Loss and Damage and Human Rights

Lien Vandamme is a Geneva-based Senior Campaigner for Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)’s Climate and Energy Program. Lien contributes to CIEL’s work on human rights and climate change, in particular, related to redress for climate harm or loss and damage. She co-facilitates the Human Rights and Climate Change Working Group, convening civil society organisations, Indigenous Peoples representatives and other experts advocating for the promotion and respect of human rights in climate action, and focuses on the UN climate change regime and the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

A Melanesian Indigenous feminist from Maluku. At ESCR-Net, she is accountable to ensure a social-movement centered and shared leadership among members of the Environment and ESCR Working Group. Prior to ESCR-Net, she led the climate justice team and broader advocacy work of different membership-led, Indigenous and feminist networks across Asia and the Pacific. She studied criminal law, but more importantly is shaped by her community’s legacy of political resistance against climate colonialism and the ongoing global struggles for Indigenous sovereignty and liberation.

Chiara is Senior Policy Adviser for Climate Justice at Oxfam Great Britain, where she focuses mostly on loss and damage and climate finance. She has been working on climate justice for almost a decade, particularly at the intersection of climate change and human rights. She has a background as a political scientist, and previously worked for many years for Amnesty International and the UN.

María Paula is an environmental engineer who works as a researcher for La Ruta del Clima.She contributes to projects related to climate change impacts, loss and damage, governance processes, citizen participation, human mobility and youth.

Isatis M. Cintron-Rodriguez is a Puertorrican climate scientist. She has a long track record of community organizing and capacity building in Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Region focusing on climate governance and ethics to expand the civic space at the UNFCCC and national levels. She works at the intersection of science, governance and civic diplomacy building bridges between citizens, policymakers and scientists.

Associate Director at Heinrich Boell Stiftung Washington, DC.

Teo (he/him) is an award winning artist, filmmaker and photographer working on projects relating to political ecology, Loss and Damage, climate-induced migration and displacement, Slow Violence and the political and cultural critique of the Anthropocene. Teo also works to coordinate the L&DC's Advocacy and Art and Culture programs and supports their communications work.

Monica is an academic working at the intersection of human rights and environmental justice. Currently an Assistant Professor at Georgia State University College of Law, her research focuses on how issues of race, gender, and migration status intersect with environmental harms to impair fulfillment of human rights, and how human rights and other international law can address these issues. Prior to joining academia, Monica worked with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, where she coordinated the Office’s work on climate change-related migration.

Tetet is an activist and development worker with almost 30 years’ experience in multidisciplinary and multi-cultural settings at grassroots, national, regional and international levels. She works on different development issues and themes, but is most passionate about climate justice. Tetet strives to make the climate negotiations on finance, particularly loss and damage finance, accessible to a broader audience as a contribution to growing stronger global movements for climate justice.

MA. Adrián is the Director and founder of La Ruta del Clima. Alexander von Humboldt - ICC Alumni. PhD candidate at the University of Eastern Finland. Master in Environment, Development and Peace. Researcher and consultant on public participation, human rights, loss and damage, and international climate law.

Ryan has nearly a decade of experience working in the legal and policy sectors, including for an NGO focused on climate-related displacement, and for a boutique firm that advises Indigenous Peoples organizations in Canada. Ryan has conducted field research and authored various submissions and reports on climate change displacement, human rights and loss and damage, and he advocates for better inclusion of these issues in policy-making, including in UNFCCC negotiations. He is keenly interested in how civil society and international cooperation can improve policies and legal protections for those left out of traditional ‘solutions’ and frameworks.

Linda, JD LLM, is an environmental lawyer and independent consultant. She has been involved in the United Nations climate change negotiating process since 2005 with a special focus on the issues of adaptation and loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate change in developing countries. Linda is particularly familiar with the climate change concerns of small island developing states and least developed countries, having directly supported country delegations through the provision of relevant technical and strategic legal and policy advice. Linda has been a member of the WIM ExCom's Technical Expert Group on Comprehensive Risk Management since 2019.

Pierre is a specialist in public policies on environment, development, and climate change, with more than 10 years of experience in various settings (public, private, and academia), across different regions of the world. Since 2016, he has been actively involved in the field of climate diplomacy, initially serving in the French delegation, then acting as a strategy coordinator for the Loss and Damage Collaboration, and finally as an advisor within the AOSIS group. He is currently stationed at UNDP but continues to contribute to the work of the Collaboration through his research, focusing primarily on governance mechanisms for Loss & Damage, as well as exploring the intricate relationship between international advocacy strategies and their tangible effects on communities, aiming to foster innovative forms of inter-institutional diplomacy and effective program management.