Ms. Astrid Puentes Riaño

Astrid Puentes Riaño has a Masters degree (LL.M.) in Comparative Law from the University of Florida and in Environmental Law from the University of the Basque Country, and a law degree from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota.

Ms. Puentes teaches at the Berta Cáceres Environmental Justice Clinic at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, Mexico, and has more than twenty years of experience on environmental law, human rights and climate change, and the intersection of these, with a perspective of climate justice, diversity, equity and inclusion. She has worked for and with communities, environmental defenders and Indigenous Peoples in Latin America, contributing to the protection of their rights and territory, including in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

Ms. Puentes has also advised organizations including Franciscans International and Greenpeace International. She has also collaborated with the UN, including with the United Nations Human Rights Office in Mexico, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Climate Change, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment. She served as co-executive director of the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA) from 2003 to August 2021. She has published several articles and lectured at the Human Rights Academy of the American University, Washington, D.C., and at the Diploma on Strategic Litigation and Tools for the Defense of Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights of the UNAM in Mexico, among others. She was selected as a Climate Parents Fellowship Fellow from July 2022 to June 2023 and is one of the founders of Moms for Climate in Mexico City.