Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (2021-2022). Artist: Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal, photo: Ruben Hamelink. Commissioned by Framer Framed, Amsterdam 28 Oct –
31 Oct 2021
Public Hearings: Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes
From October 28-31, 2021, public hearings will be held in the Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC) against various transnational corporations and the complicity of the Dutch State in perpetrating intergenerational climate crimes. CICC is a collaboration between Indian academic, writer, lawyer and activist Radha D’Souza and Dutch artist Jonas Staal commissioned and developed by Framer Framed.
During the public hearings, emphasis will be placed on the intersection of climate crimes with environmental pollution, desertification, racism, mass displacement of people, the military industrial complex and other forms of intergenerational climate crimes. The proceedings consist of introductions by prosecutors and various witness testimony, which will be overseen by four judges:
Judges
Radha D’Souza
Sharon H. Venne
Nicholas Hildyard
Rasigan Maharajh
The public will be joining the hearings as members of the jury. We highly recommend participants to stay all day. Walk-in and walk-outs are only possible during the breaks in between the sessions (Break ONE 14:45-15:05 and Break TWO 16:10-16:30). The hearings will be in English and free. Registration is required due to corona regulations.
Recordings of the hearings can be watched in full on the Framer Framed YouTube channel. Individual hearing links can be found below. Individual witness contributions and judges statements for each day can be viewed in the CICC Vimeo showcase.
Comrades past, present and future vs. the Dutch State
October 28, 13:00-18:00
This case will indict the Dutch State for establishing Bilateral Trade Agreements as a legal framework for the benefit of transnational corporations and the state itself. Bilateral Trade Agreements will be explained, and evidence will be presented on the ecocidal, social impacts of such agreements on ecosystems communities in Bolivia, Peru and Mongolia.
Prosecuted by The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)
With witness contributions by
Blue Planet Project
Oyu Tolgoi Watch (OT Watch Mongolia)
Pueblos Indígenas Amazónicos Unidos en Defensa de sus Territorios (PUINAMUDT)
Watch the hearing Comrades past, present and future vs. the Dutch State live on YouTube: https://youtu.be/LOZzkZk2iOY
Comrades past, present and future vs. Unilever
October 29, 13:00-18:00
This case indicts Unilever and the Dutch State for committing different types of climate crimes by their destructive activities, such as mercury poisoning of rivers, monocultures of agriculture and the active undermining of democratic institutions, through witnesses from India, Republic of Congo and Kenya.
Prosecuted by Daphné Dupont-Nivet (investigative journalist)
With witness contributions by
Kenya Land Alliance
Réseau d’Information et d’Appui aux ONG Nationales (RIAO-RDC)
Vettiver Collective
Watch the hearing Comrades past, present and future vs. Unilever live on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iEUeEC01LEY
Comrades past, present and future vs. ING
October 30, 13:00-18:00
This case indicts ING for establishing financial syndicates and cartels to fund ecocidal, socially disruptive activities by transnational corporations; and indicts the Dutch State for establishing the legal frameworks facilitative of ING’s activities and for profiting from them. Evidence will be introduced of the impacts of ING finance and investment in coal plants, palm oil production and deforestation by witnesses from Indonesia, Cameroon, a.o.
Prosecuted by The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)
With witness contributions by
Fabrina Furtado (Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro)
Synergie Nationale des Paysans et Riverains du Cameroun (SYNAPARCAM)
WALHI West Java (Friends of the Earth Indonesia)
Watch the hearing Comrades past, present and future vs. ING live on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZPun92U5F-g
Comrades past, present and future vs. Airbus
October 31, 13:00-18:00
This case indicts Airbus Industries for designing, manufacturing and trading in destructive weapons including fighter planes, surveillance equipment and other weapons of war, with devastating environmental, social impacts in the Global South. Evidence will be presented on the environmental and social impacts of European wars using Airbus technologies that have deadly impacts on the environment, refugees and asylum seekers and the people of Yemen, by witnesses from global justice campaigns from Italy and Yemen, a.o.
Prosecuted by Stop Wapenhandel (European Network Against Arms Trade – NL)
With witness contributions by
Aman Organisation Against Discrimination
Cairo Institute for Human Rights
Manchester International Law Center
MWATANA
Watch The Med
Watch the hearing Comrades past, present and future vs. Airbus live on YouTube: https://youtu.be/-ysVDWTKIiQ
ABOUT
Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC) is a collaboration between Framer Framed, Indian academic, writer, lawyer and activist Radha D’Souza and Dutch artist Jonas Staal. The project was commissioned by Framer Framed. The CICC focuses on corporations registered in the Netherlands as well as the legal frameworks established by the Dutch State system supportive of the corporations. The proceedings of the tribunal will be led by four judges: Radha D’Souza, Sharon H. Venne, Nicholas Hildyard and Rasigan Maharajh. The legal framework of the CICC is based on D’Souza’s book What’s Wrong with Rights? (Pluto Press, 2018), a critical analysis of neoliberal legal institutions.
The CICC will provide evidence of past and present climate crimes by looking at their impact on the here and now, as well as on planetary life in the future. As such, the tribunal rejects the linear, individualised narratives that underlie the current legal system. The hearings will be documented online. The evidence and testimony files are then presented to both institutional and activist organisations. Read more about the exhibition HERE.
The exhibition can be visited from the 25th of September 2021 to the 16th of January 2022. Framer Framed is open from Tuesday to Sunday, between 12:00-18:00, and free of charge.
Radha D’Souza is a Professor of International Law, Development and Conflict Studies at the University of Westminster (UK). D’Souza works as a writer, critic and commentator. She is a social justice activist and worked with labour movements and democratic rights movements in her home country of India as an organiser and activist lawyer.
Jonas Staal is a Dutch visual artist whose work explores the relationship between art, propaganda and democracy. His work manifests itself internationally in the form of interventions in public space, exhibitions, lectures and publications. Staal completed his PhD research on contemporary propaganda art at Leiden University, the Netherlands. His most recent book is Propaganda Art in the 21st Century (The MIT Press, 2019).
- Verdict: CICC vs. The Dutch State
- Public Hearing IV - Airbus
- Public Hearing III - ING
- Public Hearing II - Unilever
- CICC Public Hearing I - The Dutch State
Attachments
Ecology / CICC / Political Climate / Transitional Justice /
Exhibitions
Exhibition: Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes
A project by Radha D'Souza and Jonas Staal
Agenda
Verdict Presentation: CICC vs. The Dutch State
Presentation of the verdict in the CICC vs. the Dutch State case
Opening: Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes
By Josien Pieterse, Radha D’Souza and Jonas Staal, commissioned by Framer Framed
Network
Muhammad al-Kashef
Laywer, Activist
Sharon H. Venne
Cree historian and writer
Rasigan Maharajh
Activist scholar and scientist
Nicholas Hildyard
Writer and director, The Corner House
Radha D'Souza
Writer, academic, lawyer and activist
