academy’s networks to be able to further raise the profile of this important issue.
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Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa started the new year by declaring that there is an ‘internal armed conflict’ against a series of criminal groups operating in the country. Our Research Fellow Dr Eugénie Duss, in charge of RULAC, answers our questions about whether the situation in Ecuador amounts to a non-international armed conflict.
Geneva Academy
To kick-start the activities of the 'IHL in Focus' project and refine its approach, a two-day expert meeting of representative practitioners and scholars from different disciplines was convened.
Adobe
Participants in this training course, made of two modules, will examine the major international and regional instruments for the promotion of human rights and the environment, familiarizing themselves with the respective implementation and enforcement mechanisms.
Shutterstock
This project will explore humanitarian consequences and protection needs caused by the digitalization of armed conflicts and the extent to which these needs are addressed by international law, especially international humanitarian law.
Paolo Margari
This research aims at mainstreaming the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment and the protection it affords in the work of the UN Human Rights Council, its Special Procedures and Universal Periodic Review, as well as in the work of the UN General Assembly and UN treaty bodies.
Geneva Academy ICRC