[Workshop] Developments on Human Rights and the Environment in the Global South

The NNHRR Working Group on Human Rights & the Climate Crisis invites you to join the workshop "Developments on Human Rights and the Environment in the Global South". The event, organized by Patricio Trincado Vera and Julián Suárez Bohórquez, will take place at Leiden University College Auditorium (Anna van Buerenplein 301, The Hague) on 4 December 2025, between 9.00-17.00 (registration required).

Background

In recent years, a growing global consensus has recognised the deep interconnection between the environment and human rights. Environmental degradation directly threatens the enjoyment of human rights, making the triple planetary crisis - climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss - one of the greatest challenges of our time. The survival of the planet depends on the world’s collective ability to address it effectively.

While countries in the Global North, who are historical contributors to the climate crisis, have undertaken numerous initiatives to mitigate its impacts, they are far from being the only actors driving meaningful change. Across the Global South, significant contributions have been made to the advancement of environmental and human rights protections. These communities, often among the most affected by the crisis, have provided invaluable perspectives and legal innovations that are reshaping the international understanding of these interconnected areas. Such perspectives go beyond traditional Western conceptions regarding relief for breach of human rights due to environmental harm, and offer a pluralistic, democratic, and relational approach to the role human rights obligations play in the fight against the triple planetary crisis.

To highlight these important developments, the Working Group on Human Rights and the Climate Crisis of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research is thrilled to invite you to its first 'Developments on Human Rights and the Environment in the Global South' Workshop. This event brings together early-, mid-, and senior-career scholars and practitioners to discuss the latest legal advancements at the intersection of human rights and environmental protection in the Global South’s regional and domestic contexts, focusing on the contributions emerging from Latin America, Africa, and Indigenous Peoples worldwide.

Participants will:

•  Discuss key takeaways and implications of advisory opinions on climate change and human rights before the ICJ, the IACtHR, and the AfCHPR.
• Explore the growing legal recognition of the interdependence between human rights and the environment, and the general principles of international law emerging from this relationship.
• Assess the scope and application of environmental general principles in international human rights law, and how the right to a healthy environment and rights of nature are being recognised in both international and domestic jurisdictions.
• Examine the implications of these developments for Indigenous Peoples’ environmental rights within regional and domestic contexts.
• Identify tools and strategies to advance research and collaboration on human rights and the climate crisis, fostering a working group and a community of practice. 
  
  

Programme

09.00-09.15 | Registration and coffee

09.15-10.45 | Keynote lecture: Cultural rights and environmental protection in the Global South through the lens of Article 27 of the ICCPR, by Dr. Yvonne Donders (UvA)

10.45-11.00 | Coffee break

11.00-12.30 | Panel discussion: Human rights, Indigenous Peoples and the environment, with Dr. Elena Kavanagh (University College Cork), Olga Ievleva (University of Groningen), and Medes Mailaholo (University of Groningen)

12.30-13.30 | Lunch

13.30-15.00 | Panel presentations: Regional and domestic developments in human rights and the environment in the Global South

• Latest developments in river rights in Ecuador: implications for human rights and the environment by Dr Andrés Martínez Moscoso (San Francisco University-Quito, online)

• The right to a healthy environment in the Advisory Opinion OC-32/25 of the Inter-American Human Rights Court, by Dr Lisa Mardikian (Brunel University London)

• The right to a healthy environment in the advisory opinion proceedings on climate change and human rights before the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights, by Junecynthia Okelo (Pan-African Lawyers Union, online)

15.00-15.15 | Coffee break

15.15-16.45 | Panel discussion: What future for human rights and the environment within the regional human rights systems?, with Dr. Jasper Krommendijk (Radboud University), Dr Otto Spijkers (LUC), and Dr Marie Fall

16.45-17.00 | Closing remarks

Registration

The registration link can be found here.