Gesprek: Who Protects Space From Humanity?

What happens when a war ends, but nature remains damaged for years to come? In this debate, artist Marjolijn Dijkman, environmental justice and environmental crime expert Babs Verhoeve, architect Omar Ferwati and artist Shayma Nader explore how armed conflicts destroy ecosystems and why that damage is rarely punished. The evening is moderated by journalist Selma Franssen.

What happens when a war ends? Armed conflicts affect not only people and infrastructure, but also ecosystems. Soils are poisoned, water sources destroyed, and farmland rendered unusable: the destruction of nature is rarely mere collateral damage, but often a structural part of conflict. Even when the weapons fall silent, that ecological devastation continues to have an impact. Nature becomes an invisible occupied zone, one to which communities cannot return and where life remains impossible for a long time.

This debate explores ecocide through war: the large-scale and often long-lasting destruction of ecosystems caused by armed conflict. The French city of Verdun shows how deep these scars can run. More than a century after the First World War, the so-called zone rouge remains inaccessible: millions of unexploded shells and contaminated soils make agriculture and habitation impossible. Similar patterns can still be seen across the world today, from destroyed farmland and water infrastructure to deforestation, chemical pollution, and massive emissions caused by military activities.

Yet environmental damage caused by war is rarely punished. Although international law already recognises it as a war crime, the conditions are so strict that prosecutions almost never succeed in practice. That is why calls are growing to recognise ecocide as a separate international crime: not only punishable on paper, but also legally enforceable in practice.

The debate brings together perspectives from art, law and research, with artist and researcher Marjolijn Dijkman, environmental crime expert Babs Verhoeve, architect and researcher Omar Ferwati (Forensic Architecture), and artist and researcher Shayma Nader, moderated by Selma Franssen (deBuren).

Programme

19:00: Doors open
19:30: Start event
21:00: End
Until 22:00: Drinks and informal conversation at the bar

Tickets

Tickets are pay-what-you-can: €3 / €7 (suggested price) / €10. Choose the price that fits your budget. If a lower ticket helps you join, go for it. And if you’re able to pay a bit more, you’ll help someone else attend for less.

Bios

Marjolijn Dijkman is a research-led, multidisciplinary artist working with film, photography, sculpture, and installation. Her practice explores the intersection of culture and other fields of inquiry, with a strong focus on the rapidly changing environment and its human and non-human interdependencies. In 2005, she co-founded the artist-run organisation Enough Room for Space together with Maarten Vanden Eynde. She is a Ph.D. researcher at LUCA/KU Leuven (2023-2027).

Babs Verhoeve is an expert in environmental justice and environmental crime at the Belgian Federal Government. She has a background in both law and environmental sciences and works on the legal and policy approaches to environmental harm. She was previously involved in initiatives concerning the possible criminalisation of ecocide. Through her work, she advocates for stronger international legislation and effective accountability for large-scale environmental damage.

Shayma Nader is a Palestinian researcher and artist. Her work looks into anticolonial and antidisciplinary imaginaries and research practices, often through walking and speculative fabulations. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Birzeit University and a master’s degree in Creative & Cultural Industries from SOAS, University of London. She’s currently a PhD researcher in Development Studies at IOB, University of Antwerp.

Omar Ferwati is a Senior Researcher at Forensic Architecture where he works to develop research methods in investigations as well as consider the research practice of FA more broadly. His investigations have ranged from airstrikes to colonial violence, to environmental racism. He trained as an architect in Canada and has worked at several architecture practices internationally. Omar’s own research currently focuses on how civilians use architecture to survive urban warfare and other crises.

Selma Franssen is a freelance journalist, programme maker and interim coordinator in the socio-cultural and media sectors. Among other things, she develops journalistic programmes for deBuren, serves as a jury member for the De Boon Literary Prize and is the author of the book Vriendschap in tijden van eenzaamheid [Friendship in Times of Loneliness].