United Nations Publication Launch: Natural Resources and Conflict: A Guide for Mediation Practitioners (2015)

Michael Brown is a Professor of Practice in Conflict Mediation at McGill University, and one of the principal contributing authors of the new UN publication titled, Natural Resources and Conflict: A Guide for Mediation Practitioners. He is a Senior Expert on Natural Resources, Environmental Diplomacy and Mediation for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and held the position of Senior Mediation Expert on Land and Natural Resource Conflicts on the UN Department of Political Affairs' (DPA) Standby Mediation Team for two years. His experience covers extractive industry, land and water disputes.

Mr. Brown's experience in mediation, conflict and peacebuilding spans many regions and countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and North America. He has held leadership and senior advisory positions with UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN DPA, the World Bank, UN peace missions and large international consulting companies. Among his many professional publications, he was also a key contributing author of USAID's publication Land and Conflict: A Toolkit for Intervention.

Before working internationally, Mr. Brown worked in Canada in environmental and natural resources law, aboriginal law, policy development and alternative dispute resolution. Mr. Brown has degrees in Law (J.D.) and Geography (B.Sc.), and was called to the Bar in the Province of Ontario. He speaks English, Spanish and French.

Email: michaelbrown100 [at] gmail.com, michael.j.brown [at] mcgill.ca

François Crépeau is Full Professor and holds the Hans and Tamar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law, at the Faculty of Law of McGill University. He has been appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants in 2011. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In August 2015, he became Director of McGill's Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism for a three-year mandate.

The focus of his current research includes migration control mechanisms, the rights of foreigners, the interface between security and migration, and the interface between the Rule of Law and globalization.

He has given many conferences, published numerous articles, and written or directed five books: Les migrations internationales contemporaines – Une dynamique complexe au cœur de la globalisation (2009), Penser l'international, Perspectives et contributions des sciences sociales (2007), Forced Migration and Global Processes - A View from Forced Migration Studies (2006), Mondialisation des échanges et fonctions de l'État (1997) and Droit d'asile: De l'hospitalité aux contrôles migratoires (1995).

He heads the “Mondialisation et droit international” collection at Éditions Bruylant-Larcier (Brussels) and is a member of several editorial committees: International Journal of Refugee Law, Journal of Refugee Studies, Refugee Law Reader, Refuge, Droits Fondamentaux.

From 2001 to 2008, he was a professor at the Université de Montréal, holder of the Canada Research Chair in International Migration Law, and founding scientific director of the Centre d’études et de recherches internationales de l’Université de Montréal (CÉRIUM). From 1990 to 2001, he was a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

He has been guest professor at the following institutions : Université catholique de Louvain (2010-2015); Institut international des droits de l’homme (Strasbourg) (2001, 2002, 2007, 2008) ; Graduate Institute for International Studies (IUHEI-Genève, 2007), Institut des hautes études internationales, Université de Paris II (2002), Université d’Auvergne-Clermont 1 (1997). He was a Fellow 2008-2011 of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.

Until 2011, he also sat on the Quebec Law Society’s Committee on Human Rights and Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, was the “Justice, police and Security” domain coordinator for the Quebec Metropolis Center and was a member of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. He served as vice-president of the Canadian Human Rights Foundation (now Equitas) (1992-2004) and director of the Revue québécoise de droit international (1996-2004). He participated in observer missions in the occupied Palestinian territories (2002) and in El Salvador (1991). He was also a fellow of the Institute for Research in Public Policies (IRPP). The Barreau du Québec awarded him the Advocatus Emeritus distinction in 2014.

Professor Crépeau is always interested in supervising graduate research on international, comparative and domestic legal issues relating to:

• The rights and freedoms of refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, migrant workers, and persons belonging to minorities;
• Migration and refugee policies at local, national, regional or universal level;
• Diversity and multiculturalism policies.

Jeffrey Davidson brings extensive work experience related to corporate social responsibility across private and not-for-profit sectors, countries and cultures to his appointment as Extractive Sector CSR Counsellor. He has been involved with mining and mineral resource development for the past 35 years as a project engineer, policy and program advisor, community worker and teacher. He has been a long-time and early advocate and practitioner in the areas of socially responsible mining operations and constructive company-community engagement.

As a member of Rio Tinto's Global Communities Practice Team, Mr. Davidson worked out of Rio Tinto’s offices in Australia and Washington, DC from 2006 to 2011, with responsibility for supporting corporate- and site-level work in community relations and social responsibility, including applying social due diligence and evaluation of new projects and project expansions. In this capacity, he co-authored Rio Tinto's resource guide for integrating gender considerations at the community-level. 

In addition to his work with Rio Tinto, Mr. Davidson was the community relations manager at project sites for Placer Dome Latin America in Venezuela (1996-2000) and for Energy Resources of Australia at their Ranger operation (2006-2007), working directly with both indigenous and non-indigenous communities.

He also spent four years in the Mining Policy Unit of the World Bank (2001-2005) on country projects in Romania, Mongolia, Mozambique and Nigeria.  As part of his responsibilities at the World Bank, he worked on developing toolkits relating to HIV-AIDS in the mining sector, helped to address community development challenges around mining projects, and coordinated an international knowledge-sharing and learning network on Communities and Small-Scale Mining (CASM). 

In 2011, Mr. Davidson left the private sector to join the Mining Department of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he was responsible for teaching foundation courses in mineral industry economics, as well as the sustainability and social responsibility dimensions of mining practices, to undergraduate mineral engineering students. He also organized and coordinated a graduate certificate program in Community Relations for the Extractive Industries.

David Jensen heads the Environmental Cooperation for Peacebuilding programme of the UN Environment Programme. His portfolio of work focuses on how natural resources contribute to conflict, as well as how they can be managed in ways that create jobs, sustain livelihoods, and contribute to economic recovery and peacebuilding, without creating new grievances or significant environmental degradation. He has worked on 15 post-conflict operations from Afghanistan and Iraq to Sierra Leone and more recently in Cote d'Ivoire. In addition to field work, he also focuses on integrating natural resource risks and opportunities across UN policies on conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. His most recent policy report "Greening the Blue Helmets: Environment, Natural Resources and UN Peacekeeping Operations" focuses on how peacekeeping operations can minimize their environmental footprint while also helping post-conflict governments restore and extend their authority into resource rich areas. Visit the New Knowledge Platform Launched on Natural Resources, Conflict and Peacebuilding.

He is currently co-managing a new series of six flagship books on natural resources and peacebuilding, involving over 230 contributors capturing lessons learned from over 50 different post-conflict countries. He is also the co-editor of one of the books within the series entitled 'Assessing and Restoring Natural Resources in Post-Conflict Peacebuilding'. He holds a bachelor's degree in geography and political science from the University of Victoria and a master's degree in biology from the University of Oxford.

Louise Otis works as a civil and commercial mediator and arbitrator at the Canadian and international levels. She is also Adjunct Professor at McGill University’s Faculty of Law. She is a distinguished fellow of the International Academy of Mediators (IAM).

She is President of the Administrative Tribunal of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). She is also President of the Appeal Court at the International Organization of La Francophonie (IOF). She is a member of the Administrative Tribunal of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).

She is a retired Justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal where she spearheaded the introduction of judicial mediation. She has conducted over 800 mediation sessions in commercial and civil law.

Louise Otis regularly participates in international governance and justice reform missions with the United Nations (UN), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) member of the World Bank Group (WB).

Louise Otis was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General to a 5-member Panel of independent international experts in charge of redesigning the United Nations system of administration of Justice. She has created a system of transitional justice for countries affected by armed conflicts and/or environmental disasters.