The organization of the JEDDT is an institutional project that aims to train 3rd-year bachelor students at the University of Namur in the multiple challenges of the transition to sustainable development, in its social, environmental, economic and democratic dimensions. With the JEDDT, students are led to think in order to act.

Throughout the year, students were invited to take part in a series of activities, conferences and workshops organized on campus to fuel their reflection, and to keep a logbook to raise awareness of their learning. And on March 17, the closing event of the JEDDT gave them the opportunity to present to the university community, and the wider public, the fruit of the reflection carried out in teams. Through creative formats, they challenged themselves in front of a jury made up of experts and representatives of civil society.

The closing day jury was made up of: Laurent Schumacher, Vice-Rector for Sustainable Development and Education, Fabienne Bister, entrepreneur, UNamur alumni and President of the 6-24 Fund managed by the King Baudouin Foundation, Magalie Meyer, Project Manager at TRAKK, Anne-Catherine Vieujean, Director of the Pôle Académique Namurois, François Nélis, Director of UNamur's Communication Administration and Jean-Marie Balland, Professor at UNamur's Department of Economics.

This year, UNamur's Faculty of Law coordinated its first BIP, in partnership with four European universities: the Catholic University of Lyon, Poitiers, Aristotle of Thessaloniki (Athens) and ELTE Eötvös (Budapest). The aim of such a project was to immerse students in an immersive and formative experience, through a European French-language pleading competition, articulated around human rights and preceded by an online preparatory course lasting around 25 hours.

The face-to-face part of the mobility program took place in Namur. For a week, the city of Namur became the scene of an intense academic and cultural exchange. Between oratory competitions and discovery of Namur's heritage, students were able to combine academic work with international immersion. The week's program included discovering Namur and the Walloon Parliament, training and exchange sessions, and the international moot competition.

The highlight of the event was the grand final of the competition on Thursday March 13. Part of the Faculty of Law's Fil Rouge "Vivons l'inclusion!", an initiative designed to encourage reflection and dialogue on issues of inclusion and diversity in the world of law and beyond, the pleading focused on the theme of human rights.

The students competed before an exceptional jury: Françoise Tulkens, Honorary Vice-President of the European Court of Human Rights, Pierre Nihoul, President of the Constitutional Court and Alexis Deswaef, Vice-President of the International Federation for Human Rights. After some intense, well-argued verbal jousting, Florence ROSSI, a 3rd-year law student at the University of Namur, won the prize for best oral argument, while two students from the University of Poitiers won the prize for best team in this prestigious competition. Their eloquence, legal rigor and ability to convince a high-level jury made all the difference in the face of competition from all over Europe.

This first BIP in law organized at UNamur perfectly illustrates the pedagogical approach advocated by the Faculty of Law: to train jurists capable of evolving in an international environment, while taking into account major societal issues. Professors, students and jury were very enthusiastic at the end of the competition, highlighting the richness of such an initiative, both for professional careers and personal enrichment.

With projects like this BIP, UNamur continues to innovate and offer students training rooted in the reality of the professional world and current societal challenges. A great way to prepare tomorrow's lawyers for an international career.

Developed in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the "One Health" EU illustrates UNamur's commitment to promoting active, interdisciplinary education. As Annick Castiaux, Rector of the University, pointed out, "Health must be considered as a sustainable development issue. The crucial question to ask is: What must become of health training to meet these challenges?"

This new unit also aims to reinforce the university's three fundamental missions: teaching, research and service to society. Indeed, the "One Health" EU is part of the drive to provide better training to innovate, by promoting interdisciplinarity and partnerships, which are essential if we are to have a real impact on today's public health challenges. The Rector also supports excellence in health research at UNamur, via the Narilis Research Institute, which does its utmost to conduct high-quality basic research via innovative, collaborative and multidisciplinary health research. Finally, the "One Health" philosophy also intends to consider health as a common good and thus act in the service of society via sustainable, sustainable policies.

At the inauguration, Yves Coppieters, Minister of Health, Environment, Solidarity, Social Economy, Equal Opportunities and Women's Rights, emphasized the importance of a global, connected approach. "We need to think of healthcare as an orchestra with different instruments that ultimately become one. The Covid-19 health crisis reminded us that everything interacts, everything is connected. Today, however, we lack a global vision. We need to operationalize it, and I thank the University of Namur for having succeeded in setting up such a teaching unit ", shares the Minister.

Yves Coppieters also stressed the need for concrete action to rethink prevention. "To prevent better, we mustn't believe in simply changing individual behavior. Rather, we need to transform the environments in which they evolve and thus truly promote health." The Minister also spoke of the major challenges we face, and for which he is committed to implementing concrete initiatives: "We have been confronted with a good number of cases that have generated large-scale consequences. Take the problem of antibiotic resistance, which poses risks to human and animal health. Or PFAS, which also have major consequences for ecosystems. Hence, once again, the interest in acting for a single health," explains Yves Coppieters.

From this inauguration, we will remember that to make "One Health" a reality, it was necessary to integrate three fundamental principles:

1. Interdisciplinarity: bringing together experts from different disciplines for a comprehensive approach.
2. Operationalization: translating concepts into concrete action.
3. A systemic and global vision: not limiting health to a restricted framework, but embedding it in a global dynamic.

Grégoire Wiëers, Director of the Department of Medicine, insisted on the need to integrate the link between environment and health right from university training.

The teaching unit will draw on the expertise of numerous teacher-researchers from different disciplines, including Frédéric Silvestre, Nathalie Kirschvink and Caroline Canon. It will also encourage students to work together on environmental health issues, producing concrete materials (posters, videos, articles) to raise awareness of these challenges. In addition, the "One Health" EU aims to respond to the various sustainable development goals by constantly making links between the various climatic and environmental events and the themes addressed within the different SDGs.

The establishment of such an EU is not without its challenges. Amélie Lachapelle, professor at the Faculty of Law, highlighted the difficulties associated with the Belgian legal framework. "Decompartmentalizing disciplines and linking their dimensions is not simple in a federal state like Belgium, where competences are divided between different levels of power. But we need to find solutions to make progress towards a meaningful evolution," explains the professor.

Jean-Michel Dogné, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, moreover reiterated the importance of post-Covid interdisciplinary collaboration. "Since the health crisis, we've been talking about a 'world after'. This world must be one of cooperation between disciplines. This is the very essence of 'One Health' and of this new teaching unit", concludes the Dean.

Today, issues relating to global health, the environment and sustainable development are at the heart of societal concerns. The "One Health" EU is a concrete response to these challenges. Its ultimate aim is clear: to enable students to develop cross-disciplinary skills to identify the causes and consequences of environmental alterations on health, and to be in a position to take concrete action for better prevention.

With this initiative, UNamur is fully committed to a dynamic of educational and societal innovation, helping to shape tomorrow's healthcare players, capable of embedding their practice in an interconnected and sustainable vision of the world.

No, and it's less and less so. And for a variety of reasons. Firstly, a major step was taken in 2014 towards a judicial system that excludes rather than includes, with, on the one hand, the passing of the so-called "potpourri" laws that modified civil and criminal procedure. These included, for example, the abolition of certain legal remedies. And secondly, the switch to 21% VAT on bailiffs' and lawyers' fees, which further increased legal costs. Real financial and procedural barriers to access to justice have thus been erected in recent years. Moreover, the austerity and lack of resources affecting the justice system also make it less inclusive. In every courthouse, people are absent or ill and are not replaced, or are replaced by people with no status. The justice system therefore excludes valuable profiles and committed people in its own workings.

Yes, on quality and quantity. For example, the King's prosecutors denounce the fact that public prosecutors' offices and police forces no longer have the human and material resources to carry out complicated investigations. As a result, "easy" cases are more easily assigned to hearings where vulnerable people are more exposed. The combination of all these factors, to which we must necessarily add the threat of the algorithmization of justice, i.e. the use of artificial intelligence in decision-making procedures, leads to the downgrading of the most vulnerable. For example, an algorithm can decide who, among welfare recipients, should be subject to more stringent fraud checks. This begs the question: on the basis of what criteria (racial, cultural, etc.), what data, what causal link, etc.? In my opinion, this so-called decision-making aid represents an increased risk of exclusion, not to mention the digital divide. Justice is in big trouble!

Mediation. The legislator has allowed it in civil matters since December 2023, and it's a path that many magistrates are taking. This choice is voluntary: personally, I do it twice a month. Mediation is even a process of re-inclusion, reintegrating people into their dispute. There's no more black and white: everyone does their part, and everyone is committed to resolving the conflict to the benefit of both parties. In addition to this positive effect, it's a less costly alternative mode, and within a few months you can resolve a case "from the top down", reinjecting respect and dignity for everyone, including in the eyes of your adversary.

Alongside theory and practice, I'm always careful to pass on the fundamentals; in other words, a form of savoir-être in relation to the litigant in a perspective of absolute respect. The only vulnerable person in a courtroom is the defendant. He alone can see his life turned upside down in a hearing, and it is he who comes to defend a part of his life, a part of his person. For the lawyer, the only risk is losing the case. These are fundamentals that also help to make justice more inclusive. And what reassures me is that the students I work with are very receptive to these fundamentals. It's a ray of hope!

Of course, but with all due precautions. The principle of alert, and freedom of expression are vital levers of action. So yes, I recommend expressing oneself, but with arguments. And to argue, you first have to study your subject in depth, comparing opinions and knowledge. With these precautions in mind, I call on the younger generation of jurists to get involved, to act, because there is no lost cause. It's a source of hope.

Manuela Cadelli is a judge at the Namur court of first instance and former president of the Association syndicale des magistrats (2013-2019). She has published several books and is completing an essay entitled "AI and Justice: a critical inquiry".