Environmental Law and Justice

Programme

2: 00-2:02          Welcome remarks Amanda Byer, Convenor, Environmental Law and Justice Research Group

2:02-2:30            ‘Paradise Not For Sale’ documentary film on Barbuda by Line Algoed

2:30-3:00            Presentation by John Mussington and Jacklyn Frank

3:00-3:15            Q & A

3:15-3:30            Coffee break

3:30-3:45            Presentation by Sarah O’Malley, Global Legal Action Network (GLAN)

3:45 -3:55          Q & A

3:55-4:00            Closing remarks, Prof Amy Strecker, PI, Property [in]Justice Project

Bios

John Mussington is an Educator (retired secondary school Principal), Scientist and Community Advocate. He has worked consistently over the past 3 decades to increase public awareness on the consequences of the climate crisis and the link to environmental destruction due to poor policy decisions. He advocates on behalf of affected communities by taking their ideas and concerns to the larger media outlets in Antigua and Barbuda and to international organisations and audiences. He advocates to influence public policy in Barbuda, as a leader in organizations such as the Barbuda Farming Co-Op and the Barbuda Land Rights & Resources Committee. Mr Mussington actively agitates to promote awareness of resource management and sustainable development issues and to promote policies that conserve the natural and built environments. He has worked as a consultant environmentalist with several funding agencies and international partners. In the aftermath of the 2017 Hurricane Irma Disaster Mr Mussington was among the first set of Barbudans to return to the island and to start the resistance movement against attempts to deracinate the Barbudan community to facilitate the redevelopment of the island into a private playground for millionaires.

Jacklyn Frank is a retired teacher and former Chair and Councilmember of the Barbuda Council. She has been actively involved in preservation efforts relating to Barbuda’s heritage and traditional land usage. She advocates for maintaining the Barbudan way of life, which is a sustainable way of interacting with the environment, which is being deliberately and systemically erased in the name of foreign direct investment. She fights for her rights, health and safety as a Barbudan, as well as those of all Barbudans at home and overseas. Jacklyn sits on the Executive Committee of the Barbuda Land Rights & Resources Committee.

Sarah O’Malley is a lawyer at the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN). She is passionate about holding powerful actors accountable for their involvement in environmental and human rights abuses and is dedicated to closing the impunity gap. Prior to joining GLAN, she worked on criminal justice, international law and human rights issues for NGOs, government and at international criminal tribunals. Sarah holds an LL.B in Law and Political Science from Trinity College Dublin and an LL.M in International Criminal Law from the University of Amsterdam and Columbia University, New York. She was called to the Bar of Ireland in 2018.

Line Algoed is an urban anthropologist specialized in land tenure, participatory urban planning, and affordable housing. She is currently a PhD researcher at Cosmopolis Center for Urban Research, Geography Department, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, studying the importance of communal land tenure for climate change adaptation in the Caribbean, focused on Puerto Rico and Antigua & Barbuda. She works closely with the Caño Martín Peña community land trust (CLT) in Puerto Rico on international exchanges among communities involved in land struggles. She is also the Vice President of the Center for CLT Innovation, and co-editor of the book “On Common Ground: International Perspectives on the Community Land Trust”. Previously, she was a Program Manager of the World Habitat Awards and a Director at the International Urban Development Association. She holds an MA in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Leiden and an MSc in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Social Sciences.