Team

César Rodríguez-Garavito is Professor of Clinical Law and Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law. He is the founding director of the Climate Law Accelerator (CLX), Earth Rights Research & Action (TERRA) Clinic, the Future of Rights and Governance (FORGE) Program, and the More Than Human Rights (MOTH) project at NYU Law.

Professor Rodríguez-Garavito is a human rights and environmental justice scholar and practitioner whose work focuses on global governance, climate change, socioeconomic rights, business and human rights, Indigenous peoples’ rights, and the human rights movement.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of Open Global Rights and a Faculty Associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. His contributions to Earth rights have been recognized with a More-Than-Human Fellowship by the London Design Museum and a spot in the UN Museum’s Top 10 Culture for Impact 2024 List.

Rodríguez-Garavito has served as a strategy advisor to leading international and domestic human rights organizations in different parts of the world. He has been an expert witness of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, an Adjunct Judge of the Constitutional Court of Colombia, a member of the Science Panel for the Amazon and a lead litigator in climate change, rights of nature, socioeconomic rights and Indigenous rights cases. His work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including The New York Times, The Guardian, BBC, Reuters, National Geographic, Emergence Magazine , El País and Atmos. He has conducted field research and environmental and human rights investigations around the world, including in Bangladesh, Brazil, India, South Africa, the Caribbean region, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico, Peru, and the United States.

Ashley is the Director of Programs of the NYU Climate Law Accelerator, where she works on a broad set of issues, including human rights, rights of nature, and climate change litigation, policy, and science. Ashley is also a supervising attorney for the Earth, Rights, Research, & Action (TERRA) Clinic at NYU Law where she teaches and supervises students on climate justice, human rights, and loss and damage projects.

Ashley holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law (cum laude), where she was awarded the International Human Rights Convocation Award, the LACA Kim Barry ’98 Memorial Convocation Award for Human Rights, and the Edmond Cahn Law Review Convocation Award. Ashley also holds an M.S. in Entrepreneurship (cum laude) and a B.S. in Accounting (cum laude) from the University of Florida.

Prior to joining CLX, Ashley was an associate in White & Case’s International Arbitration Group, working with foreign sovereigns and private companies to resolve complex disputes before investor-state and commercial arbitration tribunals. She also served as a Legal Advisor to the Solomon Islands Permanent Mission to the United Nations, advising on matters before the Second and Sixth Committee of the General Assembly, as well as on multilateral treaty negotiations and submissions to the International Law Commission.

Ashley is a licensed attorney in the State of New York.

Jackie Gallant is an attorney at CLX, where she works on projects addressing the climate emergency and its implications for rights protection.

Acting as a generalist in the field, she has worked on a broad set of issues, including rights-based climate litigation, the rights of nature, youth climate activism, the right to a healthy environment, and rights-based biodiversity litigation. Jackie holds a JD (cum laude) from NYU School of Law and a BA (magna cum laude) in International Relations from Brown University.

Melina De Bona is an attorney at CLX, where she focuses on corporate accountability in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Melina has also worked on a broad set of issues, including rights-based climate litigation, the rights of nature, and the right to a healthy environment. Melina holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Chicago.

Prior to joining CLX, she spent a year working for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, specializing in international arbitration, white-collar crime investigations, and sustainability.

Emma is a lawyer at CLX, where she works on issues related to rights-based climate litigation, rights of nature and biodiversity, and the intersection of climate change and human rights.

Emma holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law (cum laude) and a B.A. in Philosophy and English from Amherst College (magna cum laude).