Environmental lawyers under threat: how can the legal community respond?

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Tara Fiechter is a Brussels-based human rights advocate with legal and interdisciplinary training, holding an LL.M. in Transnational Law from King’s College London and a BA in Liberal Arts & Sciences and LL.B from Utrecht University College and Utrecht Law School respectively. She currently works as Programme Officer at Lawyers for Lawyers, leading advocacy to safeguard the independence of the legal profession in Europe & Central Asia and supporting initiatives on fair trial rights, civic space, and environmental justice. Tara has previously contributed to human rights work at the European Parliament, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and media safety organisations. She is particularly engaged in multilateral advocacy and stakeholder collaboration to strengthen the rule of law and protect human rights defenders.

Atty. John is a graduate of the University of Cebu School of Law, and was admitted to the Philippine Bar on May 2017. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from the University of the Philippines in Cebu (Cum Laude). In 2015, Atty. John and his team represented Southeast Asia in the International Finals of the 19th Stetson International Environmental Moot Court Competition in Stetson University’s Gulfport Campus in Florida, USA. He served as one of the judges of the annual oral rounds of the Stetson Southeast Asian Regional Rounds of the Stetson International Environmental Moot Court Competition and the Philippine rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition. Atty. John is also a certified leader and coach by John Maxwell Training Institute after having attended the John Maxwell Leadership Certification Program at Orlando, Florida, USA last August 2018. Currently he is the Director of the Office of the Legal Aid and a professor of law at the University of Cebu School of Law and the Managing Trustee of the Philippine Earth Justice Center (PEJC).

Nicole is an expert in the areas of Strategic Litigation, Project Management, Climate Change, and International Sustainability. She has two master's degrees in International Law and Conflict Resolution at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica and the University of Innsbruck in Austria. Nicole has a wide range of professional experience, having managed international and Brazilian civil society organizations in Brazil, Europe and Latin America for more than 12 years. She teaches Energy Transition at the IDP Public Law Institute, is board member of the National Forum of Energy Transition, and is the executive director of Arayara International Institute since 2022. 

Ms. Margaret Satterthwaite was appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers by the Human Rights Council in October 2022. Professor Satterthwaite is an international human rights scholar and practitioner with decades of experience in the field. She is a Professor of Clinical Law at New York University School of Law, where she directs the Global Justice Clinic and serves as a faculty director of the Robert and Helen Bernstein Institute for Human Rights and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice. Her scholarship has focused on access to justice, legal empowerment, and methodological innovation in human rights, among other topics, and she has published several edited volumes and dozens of articles and book chapters. Professor Satterthwaite has worked with individuals and communities seeking to realize their rights around the world, including in Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Uganda, the United States, and Yemen. She has litigated in international and domestic fora, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Professor Satterthwaite graduated magna cum laude from NYU School of Law. She clerked for a US Court of Appeals judge and subsequently for judges of the International Court of Justice. She has worked for a variety of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International USA, where she co-founded and then directed the organization’s program to defend the human rights of those persecuted on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. She also worked with Street Law, Human Rights First, and the Haitian Truth and Justice Commission. She has also served as a human rights consultant and advising expert to the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and two UN Special Rapporteurs. She has been a member of the boards of directors of several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International USA, the Global Initiative on Economic and Social Rights, the International Service for Human Rights, and Digital Democracy.