Latin & South America

Alessandro Rollo is an associate at Omnia Strategy in London specialising in public international law, international dispute resolution, and human rights. Photo Credit:  Maik Kleinert Introduction The Escazú Agreement is the first treaty addressing access to information, public participation and justice in environmental matters in Latin America and the Caribbean. Hailed as a long-awaited breakthrough in the region’s environmental governance, the treaty provides...

Simón Gómez is adjunct professor of Public International Law at Universidad Católica Andrés Bello in Caracas and works as International Litigation Coordinator at the NGO Defiende Venezuela. Moisés Montiel is a consultant and litigant in matters of International Law and Human Rights at Lotus Soluciones Legales as well as a Professor of Treaty Law and Law of Armed Conflict at...

[Hayley Evans (@HayleyNEvans) is a 2019 J.D. graduate of Harvard Law School and an incoming Research Fellow at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law. Priscyll Anctil Avoine (@Cyppp_) is a PhD candidate in Political Science and Feminist Studies at Université du Québec à Montréal (Canada) and the director of Fundación Lüvo, a feminist and antiracist collective.] In Colombia, the COVID-19 crisis has seriously complicated an already tense humanitarian setting. As of...

[Parisa Zangeneh is a PhD student at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, Galway and the Editorial Assistant of Opinio Juris, and Sharon Pia Hickey is an international human rights lawyer focusing on the death penalty, gender equality, and the rule of law. Both authors are former employees of the Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide.] Lisa Montgomery, a severely...

[Maria Antonia Tigre is the Director for Latin America at the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment.] In September 2020, the Brazilian Supreme Court held the country’s first public hearing on climate change. For the first time, a climate litigation case reached Brazil’s highest court, marking an historic landmark for the country’s legal system. A broad range of...

In past decades, Latin American countries witnessed violent conflict and serious human rights abuses at the hands of state and non-state actors. In these contexts, conflict-related sexual violence was widespread, perpetrated in order to advance military goals and as a tactic of repression against political opponents and communities. But as the region has grappled with the past through efforts toward...

[in English at the end] Hace poco me tope con un podcast llamado "Hablemos de Derecho Internacional", conducido por Edgardo Sobenes, ex miembro del equipo legal de Nicaragua ante la CIJ. El podcast está repleto de excelentes entrevistas a algunos de los más renombrados publicistas de Hispanoamérica. Personalmente recomiendo la entrevista al Dr. Juan José Ruda, Profesor Principal en la Pontificia...

[Jan-Michael Simon is a Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law. This post will not focus on the substantive findings of the FFM-Venezuela, but rather on whether the FFM-Venezuela had been mandated to identify individuals allegedly responsible for crimes against humanity. It will argue that by having carried out an extensive interpretation...

[Carlos G. Guerrero Orozco is a Mexican lawyer who holds a Master’s degree in government and public administration. Since 2015, he has been the chair of the board of DLM (Derechos Humanos y Litigio Estratégico Mexicano), a civil society organization that demands accountability in Mexico with a human rights perspective. Emiliano J. Polo Anaya and Paulina Lucio Maymón contributed to...

In 2018, Latin American states adopted the “Regional Agreement on Access to Information, Public Participation and Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean”, also known as the Escazú Agreement, for the city in Costa Rica were it was signed. The treaty sets out an obligation for Member States to legislate on these three matters under specific conditions, within the broader context of...

[Indrasish Majumder a third-year student pursuing B.A L.L. B (Hons) from National Law University Odisha, with a special interest in Humanitarian Law and Human Rights.] Two police officers block a woman’s path as she approaches the entrance of a hospital on the crowded streets of Panama clutching her purse and phone. “You! What are you doing? Today only women can be outside,” the woman (anonymous)...

Unbeknownst to most Britons, UK-Peru relations are experiencing an unprecedented boon. Only last month, Boris Johnson addressed the Peruvian people through a video statement on Twitter – the first ever such message by a sitting British Prime Minister in Peru’s near-200-year history – highlighting the execution of a so-called “Government to Government (G2G) Agreement” to have British firms rebuild key Peruvian infrastructure destroyed by the El Niño...