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ISSUE: q406
01/11/2006
Growing up on a farm cultivated Emelia Phiri Sunkutu’s interest in nature and conservation issues - an interest that has stayed with her in her adult life as a prominent lawyer, judge and member of the Wildlife and Environmental Conservation Society of Zambia.
“We were surrounded by fertile soils, lush grass, trees, flowers and a wide variety of plants, birds, rabbits etc and loads of fresh air!” recalled Sunkutu, who was born in Livingstone and moved to Kabwe with her brother and two sisters before her father left Zambia Railways to take up commercial farming in Mkushi West.
“My brother, sisters and I always took long walks and just lost ourselves in the wilderness. Further, my parents always drummed into their children the importance of appreciating nature which God had created and that this was to be done by utilising soil well through sound farming practices, protecting trees from over-felling, taking care of plants etc. In fact, for as long as I can remember, we always grew our own vegetables for consumption, so I was always exposed to, and was comfortable gardening and mingling with plants in the process, not to mention the occasional caterpillar, snake, and rodent, which I suppose qualified as wildlife in my early years!” she said.
From childhood days collecting bugs in jars, being a Girl Guide, a Chongololo Club member, and then swimming, Sunkutu completed grade 12 at Chipembi Girls’ Secondary School in Chisamba and then went to the University of Zambia and studied for a bachelor of laws degree (LL.B), completed in 1993. She then took bar exams and was admitted to practice as an advocate of the High Court a year later.
Her first work experience as a lawyer was as a state advocate in the then Ministry of Legal Affairs, before she studied for a master of laws degree (LL.M) in international law and international relations at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, majoring in international law, with a minor in international environmental law.
Returning to Zambia she went back to the Ministry of Legal Affairs, where she rose to the rank of senior state advocate, then in 2000 she joined the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources as a consultant legal researcher on the legal component of the World Bank-funded Environmental Support (ESP) Programme.
Work with the ESP included in-depth review and analysis of legal instruments for providing effective environmental protection, environmental impact assessment and sustainable yield management of natural resources and biological diversity in Zambia. Another responsibility was the provision of legal advice to the ministry and preparation of model legislation on various environmental sectors for the implementation of international environmental instruments to which Zambia is party.
The research aspect of Sunkutu’s work revolved around research into and review of international environmental agreements and legal instruments including the United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous and other Wastes and the Bamako Convention.
“My work on the ESP was a different challenge from my advocate responsibilities at the Ministry of Legal Affairs, but was one that I embraced whole-heartedly as it gave me a chance to use the knowledge and expertise I had gained though my master of laws degree,” she said.
The project’s legal component wound up in December 2001 and Sunkutu spent the next two-and-a-half years doing a range of environmental consultancies in environmental and natural resource management law and environmental impact assessment, as well as reviewing policies and drafting model legislation.
She served as a member of the standing technical advisory committee of the Environmental Council (ECZ) of Zambia from 2002 to 2004 and then joined the organisation as manager for legal services, providing legal advice, planning, co-ordination and execution of legal matters, as well as co-ordinating the country’s environmental legislative process.
“All in all my work at the ECZ was a unique challenge that I shall always treasure, especially since the practice and enforcement of environmental law in Zambia is still relatively new, the Environmental Council of Zambia only having been established in 1992, following its creation pursuant to the Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Act, 1990,” she said.
In December 2004, she was selected as the African region legal expert and co-chair of the policy analysis working group for the Second Africa Environment Outlook Process (AEO-2) co-ordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and a number of collaborating centres across Africa, and the following year she was chosen a legal expert, one of four experts from Africa, on the legal and technical working group convened by the executive secretary to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to assess the suitability of creating a liability and redress regime under Article 14 of the convention.
Sunkutu’s career took a new twist in May this year, however, when she was appointed to her current position as a judge at the Industrial Relations Court.
“My current responsibility as a judge of Industrial Relations Court means that I am not directly involved in the practice of environmental law, but it is certainly my intention to retain an interest in this interesting field of law, which I am certain I shall have occasion to adjudicate upon in future. Because of my involvement in various international environmental activities, as an Environmental Legal Expert, I intend to remain in touch with the ECZ, UNEP and other relevant environmental bodies in order to keep abreast with environmental law which has not really been given the position it deserves in the Zambian legislative rungs,” she said.
Indeed Sunkutu, who is married to a medical doctor and has one daughter, is passionate about the environment and conservation.
“The importance of the environment and the conservation of nature and natural resources, flora fauna, wildlife etc in Zambia cannot be over-emphasised. This is because Zambia has a very rich and diverse natural resource base, which gives her the corresponding obligation to conserve her nature and natural resources, and protect the environment from the various environmental challenges that this century poses.
“Zambia’s most pertinent environmental challenges include waste management, desertification and land degradation, deforestation and wildlife depletion,” she said.
Date: q406
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