Earlier this month, 11 UCLA Law students met with UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Water and Sanitation, Mr. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, and his legal team. Under the guidance of UCLA Law alum and our Legal Advisor, Amanda Brown, they began research for his upcoming report to the UN General Assembly on the human right to sanitation without discrimination. As all previous reports have focused on the right to water, this will be the first time that this aspect of the mandate is addressed by the Special Rapporteur.

Karen McCarthy Woolf’s new poetry collection Unsafe, published in February 2026, by Bloomsbury, brings together work developed during her residency at The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA School of Law in 2019 and 2020.

As a disenchanted walk through London and Los Angeles, Unsafe shows the effects of capitalism on those who live at its sharp end. It is an immersive meditation on place, the body, nature, and the self, drawing the reader into processes of gentrification and economic disparity, often through unexpected lenses – from trees and tattoos to the totemic qualities of cats.

A new article has been published in our Special Edition of the International Journal of Human Rights on Ecocide, Human Rights and Environmental Justice! 

Enam Korkor Antonio, Daniel Adjin Odonkor & Mordechai Nyamekye’s article Beyond Environmental Harm: Redefining Ecocide to Address Global South Realities through Ghana’s Illegal Mining Crisis argues that current definitions of ecocide inadequately address the environmental and socio-economic realities of the Global South.

Using Ghana’s illegal gold mining (galamsey) crisis as a case study, the authors propose an expanded definition that includes harm to human livelihoods, health, and fundamental rights. 

It was a full house for The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA’s 2nd Annual Judging International Justice Lecture featuring the Honorable Dire Tladi, Judge at the International Court of Justice at the T.M.C. Asser Institute on Monday.   

In his lecture, Judge Tladi examined the role of the International Court of Justice and the contours of its function.

He reflected on the interpretation of concepts of jus cogens and erga omnes, situating them within current discussions about the meaning and continued relevance of international legal institutions in a time marked by multiple conflicts and challenges to international agreements.  

Our legal associate Amanda Danson Brown’s article “Critical Race Theory and the Law of the Sea: Bringing CRT ‘Offshore’” has been published in the peer-reviewed SOAS Journal of Postgraduate Research.   

Amanda Brown observes that while critical scholars have increasingly encouraged bringing Critical Race Theory (CRT) approaches into international law, this expansion has largely stopped at the shoreline; the international law of the sea (ILOS) remains conspicuously absent from this global turn.

We congratulate Monica Lennon, the Scottish Parliament, and the people of Scotland on the vote to advance the Ecocide (Scotland) Bill. This is a significant step towards recognising severe environmental destruction as a serious crime and future prevention of such crimes. 

This vote marks an important moment for environmental justice and accountability. Scotland is demonstrating clear and principled leadership, both within Europe and globally. 

Our Legal Associate, Xuchen Zhang, and ED, Kate Mackintosh, have submitted a brief to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in response to its Call for Input on addressing the challenges and barriers to the full realization of the human rights of the people of the Marshall Islands stemming from the State’s nuclear legacy.

Make sure to join us for a timely and reflective lecture by Dire Tladi, Judge of the International Court of Justice, for the second Judging International Justice Lecture series from The promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA.

This lecture offers an opportunity to hear directly from a sitting international judge on the role, responsibilities, and limits of international adjudication today. Drawing on his experience as judge, scholar, and former government adviser, Judge Tladi will reflect on how international courts engage with complex global challenges, and how legal reasoning is shaped by institutional mandates, historical context, and evolving international realities.

We are pleased to share a newly published paper by Kal Raustiala, The Promise Institute Distinguished Professor of Comparative and International Law, 𝘞𝘩𝘰𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘙𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘙𝘶𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥: 𝘚𝘦𝘢 𝘗𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘢, which is out in the American Journal of International Law this month.

Across three panels, Corporations and Colonialism; Accountability and Repair: Defining Justice for the Crime of Ecocide; and Human Rights and Environmental Stewardship, speakers explored ecocide through a human rights lens, offering a wide range of perspectives on how severe environmental harm intersects with human rights and how international law can be used to advance environmental justice. The programme concluded with an evening session focused on diplomacy and activism.

Enjoy dipping into the conference report, the recordings of the event, and the image gallery!

The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA is pleased to present the 2025 Annual Report reflecting our work in both Los Angeles and Europe. We remain committed to uniting people around our shared mission to advance human rights and empower the next generations of lawyers, leaders, and advocates.  

The semester has officially come to an end for our UCLA Law in The Hague students. 

It has been a full and inspiring period: internships at the International Court of Justice, the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the International Development Law Organization, and the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, a study visit to Geneva to watch the UN in action and meet with human rights practitioners, and participation in a major conference in London on ecocide, human rights and environmental justice. 

At the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court (ASP24), experts from Ukraine and international legal organisations outlined how environmental harm is being investigated and framed in active conflict, offering insights that are shaping approaches in other jurisdictions. The session included a preview of a new manual on prosecuting international environmental crimes.

The OTP Policy on Addressing Environmental Damage through the Rome Statute has been launched this Thursday at the Assembly of States Parties to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. 

This document is the outcome of an extensive global consultation on how international criminal law can better respond to severe environmental harm (an area where accountability is widely recognised as urgent).

The criminalisation of ecocide is coming, both domestically and internationally. The real question for us, especially in the business and human rights community, is: what difference will it make? How will the emergence of ecocide as a crime strengthen and complement businesses’ obligations to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence?

Watch Kate Mackintosh reflect on this question at the UN Business and Human Rights Forum, Geneva, 24 November 2025

Inspiring words from London based climate educator and founder of The Peoples Ark, Samia Dumbuya, at our International Conference on Ecocide, Human Rights and Environmental Justice.

Samia is working to achieve people powered climate action and inclusive decision making so communities can shape just climate futures. 

Dr Farah Faizal, former Maldivian diplomat, opened the panel Human Rights and Environmental Stewardship at our recent conference on Ecocide, Human Rights and Environmental Justice, with a call to action, a reminder that talk alone is not enough and that practical work must follow.

Baroness Rosie Boycott opened the conference with a thoughtful keynote address. 

She reflected on themes that would reappear throughout the day, beginning with the contrast between her own childhood memories of time spent in nature and what her grandchildren now experience. Noting how dramatically these everyday landscapes have changed, she highlighted the importance of recognising that people’s sense of “normal” shifts as the environment deteriorates.

People across the Gaza Strip have been returning to towns and cities badly damaged by the war after a fragile ceasefire took effect in October. Eventually, their lives will be restored and their homes will be built back. But the climate consequences of the war will remain for years to come.

The third panel of the day, Human Rights and Environmental Stewardship, chaired by Dr. Farah Faizal, former High Commissioner of the Maldives, examined how efforts to protect nature intersect with human rights, culture, and inequality.

Lovleen Bhullar spoke about India’s polluted rivers, noting that long before environmental law, local communities had their own systems of stewardship and protection. Dr. Matthew Gillett and Darryl Robinson debated the balance between anthropocentric and ecocentric perspectives, while Daniel Adjin Odonkor brought the discussion to life with the example of small-scale gold mining in Ghana.