Prez Murmu suggests global collaborations to ensure ‘environmental justice’

PTI, Feb 4, 2024, 8:31 PM IST

President Droupadi Murmu on Sunday said the world faces the threat of climate change and suggested global collaborations to ensure ”environmental justice” and deal with other cross-border legal challenges.

Addressing an international conference of Commonwealth law officers here, she said the Commonwealth, with its diversity and legacy, can show the rest of the world the way to address the common concerns in a spirit of cooperation.

Murmu said the preamble to the Constitution speaks of ”justice, social, economic and political”.

”Therefore, when we speak of justice delivery, we should keep in mind all aspects of it, including social justice,” she said, addressing the valedictory function of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) — Commonwealth Attorneys and Solicitors General Conference (CASGC) 2024. In recent times, as the world faces the threat of climate change, ”we should also add environmental justice to these varied aspects of the concept of justice”, the president said.

”As it happens, the issues of environmental justice often pose cross-border challenges. They form the key area of what this conference is about, namely, ‘Cross-Border Challenges in Justice Delivery’,” she added.

Murmu said ”our environment” is the most obvious way in which the world is all inter-connected.

”Globalisation of trade and commerce is another example of this inter-connection. Moreover, in recent decades, technology has brought us closer to one another,” she said.

Murmu said while exploring complex cross-border legal challenges, inter-connection, inter-dependence and technological revolution have to be kept in mind.

”We should always be guided by what is common to us all — humanity and humanitarian values,” she added.

The president said she was glad to know that the CLEA has taken up the responsibility to chart a roadmap to a common future that transcends borders and underlines the fundamental principles of natural justice based on equality and dignity.

”I believe this is an ideal forum for the necessary collaboration. The Commonwealth, with its diversity and legacy, can show the rest of the world the way to address the common concerns in a spirit of cooperation,” she said.

Murmu said India, as many observers abroad have also noted, has emerged as a key stakeholder in the global discourse.

”I am confident that India has much to offer when it comes to international issues in justice delivery. India is not only the biggest democracy, but history shows that it is also the oldest democracy. With that rich and long democratic heritage, we can offer our learning in justice delivery in modern times,” she said.

Murmu said the closest Sanskrit term to justice is ”nyaya”, which means both what is just and what is right.

”Nyaya” is also the name of one of the six systems of classical Indian philosophy, which is essentially similar to the study of logic in the West, she said.

”So what is right and just is also logically sound. These three qualities combine to define the moral order of a society. That is why you, the representatives of the legal profession and the judiciary, are the ones who help in upholding the order,” the president said.

If that order is challenged, ”you are the ones” who, as lawyers or judges, law students or teachers, strive most to set it right again, she added.

Murmu said in modern times, two or three generations of exceptional leaders helped revive a new national awareness.

”What was very noticeable then was that a majority of them had studied law — and that too in England. I am sure many of the other Commonwealth members had leaders in those days with this background. This legacy is what binds us together as a family,” she said.

The obvious reason for this common pattern is that any effort towards the foundation of a modern nation has to begin with a common understanding of justice, Murmu added.