Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy

2021 Written Remarks from Laureate Wang Xi

Dear Mrs. Liliane, 
Dear the Haub Family, 
Dear the Jury of this year’s Haub Award, 
Dear President Krislov, 
Dear Dean Anderson, 
Professor Smita Narula, 
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good evening. Thank you so much.   

It is a great honor for me to have this year’s Elisabeth Haub Award.  I am very happy to see that my work in area of environmental law has been recognized by the Jury.  I have noted that all the previous laureates of the Haub Award are excellent and outstanding people.  They have made great contributions to the progressive development of environmental law and environmental diplomacy.  It is a great honor and prestige for me to be in line with them.   

The award is a great encouragement for me. In the four decades of my academic career, I was lucky to have many good academic friends from both home and overseas. Due to the time limit of this ceremony, I can only mention four of them, namely, Professor Han Depei and Professor Liang Xi, both are my academic supervisors in Wuhan U.; and Professor Richard Ottinger and Professor Nicholas Robinson, both are professors in Pace University and my lifetime partner in environmental law. I have made a long list of names to them I owe a gratitude. The list covers environmental law institutions and scholars all over the world, especially the ones in China, United States, Germany, Australia, Pakistan, Singapore, Japan, Norway, Netherland, European Union, UNEP, IUCN, IUCN Global Commission of Environmental Law and IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. I will send the list to Professor Smita Naurula and hope it will be put on the website of the Haub Award and be kept by the Database of the Haub Award.  

I was lucky to have many encouragements and “aha moments” from academic exchanges with those colleagues and institutions. Their encouragements drove me to work hard. The “aha moments”, which I got from my communication with them, make me to understand environmental law issues better and better. Today, the Haub Award is no doubt a new and very powerful encouragement for me. It makes me to think about how to work better in the future. 

Ladies and gentlemen, 
The purpose of the Elisabeth Haub Award is to promote environmental law and environmental diplomacy of the world. It symbolizes the rare and valuable long vision of its founders.  The profound challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and COVID-19 pandemic highlight again and again the indispensable roles of environmental law and environmental diplomacy.  In the face of this change, we should follow the paces of the pioneer laureates and keep in mind the purpose of the Haub Award and work together to strive for a better world which is economically prosperous, ecologically sustainable, culturally productive and socially justice. I will keep working hard with you for achieving the mission of the Haub Award in the future.   

Thank you again and with the very best wishes.
Wang Xi
Professor, Director
Platform for Research on Ecological Civilization
and Environmental Rule of Law (PRECERl)
Kunming University of Science and Technology
12 Oct. 2021 

Panelists:

Robert Chan, Executive Director, Palawan NGO Network, Inc. (PNNI), Philippines

Atty. Robert ‘Bobby’ Chan is a product of the Ateneo de Manila University. He finished his law degree, Juris Doctor, in 1994 in the Ateneo School of Law and immediately pursued an internship program with the Ateneo Human Rights Center, for which he was assigned to environmental law practice in Palawan. He initially worked as a Legal Staff of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center and eventually was asked to head the Palawan NGO Network Incorporated as its Executive Director in 2010 up to the present. He is sometimes called the chainsaw man of Palawan owing to his more than 700 confiscated illegal logging chainsaws impounded in his office, along with several dynamite fishing boats and mining equipment. But Bobby wants to be known as an advocate of Deeds, and not Words, which most environmentalists have a tendency to interchange.
For more information, see https://www.facebook.com/palawanngonetworkinc

Carlos Alfonso Negret, Former Ombudsman, Republic of Colombia

Carlos Alfonso Negret was the Ombudsman of Colombia during the constitutional period of September 1st of 2016 to August 31st of 2020. He carried out his work with the commitment to ensure the less favored, make visible the invisible, privilege governance in the territories and promote the consolidation of a human rights culture to live in peace.

During his mandate as Ombudsman, he was elected as Chairperson of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), which reunites more than 113 National Human Rights Institutions at the global level.

Prior to his election as Ombudsman, he served in various positions in the public and private sectors, such as INCORA (Colombian Institute for Land Reform), an entity where the first stages to learn about the problems that afflict the rural sector in the nation and the complex difficulties to face it were identified. Likewise, he represented his country in the United States of America, as Consul, getting to know first-hand, the problematics lived by fellow citizens abroad, especially in prison matters.
For more information, see https://www.lacolombiaolvidada.com

Krystal Two Bulls, Northern Cheyenne/Oglala Lakota; Director, LANDBACK Campaign; NDN Collective

Krystal Two Bulls has extensive experience as an organizer and on the frontlines with campaign development and management on local, national and transnational campaigns for social, racial and environmental justice. Krystal’s identity as a Native American veteran is central to her organizing and storytelling. At the heart of Krystal’s work are the connections between collective wellness, environmental justice, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, and anti-militarism. In healing from her experience as a soldier, Krystal has dedicated herself to embodying what she views as the essential quality of a warrior: a commitment to the well-being of not only her People and their relationship to the land, but that of all Peoples.
For more information, see https://ndncollective.org and https://landback.org 

Julie Anne Miranda-Brobeck, Head of US Communications & Global Partnerships, Global Witness

Julie Anne Miranda-Brobeck is the Head of US Communications and Global Partnerships at international human rights and environmental watchdog Global Witness, where she leads on US media and strategic communications, cultivating partnerships, and overseeing a host of engaging events to bring visibility and impact to Global Witness campaigns and investigations. Prior to her work with Global Witness, she spent 6 years at the Transparency International Secretariat in Berlin, working across communications, public relations and campaign outreach to shine a light on corruption and root out abuse of power around the world. She has also led multiple art & culture publications as Editor-in-Chief. She is originally from Washington, D.C. and holds a BA in Foreign Affairs and Creative Writing (University of Virginia) and an MA in Global Studies (Joint Degree: University of Freiburg – Germany & Faculty of Latin American Social Sciences – Buenos Aires). 
For more information, see https://www.globalwitness.org/en
For Global Witness’ July 2020 Report, see https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/defending-tomorrow.

Press Release: Haub Law Confers 2019-2020 Elisabeth Haub Award for Environmental Law and Diplomacy on Environmental Defenders