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An ode to Sri Lanka’s green academic and a true activist

23 Jun 2022

BY Ashmi de Silva Prof. Kokila Konasinghe, affectionately known as “Kokila madam” by almost all of her former and current students, has a striking presence, both in and out of the lecture hall. Walking into her class, you will be greeted by a warm smile and an even warmer disposition. Her love for lecturing is only second to her passion for environmental law and justice.  In a country where concepts such as environmental conservation, the right to a clean environment, and sustainable development are often relegated to mere ink on paper, she is a true activist and green academic. As the first Professor of Environmental Law in Sri Lanka, she is an inspiration to not only her students, but also to society at large. Prof. Konasinghe earned her Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (Hons.) with Second Class Honours (Upper Division) from the Colombo University’s Law Faculty in the year 2000. She also possesses a Master of Laws (LLM) from the Netherlands’ Erasmus University in Rotterdam, in 2004, where her dissertation was titled “South-North Environmentalism, Power of Legitimacy and the Global Environmental Facility”.  Prof. Konasinghe obtained her Ph.D. from the UK’s Keele University in 2012. Her PhD thesis was titled “Mitigating North-South Participation Inequalities in Global Environmental Governance: Potential Non-Governmental Organisation Contribution”.  As a strong proponent of the transformative powers of the law, she has been imparting her wealth of knowledge on environmental law to LLB students of the Colombo University’s Law Faculty since the early 2000s. Furthermore, Prof. Konasinghe also supervises many postgraduate theses related to environmental law. Through her lecturing, she is able to inspire new generations of students to fight for environmental justice, be it as a legal professional in a court of law, a lawmaker in the Legislature, or an activist on the streets.  Furthermore, she has widely published book chapters, journal articles, newspaper articles, and blog posts on environmental law, and is the editor-in-chief of many environmental law books, thus contributing to the expansion of environmental law literature and the creation of knowledge, both nationally and globally.  Prof. Konasinghe also strives to ensure that knowledge imparted to university students is up-to-date, unique, and robust. She spearheads and contributes to the development of university programmes and curricula that fits these parameters.  It should be noted that she developed the first-ever course curricula on environmental law and policy in Sri Lanka in 2016, for both the LLM programme and the Advance Certificate Course in Environmental Law and Policy for the Colombo University’s Law Faculty. She has also been the co-ordinator of the M.Phil./Ph.D programme of the Colombo University’s Law Faculty since 2021, while contributing internationally to the development of programmes and courses.  Prof. Konasinghe is a co-advisor in the Project Bajho of Nepal’s Kathmandu School of Law, which is a Millennium Fellowship project advancing Sustainable Development Goal 13, concerning climate action by analysing the laws and policies regarding climate change and the environment of South Asian countries. The Millennium Fellowship is a semester-long leadership development programme jointly conducted by the United Nations (UN) Academic Impact and the Millennium Campus Network. She also works closely with the Association of Commonwealth Universities as one of the 26 selected members of the Climate Cohort since 2021. Prof. Konasinghe also possesses a creative streak, which she relied on to initiate several projects and programmes dedicated to the development of environmental law both within the Colombo University and the country. She founded the “Law Goes Green” project of the Colombo University’s Law Faculty in 2004 (of which more details are available on the Colombo University’s Centre for Environmental Law and Policy [CELP] website). Annually, the Project implements activities, both internal and external to the University premises, under timely thematic areas for the purpose of promoting a greener future and empowering youth to take actions.  The professor is also a Founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Law and Policy (CELP), inaugurated in 2020. The CELP is a platform for research, policy development, and collaboration among diverse fields, to create an environmentally conscious society and for environmental conservation. The CELP also focuses on the dissemination of knowledge and environmental sensitisation through a diverse range of projects and activities.  She is also apt at building effective partnerships for knowledge sharing and resource mobilization. For instance, she initiated an international collaboration in environmental law and policy with the Asian Pacific Centre for Environmental Law of Singapore’s National University in 2022.  In a nation where the education system promotes complacency and stifles creativity, having the opportunity to learn from and associate with an educator like Prof. Konasinghe is an absolute privilege. A first at many things, she always places her students’ welfare and education first in her heart. Prof. Konasinghe’s role cannot merely be constrained within the term “professor”, because she is a teacher, a leader, an environmental justice warrior, and much more. (The writer is an attorney-at-law and is attached to the UN Development Programme) ……………………………………….. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.

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