News & Events

Join us for 'In conversation with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, Ms. Astrid Puentes Riaño'.

On the occasion of the UN Special Rapporteur’s visit to Ireland, we are hosting a seminar, open to staff and students. In advance of the seminar, please consider the ongoing work of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. See: https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-environment

When: 6:30-7:30pm, Wednesday, 11 February 2026

Where: THB-G011 Seminar Room (Hardiman library building foyer), University of Galway

Light refreshments from 6:15pm

Speaker Bio:

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, Ms. Astrid Puentes Riaño, is undertaking an official country visit to Ireland, from 9 to 20 February 2026. Further information about the visit is at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/calls-for-input/2025/call-input-visit-ireland-9-20-february-2026 The Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment is mandated, among other things, to:

• Continue to study the human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment;
• Continue to identify, promote and exchange views on good practices relating to human rights obligations and commitments to inform, support and strengthen environmental policy making, especially in the area of environmental protection;
• Promote and report on the realization of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and to disseminate his findings by, inter alia, continuing to give particular emphasis to practical solutions with regard to their implementation;
• Work on identifying challenges and obstacles to the full realization of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment and protection gaps thereto, including in the context of sustainable development.

Ms. Puentes teaches at the Berta Cáceres Environmental Justice Clinic at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Mexico, and has more than twenty years of experience on environmental law, human rights and climate change, and the intersection of these, with a perspective of climate justice, diversity, equity and inclusion. She has worked for and with communities, environmental defenders and Indigenous Peoples in Latin America, contributing to the protection of their rights and territory, including in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.