Jojo Mehta: 2025 TCUP Conference Keynote
Date and Time
Location
A keynote speech by Jojo Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO, Stop Ecocide International.
Moderated by Emily Channell-Justice, Director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University.
IN-PERSON and ONLINE via Zoom Webinar (live; with live interpretation into Ukrainian).
Registration is required to attend.
In-person registration
Webinar registration
About the Keynote
Confronting Ecocide
Justice, collaboration and reframing civilizational priorities: Ukraine as pathfinder
While conflict is inescapably a context for ecocide, severe and widespread or long-term harm to the environment has not historically been focused upon in war, or in holding those who make war to account; human casualties and damaged infrastructure understandably take center stage. However Ukraine has spoken of nature as the silent victim of conflict, and has taken concrete steps to give that victim a voice, showing in the process that confronting ecocide requires the working together of many and varied actors. In the collaborative unearthing of that voice, we can sense the surfacing of a vast and omnipresent concern that has been hidden in plain sight, one that reaches beyond the confines of Ukraine and the present conflict to speak to justice on multiple levels and the potential to reshape priorities on a civilizational scale.
About the Speaker
Jojo Mehta co-founded Stop Ecocide in 2017, alongside barrister and legal pioneer the late Polly Higgins, to support the establishment of ecocide as a crime at the International Criminal Court. As CEO and key spokesperson, she has overseen the remarkable growth of the movement while coordinating between legal developments, diplomatic traction and public narrative. She is Chair of the charitable Stop Ecocide Foundation and convenor of the Independent Expert Panel for the Legal Definition of Ecocide chaired by Philippe Sands QC and Dior Fall Sow. The resulting definition, launched in June 2021, has catalysed legislative developments, recommendations and resolutions at national, regional and international levels..
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This event is organized by Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) as part of the TCUP Conference.
Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Hanna Leliv, HURI Events Logistics Coordinator, at hleliv@fas.harvard.edu at least two weeks in advance of the session.
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