Indigenous Rights and the Rights of Nature
Plenary Panel I
Few fields of international law have seen such a groundbreaking evolution as the rights of nature, a development that has been specifically linked to the rights of indigenous peoples. In light of these peoples’ particularly close relationship to their territories, the protection of their rights has traditionally been a “bridge” to more eco-centric visions of international law, including the protection and rights of nature. This has led to remarkable legal and jurisprudential developments. Most recently, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights explicitly recognized the rights of nature in its 2025 Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights. Similar moves in the same direction are evident in other decisions at the global and regional levels as well as in domestic legal systems. The panel addresses the various aspects of the rights of nature as well as the rights of indigenous peoples and relevant developments in the field, both from a conceptual as well as a practical perspective. This may also include the intersection of indigenous rights and the rights of nature, or how rights of nature are employed in practical terms (e.g. in the context of the climate crisis).
Convenor
Christina Binder holds the Chair for International Law and International Human Rights Law at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich since April 2017. Before, she was University Professor of International Law at the Department of European, International and Comparative Law at the University of Vienna. Christina was member of the Executive Board of the European Society of International Law (ESIL) 2014-2022 and also served as ESIL’s Vice-President. She is member of the Council of the Global Campus of Human Rights since 2019. She is member of the ILA Committees “Urbanisation and International Law - Potential & Pitfalls” and “International Law for the SDGs” and was Co-Rapporteur of the ILA Committee “Human Rights in Times of Emergency”. Her research focuses on a number of public international law issues, including human rights, the law of treaties, international investment law, democracy and political participation as well as international environmental law.
Panelists
Philippe Cullet is Professor of international and environmental law at SOAS University of London and Visiting Professor at the National Law University Delhi. He is the recipient of an ERC Advanced Grant (2025-2030) focusing on multi-scalar dimensions of sectoral water conflicts in South Asia (WATCON.org). His publications reflect his engagement with international law and policy, the global South and India. His latest edited book is River Rejuvenation and River Rights: Evolving Debates in India (Routledge, 2026) [co-edited with Ruchi Shree]. He is the Guest Editor of a Special issue on Indigenous Ecological Knowledge in South Asia – Lessons for Rights of Nature Discourses, Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences (forthcoming 2026). Philippe is the Chair of the Rights of Nature Specialist Group, WCEL-IUCN and the Co-chair of the Committee on Rights of Nature of the International Law Association.
Federico Lenzerini, Ph.D., International Law, is Professor of International Law and International Human Rights Law at the Department of Political and International Sciences of the University of Siena (Italy). He is also Professor at the LLM Programme in Intercultural Human Rights at the St. Thomas University School of Law, Miami (FL), USA, and Professor at the Tulane-Siena Summer School on International Law, Cultural Heritage and the Arts. He is Deputy Head of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s Royal Commission of Inquiry and Chair of the Garifuna Reparations Working Group (GRWG), St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He has been the Rapporteur of the ILA ‘Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’ and Rapporteur of the ILA Committee on ‘Implementation of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples’.
Dalee Sambo Dorough, an Alaskan Iñupiaq leader, is renowned for her work in human rights law, Indigenous empowerment, and Arctic governance. With a Master's degree from The Fletcher School, Tufts University and a PhD in Law from University of British Columbia, she has long championed Indigenous rights. Her leadership spans decades, including roles at the Inuit Circumpolar Council, UN bodies, and academia. A key contributor to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, she’s received numerous honors, such as the Reebok Human Rights Award, an honorary doctorate from Durham, and the IASC Medal in 2022. Her work continues to impact global Indigenous policy.
Rene Urueña is the World Trade Organization Chair at Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia). A Max Planck Fellow in Law, he has been counsel and several times an expert witness before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, served as Special Advisor on Complementarity to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, as President of the Colombian Academy of International law, and as an adviser of the Selection Committee of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Colombia). He has been a Fellow at New York University, a docent at the Institute for Global Law and Policy at the University of Harvard, and a visiting professor at the City University of New York, and at the universities of Tel-Aviv, Utah, Lapland, and Helsinki. He holds a LL.M. (laudatur) and a Doctor of Law (eximia cum laude) degree from the University of Helsinki, and a law degree and a postgraduate degree in economics from the Universidad de los Andes (Colombia).