MARCOS A. ORELLANA
CHAIR
Marcos A. Orellana is an expert in international law, human rights law and environmental law. He currently is the UN Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes.
His practice as legal advisor has included work with United Nations agencies, governments and non-governmental organisations, including on waste and chemicals issues at the Basel and Minamata conventions, the UN Environment Assembly and the Human Rights Council. He has intervened in cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body. His practice in the climate space includes representing the eight-nation Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean in the negotiations of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and serving as senior legal advisor to the Presidency of the 25th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Professor Orellana has extensive experience working with civil society around the world on issues concerning global environmental justice. He was the inaugural director of the Environment and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. Previously, he directed the trade and the human rights programs at the Center for International Environmental Law, and co-chaired the UN Environment Program's civil society forum.
He teaches international environmental law at George Washington University School of Law and international law at the American University Washington College of Law. Previously, he lectured in prominent universities around the world, including Melbourne, Pretoria, Geneva, and Guadalajara. He was a fellow at the University of Cambridge, visiting scholar with the Environmental Law Institute in Washington DC, and instructing professor of international law at the Universidad de Talca, Chile.
