Climate change and biodiversity have become defining issues of our time. However, these issues are still often discussed separately from human rights. This, despite the fact that human rights, climate change and human mobility are connected. There is also a clear connection between human rights biodiversity and ecosystems.
When the UN General Assembly recognised the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right in 2022, it was a critical breakthrough.
The fact that the right to a clean environment is finally recognised, is thanks to a wide variety of groups that have spent five decades advocating for it. Another reason are the international fora, specifically the UN Human Rights Council recognising this right in 2021 and appointing a UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change, that have made recent advances possible", explains Claudia Ituarte-Lima, Head of the Thematic Area Human Rights and the Environment together with Matthew Scott.
In its Resolution 46/7 the Human Rights Council highlights the interrelated challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, disaster risks and pandemics. It calls for more research, exchange of information, and collaboration between actors on these topics. As such, the Council confirms the need to consider environmental and climate change issues within the human rights framework.
Within our work on the thematic area of Human Rights and the Environment, we address three related issues: ‘climate change adaptation’, ‘human mobility’, and ‘biodiversity and ecosystems’.
Within these priorities, we work to achieve a better dialogue, understanding, and collaboration between human rights and the environment “communities of practice”. We also aim to stimulate a better collaboration and dialogue between duty-bearers and right-holders.
Building on a human rights and environment narrative, institutions have strengthened their capacities to address the root causes, as well as immediate and future impacts, of climate change, disasters and environmental degradation with a particular focus on internal and cross-border displacement.
What We Do
We carry out and support multi-disciplinary research, facilitate learning exchanges , and undertake communications activities, to develop and advance a theoretical understanding as well as a practical application of a human rights-based approach within climate change and biodiversity law and policy. We also integrate a social-ecological and systemic perspective in human rights law.
RWI has regional and national offices which helps to connect international human rights and environmental standards with the realities of people and nature in distinct places. We develop models and tools concerning a healthy environment that can help transfer lessons learned across regions such as between Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America.
Get in touch
Matthew Scott
Matthew Scott is senior researcher and leader of the Human Rights and the Environment thematic area at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. He is also associate professor and adjunct senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Lund University. His work focuses on integrating social science perspectives with international legal standards to promote context-sensitive, human rights-based law, policy and practice relating to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. This work is guided by the Framework for Integrating Rights and Equality (FIRE), which he has pioneered through a series of collaborations with academic and development partners in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Europe. His primary area of expertise concerns human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change, on which he has published widely. Current research and programming interests concern urban climate-related human mobility, building resilience to pandemic risk, and rights-based climate adaptation using the FIRE framework.
He holds a PhD in Public International Law from Lund University and a MA in Social Anthropology of Development from SOAS. He practiced immigration and asylum law in London before entering academia. He is a member of the advisory committee of the Platform on Disaster Displacement and the editorial board of the Yearbook of International Disaster Law, and a founding member of the Nordic Network on Climate Related Displacement and Mobility and the Asia-Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement.
At Lund University he convenes the introduction to human rights law course and the short course on human rights law, the environment and climate change on the LLM in international human rights law programme. He also lectures on the MSc programme in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
For further updates on his research, please refer to his Research profile:
https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/matthew-scott
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.
She is an international public lawyer and scholar with direct experience in international law and policy making. For the last 20 years, she has worked on human rights and environmental law (in particular biodiversity and climate change). She holds a PhD (University College London) and a MPhil (University of Cambridge).
Her work unites legal analysis and sustainability science for examining environmental and human rights governance challenges and innovative levers to address them. She has bridged the human rights and biodiversity “communities of practice” through leading research such in the Biodiversa project on safeguarding ecosystems and human rights through law and regulation. She has also experience designing multiactor dialogue processes and blended learning courses for judges, National Human Rights Institutions, environmental human rights defenders and United Nations staff. Her research expertise is complemented by her experiential learning by living in Sweden, Mexico, Kenya, Japan and Canada and the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon region.
Dr. Ituarte-Lima has analysed the interplay between laws at distinct geographical scales. Her research ranges from empirically-based case studies in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Africa, to legal analysis examining the interactions between international legal regimes in particular between the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and international human rights treaties. Her work has been published in English, Spanish, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese.
She serves as regional deputy director for Latin America of the Global Network on Human Rights and Environment, acts as an expert advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment and was a member of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) expert group in policy support tools and methodologies.
Before working at RWI, she worked at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University and she has held visiting status including at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at University of British Columbia in Canada, the Environmental Change Institute at University of Oxford in the UK, the Global Centre of Excellence Programme in Conflict Studies at Osaka University in Japan, the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Ecuador and ECOSUR in Mexico.
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
Human Rights and the Environment staff
Matthew Scott
Matthew Scott is senior researcher and leader of the Human Rights and the Environment thematic area at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. He is also associate professor and adjunct senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Lund University. His work focuses on integrating social science perspectives with international legal standards to promote context-sensitive, human rights-based law, policy and practice relating to disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. This work is guided by the Framework for Integrating Rights and Equality (FIRE), which he has pioneered through a series of collaborations with academic and development partners in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Europe. His primary area of expertise concerns human mobility in the context of disasters and climate change, on which he has published widely. Current research and programming interests concern urban climate-related human mobility, building resilience to pandemic risk, and rights-based climate adaptation using the FIRE framework.
He holds a PhD in Public International Law from Lund University and a MA in Social Anthropology of Development from SOAS. He practiced immigration and asylum law in London before entering academia. He is a member of the advisory committee of the Platform on Disaster Displacement and the editorial board of the Yearbook of International Disaster Law, and a founding member of the Nordic Network on Climate Related Displacement and Mobility and the Asia-Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement.
At Lund University he convenes the introduction to human rights law course and the short course on human rights law, the environment and climate change on the LLM in international human rights law programme. He also lectures on the MSc programme in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation.
For further updates on his research, please refer to his Research profile:
https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/matthew-scott
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.
She is an international public lawyer and scholar with direct experience in international law and policy making. For the last 20 years, she has worked on human rights and environmental law (in particular biodiversity and climate change). She holds a PhD (University College London) and a MPhil (University of Cambridge).
Her work unites legal analysis and sustainability science for examining environmental and human rights governance challenges and innovative levers to address them. She has bridged the human rights and biodiversity “communities of practice” through leading research such in the Biodiversa project on safeguarding ecosystems and human rights through law and regulation. She has also experience designing multiactor dialogue processes and blended learning courses for judges, National Human Rights Institutions, environmental human rights defenders and United Nations staff. Her research expertise is complemented by her experiential learning by living in Sweden, Mexico, Kenya, Japan and Canada and the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon region.
Dr. Ituarte-Lima has analysed the interplay between laws at distinct geographical scales. Her research ranges from empirically-based case studies in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Africa, to legal analysis examining the interactions between international legal regimes in particular between the Convention on Biological Diversity, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and international human rights treaties. Her work has been published in English, Spanish, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese.
She serves as regional deputy director for Latin America of the Global Network on Human Rights and Environment, acts as an expert advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment and was a member of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) expert group in policy support tools and methodologies.
Before working at RWI, she worked at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University and she has held visiting status including at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at University of British Columbia in Canada, the Environmental Change Institute at University of Oxford in the UK, the Global Centre of Excellence Programme in Conflict Studies at Osaka University in Japan, the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in Ecuador and ECOSUR in Mexico.
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
Mo Hamza
Mo Hamza is Professor of Risk Management and Societal Safety at Lund University, Sweden. In his career spanning 36 years so far, he has worked with international development organisations including: World Bank, ADB, UNDP, UNISDR, USAID, DfID, IFRC, IUCN, Swedish Red Cross, and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB).
His primary areas of professional expertise and research work are: Disaster risk and vulnerability reduction, climate change impact and adaptation in fragile and failed states, environmental displacement and refugees’ decision-making on mobility. Previously he was Chair of Social Vulnerability Studies at the United Nations University, Bonn, Germany; a Senior Research Fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden and an advisor to the MIT Climate CoLab. He has undertaken consultancy and research work in: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Botswana, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda, UK, South Eastern Europe and the Balkan States.
He is currently an advisor to the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) where he is responsible for their capacity development processes. Among various and more recent publications, Mo Hamza is the co-editor of the upcoming ‘Rebuilding Communities after Displacement’ book published by Springer Nature; was the co-guest editor of a double special issue in Global Discourse Journal (2022) ‘Critical Exploration of Crisis: Politics, Precariousness and Potentialities’, and the author of ‘Refugees’ Integration in the Built Environment – The Sweden Case’ in Sustainability Journal 2021. He was also the lead author and editor of the World Disasters Report (2015) ‘Focus on local actors, the key to humanitarian effectiveness’.
For further updates on his research, please refer to his Research profile:
Maria Andrea Nardi
Andrea’s research interests focus on environmental change and territorial transformations in rural areas of the Global South. Her fields of studies in environmental and development geography brought her attention to the conflictive dynamics between economic globalization, internal armed conflicts, unequal geographies of development and local livelihoods. Conservation and development, peace and conflict, and human rights are central to my current research interest. Andrea has many years of fieldwork experience in forest regions, particularly in South America. Her last field study took place in the Congo River basin in Cameroon´s borderlands with Nigeria, and she is now planning fieldwork in Uganda.
In the interdisciplinary research Andrea has been conducting from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute and currently at Lund University -funded by FORMAS – she studies environmental change in Northern Uganda during and after the armed conflict and the policies put in place to promote peacebuilding and environmental protection.
Andrea teaches graduate and undergraduate students in Development Studies at the Graduate School of the Faculty of Social Science (LU), the Department of Human Geography, as well as graduate students in Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine (LU).
At RWI, Andrea has been involved in research capacity building activities in the Armenia, Zimbabwe, regional Africa and Belarus programmes. Within this, Andrea has taught qualitative research methods, and ethics, for human rights and HRBA to research cooperation with scholars and civil society organisations.
For further updates on her research, please refer to her Research profile:
https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/andrea-nardi
Zuzana Zalanova
Ms. Zalanova has been promoting human rights, good governance, and civic engagement in various capacities in Europe and Central Asia.
Since joining RWI in 2018, she has led RWI programme in Belarus (until 2020), initiated and expanded RWI programme in Armenia, and broadened regional engagement with initiatives in Uzbekistan and the Western Balkans. Her expanding portfolio includes four projects in Ukraine, supported by sub-regional engagement in Poland and Moldova.
In 2023, Ms. Zalanova also assumed the role of Acting Executive Director of the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC), an international nongovernmental consortium established in 2002 to help coordinate and support the efforts of legal professionals to rebuild justice institutions in conflict and post-conflict countries. Through its member organisations and individuals, ILAC is comprised of more than 3 million legal professionals worldwide, including judges, lawyers, prosecutors, and court administrators.
Ms. Zalanova teaches regularly international development, human rights, and project management at three faculties of the Lund University in Sweden.
Before joining RWI, Ms. Zalanova worked for the United Nations in Ukraine, leading the UN Volunteers programme with a focus on civic and youth engagement. She previously coordinated rule of law programmes of the International Development Law Organisation (IDLO) in Mongolia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, supported regional human rights and justice initiatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Europe and Central Asia, and managed the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, a platform of civil society actors from the EU and Russia.
Ms. Zalanova holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, a master’s degree in Security Studies, and a joint (bachelor’s and master’s) degree in International Relations with a specialisation in Non-Profit Management from her studies in the Czech Republic (Charles University, University of Economics) and the United Kingdom (University of Reading).
Rakel Larsen
Rakel Larsen joined RWI in November 2020 as the Director of the Nairobi Office. She brings more than 15 years of work experience in refugee protection, displacement and human rights mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining the RWI, she worked for the Danish Refugee Council with humanitarian response and protection of refugees and other displaced persons in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and South Sudan.
Furthermore, she holds a Master’s in Law and a Master’s in African Studies (Human Rights and Development) from the University of Copenhagen.
Windi Arini
Windi is currently the Country Director (a.i.) in Indonesia. She manages activities on localizing human rights in the context of SDGs in Asia Pacific and RWIs engagement with young people in the region. Her multidimensional role also allows her to oversee the national programmes in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights.
She graduated from Atma Jaya Catholic University (Faculty of Law) in 2010 and dedicated the following years working at a law firm targeting capacity building for the Indonesian military. As a committed and passionate young professional, she taught foundational knowledge on international humanitarian law to the Indonesian military.
After obtaining her master’s degree in Theory and Practice of Human Rights from the University of Oslo, she spent almost 4 years as a human rights officer at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta. She worked on various thematic areas including children and women’s rights, business human rights, as well as the rights of persons with disabilities. She provided technical support and managed projects for the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (ASEAN-IPR).
When Windi is not in the office, she enjoys reading, traveling, and is very fond of spicy food.
Morten Kjaerum
Helena Olsson
Helena has a Master Degree in Political Science with focus on Human Rights, Peace and Democracy from Lund University. She has worked with development, human rights and in the humanitarian field since 2001, for Swedish Embassies/Sida and UNHCR in Central and South America; at Sida Headquarters Humanitarian Team in Stockholm; and subsequently with academic institutions and NHRIs in Sub-Saharan Africa; Middle East and North Africa; and South/Southeast Asia since she joined the Institute in 2010.
Between 2016 and 2018 she led the development and start-up of a new regional Asia team and office in Jakarta, and of regional programmes focusing on human rights and environment/climate change, as well as the integration of human rights into Agenda 2030 plans in the region.
She was also team leader of the thematic focus area People on the Move 2016-2017, and currently leads an internal working group of human rights and local governments.
Sinem Kavak
Sinem Kavak is a postdoctoral researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and a research affiliate in Center for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) at Lund University. She holds a PhD in Political Science and International Relations earned at the École Normale Supérieure de Paris Saclay in France and Boğaziçi University in Turkey. Her research areas are in fields of political economy, extractivism, migration and refugee studies as well as human rights issues in labor markets. She also carries research on themes related to critical agrarian studies and rural/environmental movements.
Before joining RWI, she held various academic positions on political economy research with human rights implications as well as professional appointments in the broader field human rights practice and advocacy. She was visiting postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Sustainability Studies at the Lund University; she worked as program coordinator and researcher for the Fair Labor Association in Eastern Europe and MENA region and she acted as Turkey expert for Council of Europe in the area of trafficking of human-beings for the purpose of labor exploitation.
Her research cuts across human rights issues around decent work, child labor, refugee experiences and transnational labor governance as well as macro-level issues of democratic backsliding, authoritarianism, cronyism, extractivism. Her publications appeared in New Perspectives on Turkey, Journal of Agrarian Change among others and she co-edited the volume on Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Resistance in Turkey: Construction, Consolidation and Contestation published by Palgrave McMillan (2022). Geographically, she focuses on Turkey, Lebanon and Colombia.
Currently, she is carrying out two research projects.
- Refugee Decision-making in First Countries of Asylum (ReDeFi)
- Unraveling Climate-change Impacts on Migrant Farmworkers in Global Food Production
For further updates on her research please refer to: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sinem-Kavak
https://portal.research.lu.se/sv/persons/sinem-kavak-2
Malin Oud
Malin Oud, Director of the Stockholm Office and China Programme Director
Malin Oud has over 20 years’ professional experience in the field of human rights, rule of law and sustainable development with her work focusing primarily on China. She has worked for international organisations, government agencies and multinational corporations, covering diverse issues such as freedom of expression, democracy, and business and human rights. She is currently the Director of RWI’s Stockholm Office and China Programme, having initially joined the Institute over twenty years ago as Director of the Beijing Office.
Oud is an adviser to the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights, a member of the Advisory Boards of Mercator Institute for China Studies and the Hong Kong-based NGO China Labour Bulletin, and was in 2023 appointed by the Swedish government to serve in the Expert Group for Aid Studies. In 2011-2016, Oud founded and managed the consultancy Tracktwo. Prior to that, she managed initiatives for democracy and freedom of expression at the Swedish International Development Agency. From 2001 to 2009, she was based in Beijing as the Raoul Wallenberg Institute’s China office director.
Oud’s current research interests include China’s ambitions as international norm entrepreneur and standard-setter at the UN, and she is co-editor and co-author of the publication The Decoding China Dictionary, a guide for policy-makers on China’s interpretation and understanding of key terms in international relations and development cooperation. She is an experienced public speaker, moderator, and expert commentator in Swedish media and international policy forums. Oud studied Chinese language, social anthropology and international human rights law in Lund, Kunming, and London, and holds an MA in International Development from Melbourne University.
Malin Oud CV
Malin on LinkedIn
Recent publications:
- Malin Oud & Katja Drinhausen (eds.), The Decoding China Dictionary (2nd edition), March 2023,www.decodingchina.eu
- Malin Oud, ’Wertekonflikte: Was bedeutet das Menschenrechtsverständnis der Kommunistischen Partei für die wirtschaftlichen und politischen Beziehungen der EU zu China?’, in Russwurm & Gönner (eds.) Wie gestalten wir unsere Beziehungen zu China?, Verlag Herder 2022, https://www.herder.de/geschichte-politik/shop/p4/76363-wie-gestalten-wir-unsere-beziehungen-zu-china-kartonierte-ausgabe/
- Malin Oud, ‘Embedding Human Rights in European and US China Policy’, The German Marshall Fund of the United States Policy Paper, May 22, 2022, https://www.gmfus.org/news/embedding-human-rights-european-and-us-china-policy
- Malin Oud, ‘Harmonic Convergence. China and the Right to Development’, in An Emerging China-Centric Order. China’s Vision for a New World Order in Practice, ed. Nadège Rolland, The National Bureau of Asian Research Special Report No 87, Aug 25, 2020, https://www.nbr.org/publication/harmonic-convergence-china-and-the-right-to-development/
Sample speaking engagements and media interviews
- ‘Climate and human rights for business practitioners.’ Side event at the United Nations Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum in Bangkok, 6 June 2023, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/malin-oud-a9947a1_rbhrf2023-bizhumanrights-activity-7072181227612512256-h03y?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
- ‘Making a difference: Working with human rights in challenging contexts.’ Presentation for the European External Action Service Working Party on Human rights in Stockholm, 22 May 2023, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/malin-oud-a9947a1_cohom-eu2023se-cohom-activity-7066409674555691008-jVHT?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
- ‘Trade with China: All supply chains lead to Xinjiang, what do we do about that?’ Keynote at Ethical Trading Initiative Norway annual conference in Oslo, 20 April 2023
- ‘Decoding the vocabulary of Chinese foreign policy’, The German Marshall Fund’s China Global Podcast, 11 April 2023, https://www.gmfus.org/news/decoding-vocabulary-chinese-foreign-policy
- On China at the UN, Swedish Radio China podcast, 29 March 2023, https://www.podplay.com/sv-se/podcasts/kinapodden-i-p1-409497/episodes/sa-vill-kina-hacka-de-manskliga-rattigheterna-136779746
- ‘How to understand what the CCP is saying’, MERICS China Podcast, 17 March 2023, https://merics.org/en/podcast/how-understand-what-ccp-saying-katja-drinhausen-and-malin-oud
- On the human rights- and geopolitical aspects of the Olympic Games, commentary on Discovery channel throughout the Beijing Winter Olympics, February 2022
- ‘Human rights and global trade: How can transatlantic partners in the public and private sectors embed human rights in their global value chains?’ Keynote at the Future of Transatlantic Relations Conference in Hamburg, 8 Dec 2022, https://www.helmut-schmidt.de/fotar2022
- ‘Supply chain due diligence in China: Responsible business conduct in light of the OHCHR report on Xinjiang.’ Presentation at Ethical Trading Initiative Sweden in Stockholm, 17 Nov 2022, https://etisverige.se/aktuellt/leverantorsarbete-i-kina-efter-fns-rapport-om-xinjiang/
- On diplomatic Olympic boycotts and China’s recent white paper on democracy, Swedish Radio China podcast, 15 Dec 2021, https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/sa-drillas-barnen-i-det-kommunistiska-kina
- On how China seeks to redefine democracy and human rights, Bloomberg News, 9 Dec 2021,https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-12-09/china-moves-to-redefine-democracy-to-justify-authoritarian-rule
- On US-China climate cooperation and multilateralism, The Guardian, 20 July 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/20/us-seeks-cooperation-with-china-on-climate-but-not-at-any-price
- ‘Xi Jinping’, Spotify Dictators podcast, May 2021, https://open.spotify.com/episode/3PWoowEuqpPSIhtAi6TxOa?si=6412ede1257f43c6
- ‘Decoding China’s diplomatic discourse’, CSIS China Power podcast, 16 April 2021 https://chinapower.csis.org/podcasts/decoding-chinas-diplomacy-discourse/
- On China’s post-Covid recovery, Swedish Radio programme Konflikt, March 2021, https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1686528
- On how to interpret China’s official discourse, Swedish Radio China podcast, 12 March 2021, https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1688138
- ‘Mao Zedong’, Spotify Dictators podcast, Sept 2020, https://open.spotify.com/episode/1kLFGI4JwBehnirzFLygcC
- On the escalating conflict between China and the USA, Swedish Radio programme Godmorgon Världen, 26 July 2020, https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=438&artikel=7521265&fbclid=IwAR2QglPG7ihP4O-gAMtvfFBKaEgFMGcnKpZKw4LataIhRIKmbfRH_q3BTwk
Keywords: Business and human rights, human rights and the environment, human rights and development, China
Radu Mares
Radu has a background in human rights law, specializing in the business and human rights area, with a focus on regulatory and compliance issues raised by multinational enterprises in developing countries. His main research interest is the protection of human rights through economic relations. Some questions that have engaged Radu for a long time are:
- How does the international human rights system accommodate and interact with the fragmented, overlapping and dynamic landscape of responsible business conduct?
- How does the shift from corporate voluntarism to hard law happen and how do companies affect the emergence, institutionalization, and diffusion of norms of social responsibility?
- Can complex regulatory regimes that reject the ‘command-and-control’ approach deliver on their promise to achieve corporate compliance and respect for human rights?
Radu’s research draws on economic law, corporate governance, risk management, regulatory pluralism and global governance. He has also conducted field work in mining areas in Ghana and Peru. His current focus is on the EU green transition, and the impacts of this legislative framework on human rights and environmental protection globally through EU value chains.
Radu is an Associate Professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights, the director of the Research and Education Department, and the thematic leader for the Business and Human Rights area at RWI. He is a Doctor of Law (PhD) and a Docent in the Faculty of Law at Lund University. Radu contributes to RWI capacity-strengthening programs for academics, businesses and/or governmental actors in China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Estonia and Belarus, and Asia region. Since 2007 he has taught and supervised at Lund University’s Faculty of Law and more recently at the Economics Faculty. Radu values opportunities to collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines, to explore new linkages between economics and human rights, in education, research, and outreach.
For further updates on his research, please refer to his Research profile:
https://portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/radu-mares
Meng Zhang
Dr. Meng ZHANG worked with the RWI China Program and the thematic area of human rights and the environment, Meng’s research focused on human rights, the role of civil society, and public participation in addressing climate change, especially during the deployment of climate technologies.
In addition to his affiliation with RWI, Dr. Meng Zhang is primarily working as a Postdoc Fellow for sustainable development law and policy at the Department of Business Law, Lund University School of Economics and Management (LUSEM). His research interests touch various fields of environmental and climate governance. And he has been involved in many EU, international and bilateral cooperative research projects regarding sustainable development in Belgium, Sweden, Finland, China and Australia. His research outcomes have been published by many academic publishers such as Springer, Edward Elgar and Routledge.
Before working in Sweden, Meng obtained his PhD degree in Law (environmental law) at the Centre for Environmental & Energy Law, Ghent University (Belgium) in 2021. Moreover, Meng is a member of the European Environmental Law Forum (EELF), working closely with the European Union Forum of Judges for the Environment (EUFJE), as well as a National Rapporteur for China in the Climate Change Litigation Initiative (C2LI) led by Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (UK). Meng is looking forward to more academic adventures on the way towards a climate-neutrality and human-rights-friendly world that we can be proud of.
For further updates on his research, please refer to his Research profile: portal.research.lu.se/en/persons/meng-zhang
LinkedIn profile: www.linkedin.com/in/meng-zhang-law