Chapter 10: The Challenge of Climate Change and the Contribution of African Women to Engendering International Environmental Law

Authors

Erika George, Boston University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

11-2017

Editor(s)

Jeremy I. Levitt

ISBN

9781108432979

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Language

en-US

Abstract

African women played a critical role in placing issues of gender on the global climate change agenda and in increasing the international community’s appreciation of the interrelationship among rights, economic development, and environmental sustainability. A large and growing body of literature examines the challenging consequences that climate change will present for African women. Fewer works explore the agency that African women have shown in facing challenges, finding innovative solutions, and fostering sustainable development.

This chapter considers the contributions of Black women and women of African descent to the development of a more inclusive body of international environmental law. First, it explains the projected impacts of climate change with particular reference to the African continent and the challenges climate change presents for African women. The difference gender makes during natural disasters and in the aftermath of extreme weather events for women of the African Diaspora is also discussed. Next, it examines the evolution of the international environmental law of climate change and the increasing inclusion of women’s concerns in recent years. Then it explores how African women’s mobilization has successfully moved the discussion of climate change to now mandate that gender issues enter the mainstream of climate change law and policymaking. It is argued that the activism and adaptive strategies of African women could serve, and women’s human rights should command, greater attention from policymakers in the development and climate arenas. Finally, it concludes with an examination of the ways the activism of African women has served to highlight the importance of appreciating the interrelationship among environmental conservation, human rights, and human security.

Recommended Citation

Erika George, Chapter 10: The Challenge of Climate Change and the Contribution of African Women to Engendering International Environmental Law , in Black Women and International Law: Deliberate Interactions, Movements and Actions 188 (Jeremy I. Levitt ed., 2017).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3851