The panel “Environmental Law Civil Society Platform: Restorative and Compensatory Mechanisms for Redressing Environmental Damage Caused by Armed Aggression” will examine the legal, institutional and practical foundations for responding to environmental damage inflicted on Ukraine as a result of the war. Ecosystem destruction and degradation, pollution of land, water and air, damage to forests and protected areas, and biodiversity loss have long-term consequences. This harm affects not only natural resources but also human environmental rights, life, health, security and the prospects for Ukraine’s just and sustainable recovery.

The panel is timely because of the need to move from fragmented damage recording towards an integrated model linking the recording, documentation, evidentiary substantiation and assessment of environmental damage with compensation, ecosystem restoration and accountability of the aggressor state. Developing an evidence base suitable for national courts and international adjudicatory and compensation mechanisms, as well as for planning restoration measures, is essential.

The panel aims to bring together representatives of courts, national and local public authorities, the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine, human rights and environmental organisations, legal practitioners and the academic community to develop coordinated approaches to environmental redress. Its practical value lies in identifying solutions capable of integrating compensatory, restorative, judicial, administrative, international legal and civil society mechanisms.

Key issues will include the legal nature and constituent elements of environmental damage and the challenges of proving it; national and international legal avenues for redress; the restorative dimension of compensation, from damage assessment to ecosystem restoration; the role of courts in protecting environmental rights; the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and its relevance to environmental rights protection through the prism of armed aggression; the role of public authorities and the State Environmental Inspectorate in building the evidence base; civil society participation; the potential of the Register of Damage for Ukraine and future compensation and reparations mechanisms; and priorities for improving Ukrainian legislation and legal practice.

Expected practical outcomes include identifying the principal regulatory, evidentiary and institutional gaps; developing a shared vision of an integrated restorative and compensatory model; preparing proposals to improve legislation, damage-assessment methodologies and documentation practices; strengthening coordination among courts, public authorities, local communities, researchers and civil society organisations; and producing recommendations for legislative drafting, legal practice, advocacy and environmental restoration.

Partners:
– Law School of Uzhhorod National University
– Kamenets University in Bratislava
– “GRASROOTS INSTITUTE” NGO (Ukraine)
– Carpathian Human Rights Agency “VESTED”