Ecocide and colonial crimes
Les Procès du siècle - Shared struggles
With Thuy-Tiên Hô (filmmaker and activist) and Philippe Sands (international lawyer)
Moderator: Thomas Legrand
With the participation of Justine Bohbote, heritage curator, head of the Sport and Health department at the Mucem.
Colonial crimes are also ecocides. In 2012, with her documentary “Agent Orange: A Time Bomb”, director Thuy-Tiên Hô opened up the painful subject of “Agent Orange”: a powerful herbicide used by the US army during the Vietnam War, which is still responsible for numerous cancers and genetic malformations. Since 2021, she has accompanied journalist and activist Tran To Nga in her case against 14 multinational agrochemical companies for having produced and sold this product.
In his book La Dernière Colonie (Albin Michel, 2022), Philippe Sands traces the long path of modern international law towards recognition and justice for the crime against humanity denounced by the inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago, the British “last colony” in the Indian Ocean, sacrificed in the 1960s to provide the United States with a military base in defiance of post-war international decolonization measures.
In this session, Thuy-Tiên Hô and Philippe Sands, a lawyer specializing in the defense of human rights and international arbitration for the protection of the environment, will discuss the historical and political stakes of these legal battles.
Watch the documentary “Agent Orange: A Time Bomb” on free access
The episode in newspaper and podcast
Hồ Thủy Tiên (director and activist)
Ho Thuy Tien © DR
Hồ Thủy Tiên (Thuy Tiên HÔ) has directed over twenty creative documentaries, including Vietnam : Agent orange, une bombe à retardement, 52′ (2013)
Burkina Faso, une Révolution rectifiée, 52′ (2011), Une Révolution contagieuse : le Viêtnam d’HO Chi Minh, 52′ (2010).
She was director (1981-1997) and founding member of the ORCHIDEES association, whose aims are to produce, direct and distribute multimedia tools (documentaries, newspapers, books) to provide better information on North/South political and economic issues, citizenship education and education against racism.
Philippe Sands (international lawyer)
Philippe Sands © Antonio Olmos
A Franco-British international human rights lawyer, Philippe Sands is also Professor of Law at University College London. He has appeared before virtually all international bodies, including the WTO, the European Court of Justice, the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Criminal Court, etc., in commercial, maritime, environmental, border and international criminal law disputes. He is known for having represented victims of crimes against humanity and genocide. He also has some experience in international arbitration, particularly in matters of environmental protection and natural resources. He is the author of Retour à Lemberg (2017) – European Book Prize, Special Jury Mention, Special Jury Prize for Geopolitical Books, Montaigne Prize – as well as La Filière (2020) and La Dernière Colonie (2022), published by Albin Michel.
Thomas Legrand (journalist, political columnist)
Thomas Legrand is a journalist and political columnist. He hosts and produces the program “En quête de politique” on France Inter and writes a daily column for Libération. He is the author of two series of documentary podcasts: À la hussarde on the great moments of the 2017 presidential election and De Gaulle 2020. His publications include Plumes de l’ombre. Les nègres des hommes politiques (with Emmanuel Faux and Gilles Perez, 1991), Petit dictionnaire énervé de la politique (2010), Ce n’est rien qu’un président qui nous fait perdre du temps (2010), J’aurais voulu faire président (with Philippe Bercovici, 2011), Arrêtons d’élire des présidents! (2014), Chronique de l’imprévu (2017), L’histoire de la Ve République en BD (2018, with François Warzala).
With Thuy-Tiên Hô (filmmaker and activist) and Philippe Sands (international lawyer)
Moderator: Thomas Legrand
With the participation of Justine Bohbote, heritage curator, head of the Sport and Health department at the Mucem.
Colonial crimes are also ecocides. In 2012, with her documentary “Agent Orange: A Time Bomb”, director Thuy-Tiên Hô opened up the painful subject of “Agent Orange”: a powerful herbicide used by the US army during the Vietnam War, which is still responsible for numerous cancers and genetic malformations. Since 2021, she has accompanied journalist and activist Tran To Nga in her case against 14 multinational agrochemical companies for having produced and sold this product.
In his book La Dernière Colonie (Albin Michel, 2022), Philippe Sands traces the long path of modern international law towards recognition and justice for the crime against humanity denounced by the inhabitants of the Chagos archipelago, the British “last colony” in the Indian Ocean, sacrificed in the 1960s to provide the United States with a military base in defiance of post-war international decolonization measures.
In this session, Thuy-Tiên Hô and Philippe Sands, a lawyer specializing in the defense of human rights and international arbitration for the protection of the environment, will discuss the historical and political stakes of these legal battles.
Watch the documentary “Agent Orange: A Time Bomb” on free access
The episode in newspaper and podcast
Hồ Thủy Tiên (director and activist)
Ho Thuy Tien © DR
Hồ Thủy Tiên (Thuy Tiên HÔ) has directed over twenty creative documentaries, including Vietnam : Agent orange, une bombe à retardement, 52′ (2013)
Burkina Faso, une Révolution rectifiée, 52′ (2011), Une Révolution contagieuse : le Viêtnam d’HO Chi Minh, 52′ (2010).
She was director (1981-1997) and founding member of the ORCHIDEES association, whose aims are to produce, direct and distribute multimedia tools (documentaries, newspapers, books) to provide better information on North/South political and economic issues, citizenship education and education against racism.
Philippe Sands (international lawyer)
Philippe Sands © Antonio Olmos
A Franco-British international human rights lawyer, Philippe Sands is also Professor of Law at University College London. He has appeared before virtually all international bodies, including the WTO, the European Court of Justice, the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Criminal Court, etc., in commercial, maritime, environmental, border and international criminal law disputes. He is known for having represented victims of crimes against humanity and genocide. He also has some experience in international arbitration, particularly in matters of environmental protection and natural resources. He is the author of Retour à Lemberg (2017) – European Book Prize, Special Jury Mention, Special Jury Prize for Geopolitical Books, Montaigne Prize – as well as La Filière (2020) and La Dernière Colonie (2022), published by Albin Michel.
Thomas Legrand (journalist, political columnist)
Thomas Legrand is a journalist and political columnist. He hosts and produces the program “En quête de politique” on France Inter and writes a daily column for Libération. He is the author of two series of documentary podcasts: À la hussarde on the great moments of the 2017 presidential election and De Gaulle 2020. His publications include Plumes de l’ombre. Les nègres des hommes politiques (with Emmanuel Faux and Gilles Perez, 1991), Petit dictionnaire énervé de la politique (2010), Ce n’est rien qu’un président qui nous fait perdre du temps (2010), J’aurais voulu faire président (with Philippe Bercovici, 2011), Arrêtons d’élire des présidents! (2014), Chronique de l’imprévu (2017), L’histoire de la Ve République en BD (2018, with François Warzala).