{"id":2880,"date":"2012-08-02T11:26:09","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T11:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gnhre.org\/?page_id=2880"},"modified":"2026-04-25T07:27:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T06:27:47","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/gnhre.org\/?page_id=2880","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome to the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment \u2013 a Network for the Creation of Change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are a global network of thinkers, researchers, policy-makers, opinion-formers and community activists whose diversity forges new conversations and relationships. We produce, exchange, and learn from world-leading scholarship and insights drawn from community-embedded experience and praxis at the interface between human rights and the environment all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The GNHRE Core Team is the organisational heart of the network,  working passionately to ensure that the network produces genuine change, new initiatives, fresh relationships, and a better human and environmental future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Core Team Members<\/b><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Claudia Ituarte-Lima<\/strong> is the Director of GNHRE. As a recognized international public lawyer and scholar, Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima brings to the GNHRE over two decades of expertise in the intersection of international human rights, biodiversity and climate law and policy. She holds a PhD (University College London) and a MPhil (University of Cambridge) and is thematic lead on human rights and environment and senior researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liliana Lizarazo-Rodriguez<\/strong> is the Deputy Director of the GNHRE. She is the Research Professor of Sustainable Development Law and Sustainable Development and Global Governance at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). She is Principal Investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) grant Curiae Virides<\/a>. She holds honorary positions as Associate Researcher at IPIS research (Belgium) and Fellow at Sustainability College Bruges (Belgium). She is also the director of other research projects, such as the Horizon Europe MSC Mother Earth. At the VUB, she is also one of the promoters of the HOST project, the House of Sustainability Transitions and the Ecotrilema project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Natalia Urzola Guti\u00e9rrez<\/strong> is a Chief Coordinating Officer. As a lawyer, her practice focuses on environmental, constitutional, administrative, and human rights law. Outside of her work with GNHRE, she also serves on the Board of Directors at the International Action Network for Gender Equity and Law and as an Editorial Board member at the Global Pandemic Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special Responsibilities<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tim Blackman<\/strong> is the Technology Manager. He is Head of Security, Risk, and Compliance at a web development company focusing on maintaining a strong security posture and conforming with legal and regulatory requirements.

Vivian Kaife Ezeofor<\/strong> is the Website Manager. She is a Doctoral researcher of law at the University of Helsinki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rashmi Gupta<\/strong> is the Research Repository manager. She is an energy and environmental lawyer with a Master\u2019s in energy & clean technology law, and environmental law from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on clean energy, climate change, and human rights laws.

Brita Jelen<\/strong> is the Social Media Manager. She is a Program Manager for the American Society of International Law and has her JD from DePaul University College of Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Melanie Montalban<\/strong> is a Membership Manager. Outside of her work at GNHRE, she serves as the Managing Lawyer, Australian Capital Territory at the Environmental Defenders Office and is a Senior Co-Chair of the Subcommittee on Environment and Human Rights at Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. Melanie specializes in administrative, environmental, refugee, human rights, and international law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linn\u00e9a Nordlander<\/strong> is a Membership Manager. She is currently an Assistant Professor of sustainability and human rights at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen. Her research investigates the intersection of human rights and climate change law, focusing especially on how human rights law can serve to enhance and enforce states\u2019 climate change mitigation ambition.

Hannah Blitzer<\/strong> is a member of the Advocacy Committee. She has worked on environmental, climate change and human rights projects at UK and international NGOs. Currently, Hannah works on farming policy and environmental rights advocacy in England. Her academic research focused on human\/nature binaries in environmental law and the legal recognition of the right to a healthy environment in the UK. 

Mukelisiwe Mbonambi<\/strong> is a member of the Advocacy Committee. She is interested in the relationship between the government and mining companies to grant permission to conduct mining activities in certain areas. Also how mining corporations can conduct their activities in a manner that complies with environmental laws. Mukelisiwe is currently busy with her Practical Vocational Training, which is a two-year training to qualify for admission as an attorney.

Stella Shu Ting Wong<\/strong> is a member of the Advocacy Committee. She is particularly interested in business and human rights and the intersection between labor rights and the environment. She has researched labor rights in Asia and corporate responsibility for climate change loss and damage. Currently based in Austria, Stella works on human rights due diligence in supply chains.

Cleverline Brown<\/strong> is a blog editor with the GNHRE. She is a lecturer in the Faculty of Law of the Rivers State University Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and has previously practiced law in Nigeria. Her research interests are in environmental compliance and enforcement practices, oil and gas law, criminal law, and information technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sumudu Atapattu<\/strong> is a blog editor with the GNHRE. She is the Associate Director of the Global Legal Studies Center and Senior Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin Law School and lectures in international environmental law. Currently, she sits on the advisory board of the McGill International Journal of Sustainable Development Law and Policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regional Representatives<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Africa<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Nicole Kaneza<\/strong> is the Regional Director of Africa, a qualified lawyer admitted to the New York Bar and the Paris Bar, with over ten years of experience across international organizations, civil society, academia, and the private sector. Her work has focused on public international law, international criminal law, international human rights law, and strategic litigation. Nicole is from Burundi. She is fluent in French, English, and Kirundi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zukiswa Mqakanya<\/strong> is the Deputy Director of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ASIA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uday Shankar<\/strong> is the Regional Director of Asia. He is a Registrar & Professor of Law at Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur. He has been teaching and researching law for more than 19 years. He has served as guest professor under the Magdalene Schoch Fellowship awarded by the University of Hamburg and is a Life Member of the Indian Law Institute, Delhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pankaj Karn<\/strong><\/a> is the Deputy Director of Asia. He is a Kathmandu-based constitutional, civil rights and human rights lawyer, and has successfully litigated a wide range of constitutional, civil, and human rights and environmental issues in the Supreme Court of Nepal. He also serves as the General Secretary of the Public Defender Society Nepal, which provides legal aid to marginalized Nepalese communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PACIFIC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Govind<\/strong> is the Regional Director of the Pacific. Paul is a Lecturer at the School of Law and Deputy Director of the Centre of Environmental Law, at Macquarie University, Australia where he teaches environmental planning law and climate law. His research interests include ethics in environmental law, including rights and responsibilities\/obligations, across domestic, transnational and international contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE CARIBBEAN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alana Lancaster<\/strong> is the Director of the Caribbean. She is the former Director of the Environmental Management Division of the Environmental Protection Agency of Guyana and a Lecturer in International Environmental & Energy Law at the University of the West Indies. Recently, she was appointed to the Executive Team of the One Ocean Hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Britney G. Nurse<\/strong> is Deputy Director of the Caribbean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EUROPE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annalisa Savaresi<\/strong> is the Regional Director of Europe. She is an Associate Professor of International Environmental Law at the University of Eastern Finland Center for Climate Change, Energy, and Environmental Law. She also holds a research post at the University of Stirling, UK as well as visiting posts at Sant\u2019Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy, and at the University of La Sabana, Colombia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Margaretha Wewerinke Singh<\/strong> is the Deputy Director of Europe. She is an Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies (Leiden University) and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in Environmental Law at the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (University of the South Pacific). She is also an Attorney at Blue Ocean Law, a boutique international law firm based in Guam specialising in human and indigenous rights, self-determination and environmental justice in the Pacific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corina Heri<\/strong> is the Co-Deputy Director of Europe. She co-leads the Climate Rights and Remedies Project at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and, from January 2025, is an Assistant Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law at Tilburg University (NL).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NORTH AMERICA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freya Doughty-Wagner<\/strong> is the Regional Director of North America and the writer of the GNHRE newsletter. She is also the Chief Operating Officer for the American Branch of the International Law Association. Doughty-Wagner\u2019s research focuses on the right to a healthy environment for youth and children. Outside of the GNHRE, she is a member of ILA Committee on International Law for the SDGs, the Childhood, Law & Policy Network, and UWE Bristol\u2019s Research in Public International Law research group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erin Dobbelsteyn<\/strong> is the Deputy Director of North America. She is a PhD Candidate at the University of Ottawa and a Schulich Fellow at Dalhousie University. Her doctoral research is at the intersection of public and planetary health, human rights, and environmental law and she recently represented Friends of the Earth Canada as an intervener in Mathur v Ontario<\/em>, the first human rights-based climate change Charter<\/em> application in Canada to have a hearing on the merits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LATIN AMERICA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea Dominguez <\/strong>is the Regional Director of Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H\u00e9ctor Herrera<\/strong> is the Regional Deputy Director of Latin America. He holds a law degree from the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia and has a Master\u2019s in Public Policy from Colombia\u2019s Universidad Nacional. He is a Ph.D. researcher at the Institute of Development Policy (IOB), Belgium, researching urban climate finance with a climate justice perspective in Mexico City and Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rafaela Pinto<\/strong> is the Deputy Director for Latin America.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our programmes and projects<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The GNHRE hosts a number of ongoing programmes and projects:<\/p>\n\n\n\n