Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima is the thematic Lead of the Human Rights and the Environment thematic area and senior researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.

Dr. Claudia Ituarte-Lima an international public lawyer and scholar with over two decades of experience at the intersection of human rights, biodiversity, and climate change law and policy. Holding an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from University College London, she works as Thematic Lead and Senior Researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden and serves as Director of the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment. She is also the Principal Investigator of the Biodiversa+  project Biosphere Defenders Leveraging Legal and Governance Tools For Just Sustainability Transformation (Defendbio).

Her work bridges legal analysis with sustainability science to address critical environmental and human rights governance challenges. Using participatory approaches, she ensures her research is both impactful for the communities she engages with and innovative in advancing knowledge on environmental justice, social-ecological dynamics and the science-law-policy interface. She has authored over 30 international peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, alongside more than 50 technical reports and policy briefs. Her publications consolidate international human rights and gender equality standards within biodiversity, climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and environmental human rights defenders contexts. Additionally, she has conducted empirical research at subnational levels, providing valuable localized insights. Her research has been published in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese.

Together with partner organizations, she has designed and facilitated capacity-bridging initiatives with professionals across three continents: blended learning courses with judges, National Human Rights Institutions, public prosecutors and bar associations in Asia; in Latin America and the Caribbean, facilitating UNEP’s Fifth Montevideo Environmental Law Programme Conference in Panama; in Africa, delivering workshops for UNEP and UNDP staff in Kenya. She has also contributed significantly to integrating human rights into the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) decisions. Her proposals on human rights safeguards in biodiversity financing mechanisms were adopted by the CBD’s 196 Parties. Furthermore, she has served as an expert in policy support tools for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Committed to disseminating research insights broadly, her op-eds and articles have been featured in prominent platforms like The Conversation, the World Economic Forum, The Diplomat, and Inter Press Service News Agency. Living and working across Sweden, Mexico, Kenya, Japan, Canada, and the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon has enriched her understanding of diverse cultural and environmental contexts with unique skills to catalyze research and action with international scope while being contextually relevant.