Roundtable: Wildlife crimes
The program will start with a short video, “The Last Days of Ivory”, evidencing how poaching funds armed groups including al-Shabab, the Lord’s Resistance Army, Boko Haram and Darfur’s Janjaweed; they smuggle wildlife products valued at $1.3 billion each year.
In a roundtable format, panelists will present evidence of how African wildlife is being decimated at an alarming rate—100 elephants killed per day for their ivory, and in South Africa rhinos killed by poachers, one every eight hours. Rhino horn now fetches $30,000 a pound on the black market, making it more profitable than selling a pound of cocaine on the street. Panelists will show how the proceeds fund armed groups and terrorists.
The panelists will discuss solutions for stopping such crimes and preserving Africa’s diminishing animals. They will also present the legislative formats prohibiting wildlife crimes, and analyze the enforcement and efficacy of such laws.
WEDNESDAY, November 4, 2015, 6:30 to 8:00 P.M.
House of the Association, 42 West 44th Street, New York City
SPEAKERS
SIMONE MONASEBIAN, Esq, Director, UN Office of Drugs and Crime;
HOLLY DRANGINIS, Esq., Policy Analyst for the Enough Project, focused on the Democratic Republic of the Congo;
ADAM ROBERTS, CEO of Born Free USA; and
JIMMIEL MANDIMA, Director, African Wildlife Foundation
Moderator: ELIZABETH BARAD, International Law and Gender Consultant, Co-chair, Committee on African Affairs.
Members of the New York City Bar Association, their guests and all interested persons are invited to attend. No fee or reservation is required. Please RSVP to [email][email protected]
Sponsored by the NY City Bar’s Committee on African Affairs (Elizabeth Barad and Jason Spears, Co-chairs) and co-sponsored by the Committee on Animal Law (Lori Barrett. Chair), Committee on Asian Affairs (Mark Shulman, Chair), Council on International Affairs, (Martin Flaherty, Chair), and the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice (Alexander Papachristou, Executive Director)