The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC) is a collaboration between Indian writer, lawyer and activist Radha D'Souza and Dutch artist Jonas Staal, produced by Framer Framed, Amsterdam. The project consists of a large-scale tribunal-style installation prosecuting intergenerational climate crimes.
The inauguration of the tribunal will take place on 24 September 2021. From 28 to 31 October, the CICC will host hearings indicting Unilever, ING, Airbus and the Dutch state for Intergenerational Climate Crimes. During the CICC hearings, prosecutors and witnesses will present evidence and make statements to support the charges. The tribunal proceedings 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 the book What's Wrong With Rights (2018) by D'Souza, a critical analysis of neoliberal legal institutions.
During the hearings, the CICC will present 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 underpin the current justice system. The hearings will be documented online. Files of evidence and testimonies will then be submitted to both institutional and activist organisations.
Besides prosecutors, witnesses and audience, the tribunal consists of an ecology populated by extinct animals, plants and fossils of ammonites. Each is referred to, in a different language, as "comrade." These non-human ancestors constitute both evidence of intergenerational climate crimes in the past and that they are witnesses to the CICC's collective effort to contribute to intergenerational climate justice in the present and future.
The hearings included testimonies and presentations by individuals and collectives from Kenya Land Alliance, Pueblos Indígenas Amazónicos Unidos en Defensa de sus Territorios (PUINAMUDT), Vettiver Collective, Synergie Nationale des Paysans et Riverains du Cameroun (SYNAPARCAM), Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), Réseau d'Information et d'Appui aux ONG Nationales (RIAO-RDC), Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen (SOMO), Stop Arms Trade, and more.
Radha D'Souza is Professor of International Law, Development and Conflict Studies at the University of Westminster (UK) and works as a writer, critic and commentator. She is also committed to social justice and has previously organised labour and democratic rights movements in her home country of India, as well as co-existing as an 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 spaces, exhibitions, lectures and publications. Staal received his PhD on his research into contemporary propaganda art from Leiden University. His most recent book is Propaganda Art in the 21st Century (The MIT Press, 2019).
Good to knowOpening September 24, 2021 | Framer Framed | Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 71 | 1093 KS Amsterdam
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