IELRC (Geneva office)

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The International Environmental Law Research Centre
 http://www.ielrc.org/about_ielrc.htm
International Environment House
Chemin de Balexert 7
1219 Châtelaine-Geneva
Switzerland

Tel:    +41(0)22 797 26 23
Fax:   +41(0)22 797 26 23
Email: info @ ielrc.org


Geneva Office

The Geneva office's primary function is to coordinate activities and research with the two regions in which we are active on the ground. Further, the Geneva office is the focal point for relations with the United Nations and other international organisations with which IELRC has relations. Additionally, the Geneva office handles relations with the Swiss Government, and in particular with the Swiss Agency for Environment, Landscape and Forests.

 

IELRC is now located in the International Environment House, the hub of environment-related organisations in Geneva. It is in close proximity to the Geneva International Airport, a ten-minute bus ride from the city centre by bus (No. 6, arrêt Châtelaine-Ecole) and can be easily reached from the Palais des Nations from where a free shuttle bus service is available.

 

People @ IELRC:

022 797 26 23
http://www.ielrc.org/about_people.php


 About IELRC
The International Environmental Law Research Centre (IELRC) is an independent, non-profit research organisation established in 1995. It is an Association under Articles 60ff of the Swiss Civil Code. It has offices in the International Environment House in Geneva (Switzerland) Nairobi (Kenya) and New Delhi (India). IELRC provides a unique forum for collaborative research between researchers in the North and South.

IELRC is uniquely positioned to provide policy-relevant research at the international level given its strong network of competence in two significant regions of the developing world. IELRC's offices in Geneva and Nairobi give researchers access to primary international materials for research.

 

Vision

The aim of the IELRC is to contribute to the establishment of legal and institutional frameworks which foster sustainable environmental management in developing countries in an equitable international context.

 

Mission

IELRC's mission is to undertake policy-related academic research relating to the environment in a North-South context. IELRC specifically seeks to contribute to the development of legal and institutional frameworks that foster equitable and sustainable environmental management at the local, national and international level by fostering links between research communities and policy-makers in the North and South.

 

Strategy

IELRC has adopted a diversified approach to its work.

 

IELRC focuses firstly on international environmental legal issues including biodiversity, climate change and desertification:

 

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IELRC examines these issues from an international perspective, in particular with regard to their North-South dimension.

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IELRC also analyses these issues from a national or local perspective. In this regard we focus, for instance, on issues associated with the implementation of international law at the national level.

 

IELRC also works on a number of questions that are closely related to environmental issues:

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IELRC focuses on the impacts of intellectual property rights on environmental management, in particular in the context of the development of new biotechnologies.

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IELRC also focuses on the relationship between the realisation of human rights and sustainable environmental management both at the international and national levels.

 

IELRC works on general policies and issues as well as specific case studies to highlight the necessity to go from the general to the specific and the converse:

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IELRC has worked on general conceptual issues such as the role of property rights in environmental management or the place of equity in international environmental agreements.

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IELRC has also worked on much more specific developments at the national and regional level such as the development of biosafety frameworks and the introduction of WTO-mandated intellectual property rights in agriculture.

 

IELRC is aware that the existence of appropriate legal frameworks do not ensure their implementation. The issue of national and local implementation of international and national standards has also figured prominently in IELRC's work programme:

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IELRC has worked on the implementation of general international agreements such as the 'Biodiversity Convention' in specific developing countries and on the implementation of environment-related WTO standards in specific developing countries.

 

IELRC has a network of regional and national expertise which allows us to provide grounded research. Our two main areas of regional expertise are East Africa and India.