"It needed an art space" Senior Fellow Radha d'Souza publishes new book
2024-02-28
LAS Senior Fellow Radha d'Souza has published a book about her project Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC).
The Court for Intergenerational Climate Crimes (CICC) is a collaboration between the Amsterdam exhibition house Framer Framed, LIAS Senior Fellow Radha D'Souza and Prix de Rome-winning artist Jonas Staal. The volume also includes critical essays by Tobias Dias, Ashley Maum and Joram Kraaijeveld. They provide an in-depth analysis of the CICC and examine the effects and contradictions observed during the court hearings. Interviews by Stephanie Bailey with Radha d'Souza and Jonas Staal round off the volume.
The aim of the CICC is to prosecute climate crimes committed by states and companies. The publication focuses on the first iteration of the project from 2021, the public hearings against the Dutch state and transnational corporations based in the Netherlands: Unilever, ING and Airbus. Prosecutors from alternative research and journalist networks present charges and evidence against each defendant, laying out the arguments that challenge the mainstream's subjugation to racist-ecocidal-neocolonial capitalism. Testimonies illuminate the fact that climate crimes are predominantly confined to a dislocated "elsewhere" due to the neocolonial separation of extraction sites and planning sites.
Accordingly, a panel of CICC judges oversees the public hearings, similar to traditional courts. What sets these judges apart is the legitimacy they derive from their lifelong commitment to justice for people and nature on different continents. The CICC appoints a public jury made up of people who are willing to participate in the public hearings. They assess the testimonies on the basis of the Intergenerational Climate Crimes Act of 2021. The book summarises the judges' decisions and highlights the consequences arising from the evidence presented.
