Human rights, gender equality, and the environment are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. Effective environmental governance requires respecting human rights and gender equality, while these rights depend on a healthy environment. Our mission is to integrate these standards into environmental governance through coalitions and collaborations.

Since 2018, RWI’s Regional Asia Pacific Office has become a knowledge hub, producing significant research, including the report “Prosperous and Green in the Anthropocene: The Human Right to a Healthy Environment in Southeast Asia," co-created with local researchers from six ASEAN countries. These knowledge products have informed blended learning courses, workshops, and engagement, helping RWI partner with various governmental institutions.

RWI's blended learning courses have trained over 279 legal and human rights stakeholders across Asia-Pacific, enhancing their capacity to apply human rights frameworks to environmental cases. These courses have inspired judges and NHRIs in their work on climate and environmental issues. RWI fosters cross-country and cross-institutional collaboration to address transboundary issues like air pollution, climate change, and water pollution.

At the regional level, RWI collaborates with the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and has supported various human rights dialogues and meetings. With consultative status with AICHR, RWI influences regional instruments and forums, including the Environment Rights Declaration and the EU-ASEAN Human Rights Forum.

Globally, RWI is an observer at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change conferences, raising awareness and influencing discourse on human rights and climate change. RWI has organized side events on topics such as climate change adaptation and just transition and is a member of the Paris Agreement’s Committee on Capacity Building.

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Victor Bernard

Victor Bernard

Programme Officer

E-mail: victor.bernard@rwi.lu.se

Victor Bernard is a researcher and development professional with a passion for strengthening the interlinkages between human rights and the environment. Having joined the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI) in 2018, he spearheaded the design and implementation of its regional capacity building initiatives, targeting judges, prosecutors and national human rights institutions across Asia and the Pacific. These initiatives aimed to strengthen these stakeholders’ capacity on leveraging human rights and gender equality to fill the legal and enforcement gaps in environmental and climate change law.

Bernard has also published extensively on displacement in climate change and disaster contexts, human rights in national adaptation processes, and the right to a healthy environment. He has presented his research in several international forums, including the Conferences of the Parties under the UNFCCC. Prior to this, Bernard has led projects related to environment and climate change, conflict and development, countering violent extremism, and the development-humanitarian nexus at the British Embassy in Bangkok (Thailand), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sweden), and the Asia Foundation (Thailand).

Bernard holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of York, and a master’s degree in International Law from the University of Edinburgh.

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