Safeguarding biodiversity and human rights through law and regulation
We all rely on biodiversity and ecosystems for a broad range of human rights. Nature contributions to people range from provisioning us with a wide range of nutritious food to eat to purifying the water we drink. Healthy ecosystems help regulate climate and prevent floods, among many other nature contributions to people. Hence, good governance of biodiversity and ecosystems is interconnected with disaster risk reduction and building resilience to both sudden and slow-on set events associated with climate change and natural hazards. At the same time, sustainable governance of social-ecological systems requires respect for human rights such as the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and the right of freedom of expression and opinion. Human rights and biodiversity are reciprocal and interdependent. Hence, the need to bridge capacities between institutions working on these two fields.
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Claudia Ituarte-Lima
Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima is Leader of the Human Rights and the Environment thematic area and senior researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima an international public lawyer and scholar with over two decades of experience at the intersection of human rights, biodiversity, and climate change law and policy. Holding an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from University College London, she works as Thematic Lead and Senior Researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden and serves as Director of the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment.
Her work bridges legal analysis with sustainability science to address critical environmental and human rights governance challenges. Using participatory approaches, she ensures her research is both impactful for the communities she engages with and innovative in advancing knowledge on environmental justice and social-ecological dynamics. She has authored over 25 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, alongside more than 35 technical reports and policy briefs. Her publications consolidate international human rights and gender equality standards within biodiversity, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and environmental human rights defenders contexts. Additionally, she has conducted empirical research at subnational levels, providing valuable localized insights. Her research has been published in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese.
Together with partner organizations, she has designed and facilitated capacity-bridging initiatives with professionals across three continents: blended learning courses with judges, National Human Rights Institutions, public prosecutors and bar associations in Asia; in Latin America and the Caribbean, facilitating UNEP’s Fifth Montevideo Environmental Law Programme Conference in Panama; in Africa, delivering workshops for UNEP and UNDP staff in Kenya. She has also contributed significantly to integrating human rights into the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) decisions. Her proposals on human rights safeguards in biodiversity financing mechanisms were adopted by the CBD’s 193 Parties. Furthermore, she has served as an expert in policy support tools for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Committed to disseminating research insights broadly, her op-eds and articles have been featured in prominent platforms like The Conversation, the World Economic Forum, The Diplomat, and Inter Press Service News Agency. Living and working across Sweden, Mexico, Kenya, Japan, Canada, and the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon has enriched her understanding of diverse cultural and environmental contexts with unique skills to catalyze research and action with international scope while being contextually relevant.
For further updates on her research, please refer to her Research profile:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Claudia-Ituarte-Lima
https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/claudia-ituarte-lima