Climate Change on Trial: Landmark book and educational toolkit on rights-based climate law by César Rodríguez-Garavito

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT 

Climate Change on Trial: Landmark book and educational toolkit on rights-based climate law by César Rodríguez-Garavito

Can human rights help combat climate change? A global wave of climate litigation says yes, with a new book and initiative from the Climate Law Accelerator at NYU Law spotlighting the evolution and power of rights-based legal action.

In the face of accelerating climate breakdown, a new global trend has taken shape: climate litigation rooted in human rights law. As one of the most closely watched and fast-growing legal strategies for climate action – culminating in the advisory opinions released this summer by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice – it’s reshaping how courts, governments, and communities respond to the climate crisis.

Against this historic backdrop, the Climate Law Accelerator (CLX) at NYU Law is stepping into the global spotlight with Founding Director César Rodríguez-Garavito’s landmark new book and accompanying educational initiative — one that traces the arc of a rights-based revolution and explores how human rights are shaping the future of climate justice.

Climate Change on Trial: Mobilizing Human Rights Litigation to Accelerate Climate Action is now available as an open-access publication from Cambridge University Press. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the rise of rights-based climate litigation worldwide, and it arrives at a pivotal moment when the highest courts on the planet are issuing groundbreaking opinions that could shape climate governance for decades to come.

Drawing on original interviews, fieldwork, and data from CLX’s original rights-based global case database, the book traces the twenty-year rise of rights-based climate litigation across jurisdictions, highlighting both the direct and symbolic impacts of legal mobilization in the Anthropocene.

“The story of rights-based climate litigation vividly displays the potential of human rights concepts and strategies in dealing with the existential challenges of the Anthropocene—from climate change to biodiversity loss to toxic pollution,”

César Rodríguez-Garavito

More than a book, Climate Change on Trial is also the centerpiece of a forward-looking educational initiative aimed at supporting students, educators, lawyers, and advocates. The accompanying initiative, all hosted by the CLX Toolkit, includes:

  • Video explainers and multimedia content
  • A post-script to Climate Change on Trial
  • A strategic litigation tracker and global case database

These resources are designed to empower the next generation of climate advocates and deepen engagement at the intersection of law, human rights, and climate governance.

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October 8, 2025 Youssef Farhat Product  

The Center at NYC Climate Week 2025

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

The Center for Human Rights & Global Justice at NYC Climate Week 2025

The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice will host a weeklong series of events for NYC Climate Week 2025. Organized by the Earth Rights Research and Action (TERRA) Program, these events will bring together global thought leaders, advocates, and discipline-spanning scholars to center pressing questions of rights-based climate action and more-than-human rights at this year’s NYC Climate Week. Join us for an engaging series of panels, conversations, film screenings, and more. 

Taking place at NYU Law, this dynamic week will run from Tuesday, September 23 to Thursday, September 25.

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Climate Change on Trial: Book Launch & Expert Panel

4:00-6:00 pm ET | English only
NYU School of Law, Wilf Hall, Room 512, 139 MacDougal Street

Join us for the official launch of Climate Change on Trial: Mobilizing Human Rights Litigation to Accelerate Climate Action, the new open-access book authored by Professor of Law César Rodríguez-Garavito and published by Cambridge University Press. This landmark publication traces the global rise of rights-based climate litigation and explores its transformative impacts on climate justice movements worldwide.

More than just a book, Climate Change on Trial is part of a comprehensive educational offering — including multimedia content, video explainers, and teaching resources — designed to support learning and action at the intersection of human rights and climate change.

Following a brief presentation of the book, an expert panel featuring César Rodríguez-Garavito (NYU Climate Law Accelerator), Elisa Morgera (UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change), and Lisa Vanhala (Professor of Political Science at University College London), moderated by Ashley Otilia Nemeth (CLX Director of Programs), will discuss the evolving role of human rights law in the climate emergency. From courtroom strategies to global governance shifts to loss and damage, the conversation will highlight how the law has and must continue to adapt — urgently, creatively, and at a planetary scale — to remain relevant in the Anthropocene.

This event is hosted by NYU Climate Law Accelerator at the Center for Human Rights & Global Justice.

Register

The Indigenous-Led Whale Protection and Legal Personhood Declaration: A conversation on Indigenous knowledge and environmental leadership, law, and the science of whale rights

6:00-8:00 pm ET | English only
NYU School of Law, Wilf Hall, Room 512, 139 MacDougal Street

Summary: Signed in March 2024 by the late Māori King from Aotearoa (New Zealand) and other Pacific leaders, He Whakaputanga Moana is grounded in Te Ao Māori teachings and Polynesian values which recognize whales as both ancestors and sentient beings. Join us to hear from Hinemoana Halo, the Indigenous-led organization behind the Declaration, for a conversation on the rights of whales with legal experts from NYU MOTH and scientists from Project CETI. 

Panelists:

  • Aperahama Edwards
  • Simon Mitchell
  • César Rodríguez-Garavito
  • David Gruber

This event is hosted by Hinemoana Halo, Project CETI, the NYU More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.

Register

Living Data, Living Lands: Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Biodiversity Monitoring

6:00-8:00 pm ET | English, Spanish
NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, Room 206

With current threats to biodiversity, it is tracked by billions of data points worldwide. Technology today prioritizes global aggregation, severing ties between data and the communities who have been stewarding and caring for these biodiverse lands and waters. The pace of technology change is only accelerating this extractive norm. At 2025 NYC Climate Week, Local Contexts, the Indigenous Data Exchange, Center CIRCL and the NYU MOTH Program seek to interrupt this cycle. Join us to reimagine and put into practice Indigenous-led biodiversity data infrastructures. Our focus is on building a future that connects and empowers rather than extracts and disconnects.

Panelists:

  • Stephanie Carroll (Ahtna)
  • Jane Anderson
  • Lydia Jennings (Pasqua Yaqui)
  • Darren Ranco (Penobscot)
  • Suzanne Greenlaw (Maliseet)
  • José Gualinga (Kichwa de Sarayaku)
  • Maheata White Davies (Tahiti)
  • Erin Robinson
  • Neil Davies

This event is hosted in collaboration with Local Contexts, the Indigenous Data Exchange, Center CIRCL and the NYU MOTH Program at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.

Register

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Film Screening & Panel: Allpa Ukundi, Ñukanchi Pura (Underground, Around, and Among Us)

6:00-8:00 pm ET | English, Spanish
NYU School of Law, Tishman Auditorium, 40 Washington Square South

Join Sarayaku, the NYU MOTH Program, Selvas Producciones, Local Contexts, Fungi Foundation, Cosmo Sheldrake, SPUN, and 070 for an exclusive screening of Allpa Ukundi, Ñukanchi Pura (Underground, Around, and Among Us), a powerful new documentary directed by Natalia Arenas, Diego Forero, and Eriberto Gualinga that traces a groundbreaking collaboration between the Sarayaku People of the Ecuadorian Amazon and a global alliance of scientists, artists, and advocates. The film captures the alliance’s efforts to advance Indigenous sovereignty and defend the Sarayaku peoples’ ancestral territory against extractive threats by documenting fungal and sonic life in the Amazon, all set against the backdrop of Sarayaku’s intrepid Kawsak Sacha proposal for life. Following the screening, participants can stay for a discussion with members of the collaboration to explore how science, sound, and sovereignty intersect in the fight to defend the Living Forest.

Panelists:

  • José Gualinga
  • Samai Gualinga
  • César Rodríguez-Garavito
  • Eriberto Gualinga
  • Jane Anderson
  • Adriana Corrales
  • Carlos Andrés Baquero Díaz

This event is hosted by TAYJASARUTA (Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku), Selvas Producciones, Local Contexts, Fungi Foundation, Cosmo Sheldrake, SPUN, 070, and the NYU MOTH Program at the Center for Human Right and Global Justice. 

Register

Thursday, September 25, 2025

Intangible Zone: Film Screening & Discussion with the Amazon Conservation Team

1:30-3:00 pm ET | English only
NYU School of Law, Wilf Hall 5th Floor, Room 512, 139 MacDougal Street

Join the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) and the NYU MOTH Program to view Intangible Zone, learn more about the ACT’s work with Indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, and discuss the rights of these nations and the legal and political mechanisms available for their protection. About the film: In the Colombian Amazon, the Indigenous reserve Resguardo Curare Los Ingleses survives and fights to protect the Intangible Zone, a thriving territory inhabited by isolated Indigenous peoples, from the perils of the outside world. 

Panelists:

  • Brian Hettler
  • Juana Hofman
  • Daniel Aristizábal

This event is hosted by Amazon Conservation Team, the NYU MOTH Program at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.

Governing the End: The Making of Climate Change Loss and Damage, Book Talk & Q&A with Lisa Vanhala

3:00-4:30 pm ET | English only
NYU School of Law, Wilf Hall 5th Floor, Room 512, 139 MacDougal Street

Join us for a compelling conversation with Lisa Vanhala, author of Governing the End: The Making of Climate Change Loss and Damage, about the global politics of climate justice, the unequal impacts of climate change, and the challenges of turning international commitments into meaningful action. Drawing on in-depth research into the UN climate negotiations, Vanhala sheds light on how countries navigate loss, responsibility, and power in the face of planetary crisis.

Panelists:

  • Lisa Vanhala (Pro Vice-Provost for the Grand Challenge Theme of the Climate Crisis, University College London)
  • César Rodríguez-Garavito

This event is hosted by NYU Climate Law Accelerator at the Center for Human Rights & Global Justice.

Register
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September 16, 2025 Youssef Farhat Event Summary  

Racial Profiling & Mass Deportations: Rights Abuses of People of Haitian Descent in the Dominican Republic

HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Racial Profiling & Mass Deportations

Rights Abuses of People of Haitian Descent in the Dominican Republic

This brief, published by the Global Justice Clinic, presents the human rights violations–including arbitrary detention, family separation, and racial profiling–that Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic face, and that have become more frequent and severe since late 2024.

Este informe publicado por la Clínica de Justicia Global, presenta las violaciones de los derechos humanos —incluídas, la detención arbitraria, la separación familiar y la discriminación racial— que sufren los migrantes haitianos y los dominicanos de ascendencia haitiana en la República Dominicana, y que se han vuelto más frecuentes y graves desde finales de 2024.

English
Español
Juan Martinez d’Aubuisson

The Global Justice Clinic authored the brief in consultation with several Dominican and Haitian organizations that advocate for the rights of people of Haitian descent. The brief sheds light on the increased human rights violations that Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic (D.R.) face since the Dominican government announced a new deportation policy in October of 2024 that aimed to deport up to 10,000 people per week. As the image above shows, the Dominican government is rounding people up and putting them in cage-like trucks to transport them to the border. Haitian migrants and Dominicans of Haitian descent are living in terror. Instances of arbitrary detention and collective expulsions, family separation, and violence and inhumane treatment are increasing, and racial profiling is widespread. The brief highlights the policy’s significant impact on vulnerable groups, particularly children, pregnant and nursing women, and human rights defenders.

The brief concludes with recommendations proposed by the Global Justice Clinic’s D.R. and Haiti-based partners, including:

  1. ending the deportation quota,
  2. ceasing to deport unaccompanied children,
  3. practicing nondiscrimination in detention and deportation, ceasing to profile people based on perceived race and nationality, and
  4. expanding pathways for migrant workers and their families to regularize their status.

Although the brief’s recommendations primarily target Dominican authorities, all governments in the regions, international institutions, and civil society organizations must call for the Dominican government to respect human rights.

Advocacy

The Haitian Immigrant Rights Project (HIRP) is part of the Global Justice Clinic at NYU School of Law. HIRP coordinates the Hemispheric Network for Haitian Migrants’ Rights, a transnational coalition of Haitian migrant rights’ leaders and Haitian-led organizations based in 14 countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. A number of the Dominican and Haitian organizations that the Clinic worked with to produce this brief are Network members.

This post reflects the work of the Global Justice Clinic and not necessarily the views of NYU, NYU Law, or the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice.

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June 10, 2025 Youssef Farhat Product  

The MOTH Program & Project CETI explore how understanding whale communication can reshape the law.

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

The MOTH Program & Project CETI explore how understanding whale communication can reshape the law

New York University’s More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program and Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) have joined forces to explore how advances in our understanding of sperm whale communications could lead to positive legal change. Their findings are presented in a new article forthcoming in Ecology Law Quarterly and published on New York University School of Law’s pre-print site (SSRN): “What if We Understood what Animals are Saying? The Legal Impact of AI-assisted Studies of Animal Communication.” The paper explores the growing fields of artificial intelligence and bioacoustics and their potential to reshape human and nonhuman law by challenging long-held assumptions about animal communication. 

Photo of Spermwhale
Amanda Cotton (CETI)

Recent and interdisciplinary advancements in recording technology, advanced robotics, and AI have revealed that many species, from whales to honeybees, possess sophisticated communication systems. Pioneering projects like Project CETI utilize artificial intelligence and technological advances to study those communication systems and have already made groundbreaking findings, such as the sperm whale phonetic alphabet. Proving that cetaceans have a capacity for language would challenge current linguistic theories that confine language to humans and disrupt the legal landscape. From this starting point, co-authors César Rodríguez-Garavito, David F. Gruber, Ashley Otilia Nemeth, and Gašper Beguš explore two interdisciplinary questions rooted in law, linguistics, and science.

What if we could use AI to understand what animals – in particular, sperm whales – are saying? And what if we could use the law to translate that understanding into renewed protections and respect for nonhuman animal populations? 

Law and policy often lag behind the frontiers of scientific advancement, but the collaboration between NYU’s MOTH Program and Project CETI bridges that gap, bringing together two nascent and rapidly evolving fields: nonhuman animal communication technologies and more-than-human law. Together, the two organizations investigate the legal and ethical possibilities arising from new challenges to long-held assumptions about nonhuman animal communication. The joint article examines the legal implications of understanding sperm whales’ capacity for language and, taking the question even further, investigates the legal implications of understanding the contents of sperm whale communication.

Understanding the capacity and content of sperm whale language could radically reshape existing legal frameworks and supplement deeply insufficient contemporary understandings of cetacean behavior, social dynamics, needs, and experiences of suffering. These insights could strengthen enforcement of existing legislation, such as the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), catalyze entirely new rights for cetaceans, or spark a fundamental transformation in cetaceans’ recognition and treatment by the law.

“At this inflection point, we must deepen our comprehension of the legal possibilities, and the risks, that arise when humans turn to AI to connect with and understand the more-than-human world,” says César Rodríguez-Garavito, founder of the MOTH Program and Professor at NYU Law. “But the potential impacts are much broader. By infusing legal thinking and practice with respect and reciprocity for other forms of life, we can reimagine what flourishing interspecies relationships look like.”

“A deeper appreciation for how nonhuman animals communicate allows us to better honor our relationship and interconnections with the natural world,” adds David Gruber, founder of Project CETI and Project Lead. “As science reveals new portals and understandings about the variety of ways in which life communicates with one another and other species, this shift in understanding should be paired by legal and policy protections.”

Left to Right: César Rodríguez-Garavito, David Gruber, Ashley Otilia-Nemeth, Gašper Beguš.

“Language is a defining trait of humanity—through language we build our relationships, societies, and even our laws. Science has already uncovered many properties of language in nonhuman animals, especially sperm whales, but we haven’t fully asked ourselves what this means for our legal frameworks. As AI-assisted research continues to bring new insights, we ask in our paper: If language underpins our humanity, our rights, and our laws, what does discovering these properties in nonhumans mean for their legal status, and how might our legal systems evolve as a result?” adds Gašper Beguš, CETI’s lead of Linguists and Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.

“The history of nonhuman animal law demonstrates that science and public sentiment have long shaped—and will continue to shape—the way we treat other species. Unlocking nonhuman animal communication gives us yet another chance to wonder whether the boundaries of legal rights and personhood that humans have created are truly immutable,” says Ashley Otilia Nemeth, Supervising Attorney at the NYU Law MOTH Program.

The findings discussed in this article and the rapid growth of this field of research are already revealing an “immense world” of nonhuman animal perception, intelligence, and communication that humbles us into acknowledging our deep connections and similarities with the more-than-human world. With appropriate precautions and safeguards, the capabilities of today’s technology may not only draw us nearer to comprehension and “the verge of a breakthrough in interspecies technology.” They may also inspire new initiatives rooted in empathy and respect for the-more-than-human world, provide a path through current legal roadblocks, and raise fascinating challenges to fundamental legal paradigms, from entirely new rights to legal personhood.

About Project CETI

Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) is a nonprofit scientific and conservation organization that is applying advanced machine learning and state-of-the-art robotics to listen to and translate the communication of sperm whales. Founded with catalytic funding via The Audacious Project, CETI’s science team comprises over 50 leading experts in artificial intelligence, natural language processing and complex systems, marine biology, cryptography, linguistics, robotics, engineering and underwater acoustics. This work demonstrates that today’s most cutting-edge technologies can be used to benefit not only humankind, but all species on this planet. CETI has made pioneering scientific discoveries, including characterizing a sperm whale phonetic alphabet and the discovery of sperm whale vowels. By sharing our findings with the public and collaborating with legal initiatives such as NYU’s MOTH, CETI is actively generating a greater wonder for Earth’s matrix of life as well as envisioning future legal and policy directions for the benefit of both humans and more-than-human life. 

Project CETI is a US 501c3 (EIN: 84-4630660) and a Dominican Approved Charitable Organization (No. C53).

About the MOTH Program

The MOTH (More-Than-Human Life) Program, hosted by NYU School of Law, is an interdisciplinary initiative advancing the rights and well-being for humans, non-humans, and the web of life that sustains us all. The program brings together legal scholars, scientists, Indigenous leaders, journalists, artists, and other thinkers and doers from across the world.

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April 30, 2025 Youssef Farhat Post  

Johanna Chao Kreilick

JCKreilick (1) copy

Johanna Chao Kreilick

Senior Fellow at the Center

Johanna brings over 20 years of experience launching, leading, and transforming organizations and initiatives dedicated to the public good and a healthy planet. She champions this work alongside a broad network of partners and change-makers, and draws on her expertise as a trained mediator, facilitator, and nonprofit board member.

In addition to advising global nonprofits on organizational growth, strategic change, and key collaborations, she works with leaders and philanthropists at critical inflection points. Her services include strategic advice, assessment, governance, partnerships, fundraising, and facilitation. Recent partners include the More Than Human Life (MOTH) Program and the Future of Rights & Governance (FORGE) Program at New York University School of Law, SPUN.EARTH, Project CETI, and more.

The world needs courageous thinking, rigorous collaboration, and institutional resilience and grit to achieve a livable future. I’m thrilled to support the Center as a Senior Fellow because they deliver on all of this, while also serving as a living lab, cultivating and connecting the next generation of evidence-informed leaders. 

Johanna also served as the President and CEO of the Union of Concerned Scientists from 2020 to 2023 where she led a major organizational transformation and 5-year strategy refresh, integrating equity with science and driving significant policy wins in climate, clean energy, and food justice.

Her career began as a community organizer advocating alongside smallholder farmers, workers, and vendors globally. She holds a BA with distinction in Anthropology from Stanford University and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

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April 24, 2025 Youssef Farhat Profile  

Community-led monitoring in Guyana essential to Indigenous justice systems and access to justice

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

Community-led monitoring in Guyana essential to Indigenous justice systems and access to justice

Since 2013, the Wapichan people of the South Rupununi region of Guyana have pioneered an innovative community led territorial monitoring program to protect their rights, and advance their territorial governance and self determination. A recent submission by the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC) – the representative institution of the Wapichan people – and the Global Justice Clinic (GJC) highlights the importance of community monitoring to Indigenous justice systems and access to justice, and calls for greater government recognition and collaboration with Indigenous led community monitoring efforts. GJC has partnered with the SRDC since 2016.

Download Submission
Landscape of a field/land in Guayana with blue skies.

In January, the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC), the representative institution of the Wapichan people in the South Rupununi region of Guyana, along with the Global Justice Clinic (GJC), made a submission to the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers to inform her upcoming thematic report on Indigenous justice. The submission underscores the importance of community-led monitoring to the Wapichan people’s Indigenous justice system and access to justice more broadly, both of which are critical to the Wapichan people’s enjoyment of nationally and internationally recognized human rights.

Since 2013, the SRDC has utilized tools like drones, GIS mapping, and water quality testing to support scientifically rigorous data gathering efforts as part of its community-led monitoring program. The monitoring program builds upon the traditional monitoring practices of Wapichan community members that has accompanied customary activities such as hunting and fishing, and clearly documents “happenings” on Wapichan wiizi (territory), including deforestation, land degradation, and water contamination stemming from mining exploration and extractive activities by external actors. This documentation highlights clear violations of national and international law as well as violations of the Wapichan people’s customary law. GJC has partnered with the SRDC since 2016, providing technical and legal support to the monitoring program.

The submission highlights the centrality of the monitoring program to the Wapichan people’s territorial governance, care, and management of Wapichan wiizi, and its importance to self-determination. It argues that, as a participatory community institution that enables the regulation of lands according to custom and traditional practice, community-led monitoring serves as a mechanism for the implementation of customary Wapichan law, as well as supporting access to justice for violations of communities’ rights. This includes the Wapichan people’s right to a clean environment and to free prior and informed consent. The submission identifies government barriers
to community-led monitoring and emphasizes the powerful potential of community-led monitoring programs to address systemic injustices, advance the territorial-self governance of Indigenous communities, and strengthen environmental protection. In the Guyanese context, the submission calls for:

  • Government recognition of the Wapichan people’s land rights over the entirety of Wapichan wiizi.
  • Explicit government and other stakeholder recognition of the SRDC Monitoring Program and of the Wapichan peoples’ right to monitor their full customary territory.
  • Government collaboration with the SRDC monitoring program, for instance through Memorandums of Understanding with the Environmental Protection Agency and other relevant agencies.
  • Full transparency and timely response to requests for information from the Wapichan people that arise from the monitoring program.
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March 5, 2025 Youssef Farhat Post  

MOTH Festival of Ideas & FORGE Gathering 2025

EVENTS

MOTH Festival of Ideas & FORGE Gathering at NYU Law

A dynamic week of interdisciplinary exploration, innovation, and collaboration.

The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice hosted a weeklong series of events through the More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Festival of Ideas 2025 and the Future of Human Rights and Governance (FORGE) Gathering 2025. These global gatherings will bring together thought leaders, advocates, and scholars to explore the most pressing issues of our time, from ecological emergencies to technological disruption to geopolitical shifts. Taking place at NYU Law, this dynamic week of innovation, and collaboration ran from March 10 to March 15, 2025.

Hosted by the Earth Rights Action and Research (TERRA) and the FORGE programs, both gatherings include closed-door, interactive scholar-practitioner sessions, as well as sessions open to the public in the evenings.

With creativity and interdisciplinarity at their heart, the open sessions include keynote talks, interviews, film screenings, book launches, poetry readings, and interdisciplinary performances, concerts, and an exhibit on display throughout the week.

NYU Law is honored to host these pivotal gatherings that bring together bold ideas, diverse voices, and meaningful action. At a time when global justice faces unprecedented challenges, we are committed to fostering a space for creative thinking and forward-looking solutions.

César Rodríguez-Garavito
Chair, Center for Human Rights & Global Justice.

About the MOTH 2025 Festival

The MOTH Festival of Ideas featured thinkers and doers from around the world advancing the rights, interests, and well-being of nonhumans, humans, and the web of life that sustains us all. Practitioners and scholars from a wide range of disciplines—including law, ecology, philosophy, biology, journalism, the arts and well beyond—are pursuing efforts to bring the more-than-human world into the ambit of moral, legal, and social concern. The MOTH Festival of Ideas featured over 100 thinkers and doers at the cutting edge of this rich and rapidly evolving field. 

About the FORGE 2025 Gathering

With two days designed to foster a solutions-oriented community of legal experts, social scientists, governance professionals, and community-based practitioners, the FORGE program is dedicated to uncovering new approaches and solutions that reimagine rights and governance at a critical time for global justice. 

With the hope of building momentum toward a brighter future, the MOTH 2025 Festival of Ideas and FORGE 2025 Gathering seek to transform perceptions and inspire a transnational community of practice with new ideas about global justice and more-than-human rights and encourage experimentation with new actions and approaches. 

Conversation

An exploration of More-Than-Human-Rights, César Rodríguez-Garavito

  • César Rodríguez-Garavito
    Founding Director, NYU MOTH Program

Poetry

Las piedras que son vivas

  • Fátima Vélez
    Storyteller & Poet

Talk

Voices of the Forest, Indigenous Visions for the Future 

  • José María Gualinga
    Kawsak Sacha Initiative
    Sarayaku Indigenous People

Poetry

Bichos / Beasties

  • Ezequiel Zaidenwerg
    Writer, Translator, Educator & Photographer

Excerpts from Bichos / Beasties (Caracol/Snail; Avispa/Wasp; Polilla/Moth; Grillo/Cricket; Mariposa/Butterfly; Alacrán/Scorpion)

Conversation

Entangled Worlds: Conversation on the Wisdom of Fungi and Ecology 

  • Jonathan Watts
    Global Environment Editor, The Guardian
  • Merlin Sheldrake
    Biologist & Author of Entangled Life

Poetry

ECHOLOLOGY 

  • angela rawlings
    Interdisciplinary Artist & Researcher

Excerpts from ECHOLOLOGY (I; WHOSE WHO; OWLUTION vs. WOLVOLUTION)

Talk

The Power of Story: Quiet Revolutions, Creativity and Cultural Transformation

  • Sol Guy
    Producer & Co-founder, Quiet

Conversation

Exploring Non-Human Intelligence through Whale Communication

  • César Rodríguez-Garavito
    Founding Director, NYU MOTH Program
  • David Gruber
    Founder & President of Project CETI
  • Johanna Chao Kreillick
    Senior Fellow, Center for Human Rights & Global Justice  

Poetry

Mauve Sea-Orchids 

  • Lila Zemborain
    Poet, Critic & NYU Clinical Professor

Conversation

Sand: Kinship Beyond Humans

  • Christine Winter
    Senior Lecturer, University of Otago

Book Launch

Mother Other: The Living Word, Creativity, and Belonging 

  • Elena Landinez
    Visual Artist & NYU MOTH Art Fellow
  • Fátima Vélez
    Storyteller & Poet
  • Jackie Gallant
    Director of Programs, NYU MOTH Program

Poetry

Symbiosis
in the woodworking trades

  • Neronessa
    Poet & Impact Entrepreneur

Conversation

The Current Geopolitics of Human Rights & Justice

  • César Rodríguez-Garavito
    Founding Director, NYU FORGE Program
  • Elisa Morgera
    UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change & Human Rights
  • Margaret Sattherthwaite
    UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers

Conversation

Creative Resistance in the Polycrisis

  • Azita Ardakani Walton
    Entrepreneur, Creative Strategist, and Philanthropist
  • Danielle Celermajer
    Multispecies Justice Project, University of Sydney
  • Jack Saul
    Psychologist and Artist, and Founding director of the International Trauma Studies Program 

Conversation

Art and Environmental Justice

  • Dylan McGarry
    Artist & Co-Founder of Empatheatre 
  • Elisa Morgera
    UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change & Human Rights

Remarks

Troy McKenzie

  • Troy McKenzie
    Dean, New York University School of Law

Book Launch

Book Launch: The Many Lives of James Lovelock 

  • Genevieve Guenther
    Founding Director, End Climate Science
  • Jonathan Watts
    Global Environment Editor, The Guardian
  • Andrew C. Revkin
    Environmental Journalist & Author

Poetry

Do plants imagine flowers?

  • Eliana Hernández-Pachón
    Writer, Educator & Author of The Brush

Poetry

WET DREAM

  • Erin Robinsong
    Poet & Author of Rag Cosmology and Wet Dream

Excerpts from WET DREAM (THE FORCES THE FORMS; QUEEN OF HEAVEN; LUBE OF YOUR EYE)

Talk

Narrative Change: Why Stories Matter

  • Stephen Duncombe
    New York University & the Center for Artistic Activism
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February 26, 2025 Youssef Farhat Event Summary, Post, Product  

Bay Kou Bliye, Pote Mak Sonje: Climate Injustice in Haiti and the Case for Reparations

CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENT

Bay Kou Bliye, Pote Mak Sonje: Climate Injustice in Haiti and the Case for Reparations

This report by the Global Justice Clinic at NYU Law and the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law, in collaboration with Haitian social movement organizations, illuminates the crisis of climate injustice in Haiti. 

Bay Kou Bliye, Pote Mak Sonje: Enjistis Klimatik an Ayiti ak Demann pou Reparasyon se yon rapò ekri pa Klinik Jistis Mondyal nan Fakilte Dwa NYU ansanm ak Enstiti Promise pou Dwa Moun nan Fakilte Dwa UCLA. Se atrave kolaborasyon ak mouvman sosyal an Ayiti nou reyalize li. Rapò a prezante enpak dega klimatik sou popilasyon Ayisyen epi li montre jan istwa kolonizasyon ak enjistis rasyel kreye vilnerabilite klimatik Ayiti. Li bay egzanp pou montre kouman popilasyon Ayisyen ap degaje yo nan reyalite difisil la, epi li konkli reparasyon se nesese pou jistis klimatik ansanm ak jistis rasyel. Rapò a ansanm ak rezime egzekitif la disponib anba — klike sou ti kare a pou jwenn yo.

Report & Executive Summary
Rapò ak Rezime Egzekitif Kreyòl

The report outlines the impacts of climate harms on Haitian people and their human rights, the colonial construction of Haiti’s climate vulnerability, and the legal and moral arguments for reparations to advance both climate and racial justice. It also touches on grassroots efforts in Haiti for climate resilience and to advance land rights, environmental justice, and community self-determination.

Haiti is one of the countries most harmed by the global climate crisis. The country’s climate vulnerability is not just a product of its geography—it is also the result of centuries of racial injustice, originating in colonialism, slavery, and Haiti’s “independence ransom” to France. Haiti powerfully illuminates that the climate crisis is a racial injustice crisis. Yet there is little available research presenting the impacts of climate change—or climate disorder as Haitian activists term it—on Haitian people, analyzing the connections between racial and climate injustice, and presenting demands for climate justice, including critically for reparations. This report advances the case for reparations to Haiti, and demonstrates that reparations are essential to advancing climate justice.

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December 10, 2024 Youssef Farhat Product  

Center Chair gives keynote talk in Brazil Supreme Court’s seminar on structural litigation

CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENT

Center Chair gives keynote talk in Brazil Supreme Court’s Seminar on structural litigation  

On October 7, 2024 as part of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice’s ongoing academic exchange with Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF), Professor César Rodríguez-Garavito gave a keynote talk in the seminar “Structural Litigation: Advances and Challenges” in Brasilia.

The event was organized by STF Chief Justice Luís Roberto Barroso as well as other high-ranking Brazilian judges, including STF’s Deputy Chief Justice Edson Fachin and the Federal High Court’s Chief Justice Antonio Herman Benjamin. 

In his opening remarks, Minister Barroso highlighted the significance of structural litigation—that is, constitutional cases addressing systemic policy issues that affect the rights of large groups. Among ongoing structural cases before the Brazilian Supreme Court are those dealing with violations of Indigenous rights in the Amazon, prison overcrowding, and police violence in informal settlements. He underscored that this emerging area is central to the Brazilian judiciary, urging judges to proactively identify such issues and ensure that relevant governmental institutions develop and implement effective solutions. Other judges on the panel echoed the importance of the judiciary’s authority to act in these matters and emphasized the need for effective monitoring of structural court decisions. 

The seminar also featured discussions on the judiciary’s role in resolving complex structural conflicts. Professor Rodríguez-Garavito shared insights on how structural cases are handled in comparative law, focusing on their impacts and potential applications to climate litigation. He highlighted the STF’s contributions to the protection of constitutional rights through structural rulings and suggested ways forward to ensure the legitimacy and effective implementation of the Court’s rulings. 

The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice’s participation in this seminar is one of many initiatives planned with high courts from around the world for the upcoming year, underscoring the Center’s commitment to supporting judicial engagement in innovative legal areas while protecting rights and advancing justice for all. 

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November 7, 2024 Youssef Farhat Event Summary  

Forming a High Level Expert Group to Strengthen Global Gender Justice

INEQUALITIES

Forming a High Level Expert Group to Strengthen Global Gender Justice

In a groundbreaking initiative to address gender-based injustices, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University School of Law together with the American Society of International Law, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s Women, Law, and Leadership Project and the University of Oxford’s Bonavero Institute for Human Rights formed the High-Level Expert Group on Gender Persecution and Gender Apartheid. 

The High-Level Expert Group is led by Baroness Helena Kennedy of The Shaws KC, a Member of the House of Lords and founder of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights; Catherine Amirfar, Partner and Co-Chair of the International Disputes Resolution Group and Public International Law Group at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP; Rangita de Silva de Alwis, a Senior Fellow at Penn Carey Law and Member of CEDAW; and Ghizal Haress, a former Ombudsperson for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and visiting professor at the University of Toronto. 

The group is comprised of an esteemed array of global experts and human rights defenders who bring to bear a wealth of knowledge and expertise, including José E. Alvarez, NYU School of Law Herbert and Rose Rubin Professor of International Law.

The High-Level Expert Group seeks to address gaps in the existing international legal framework addressing gender-based crimes, including by examining the basis for gender apartheid and gender persecution under international law, developing the definitions and framework for addressing these crimes, advancing accountability efforts against perpetrators of gender-based crimes, and centering the voices of victims and those directly affected by gender apartheid and gender persecution.

Through this newly-launched initiative, NYU Law students have the opportunity through research to be part of the ongoing efforts to achieve justice for victims of gender-based apartheid and/or persecution around the world. A myriad of legal research assignments on topics ranging from gender-based crimes under international law to human rights protections against gender-based discrimination will be carried under the direct supervision of pro-bono attorneys at a local NY firm supervised by Prof. Alvarez. 

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August 28, 2024 Youssef Farhat Student Program