Season 1, Episode 2

Camilo Sanchez on Human Rights and the Environment

On today’s episode, Mike Livermore speaks with Assistant Professor Camilo Sánchez, the Director of the University of Virginia School of Law’s International Human Rights Clinic. Their conversation covers everything from Latin American history to the intersection of constitutional law and international law. These threads come together in the Guapinol Case, one of the clinic’s major projects. In that matter, Professor Sánchez and his students collaborate with international organizations to advocate on behalf of a group of eight illegally-detained environmental defenders in Honduras.

Episode is an appropriate teaching tool for but not limited to the following topics & courses: International relations, social and political thought, government, environmental protection

Discussion Questions

  • What makes appeal to international bodies an attractive option for environmental and human rights activists in countries like Honduras?
  • Could appeal to national bodies, like the United States government, be effective? What about appeal to industry (think along the lines of ESG)?
  • Many environmental activists in Latin America are indigenous. How do race and colonial legacies inform our current understanding of anti-environmentalist violence? 
  • The effect of a judgment in front of an international court is only political. Should international organizations have more teeth?
  • When private firms stand to profit from extraction, why do governments provide cover for violence against activists?

Additional Readings