Marcos Orellana is the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights.

Marcos Orellana is the UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights. An expert in international law and the law on human rights and the environment, he has worked as senior legal advisor to the presidency of the 25th conference of parties for the UN’s framework convention on climate change, held by his home country, Chile. He has also advised UN agencies, governments and non-governmental organizations on waste and chemical issues related to the Basel and Minamata Conventions and the UN Environment Assembly. In addition, he was the inaugural director of Human Rights Watch’s environment and human rights division, directed the trade and the human rights programs at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), and co-chaired UNEP’s civil society forum.

Marcos has intervened in cases before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body. His practice in the climate space includes representing the eight-nations Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean in the negotiations of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

As a professor, Marcos teaches International Environmental Law at George Washington University’s School of Law and International Law at the American University’s Washington College of Law. Previously, he has lectured in universities in Melbourne, Pretoria, Geneva, and Guadalajara. He was also a fellow at the University of Cambridge, a visiting scholar at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington DC, and a professor of international law at the Universidad de Talca, Chile.

Marcos holds a Doctor of Juridical Science and a Master of Laws in International Law from the American University’s Washington College of Law. He also holds a Doctor of Law from the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile.