Visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment

16 Feb 2026

The Centre for Law & the Environment was delighted to welcome Astrid Puentes Riaño – the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment –to UCC on 13 February 2026.

The Special Rapporteur is currently undertaking an official country visit to Ireland.  Her visit includes meetings and discussions with government officials and representatives of civil society concerning good practices and challenges in the implementation of human rights obligations relating to climate change and environmental protection.

The Centre hosted a roundtable discussion with the Special Rapporteur to share experience and expertise on a wide range of themes related to her mandate including climate change, biodiversity, air quality, public participation and access to justice in environmental matters.  

During her visit to UCC, the Special Rapporteur also met with students taking the specialist LLM programmes in Environmental & Natural Resources Law and Marine & Maritime Law, and PhD and postdoctoral scholars based at the Centre for Law & the Environment.  The opportunity to engage with the Special Rapporteur was particularly valuable for LLM students taking the Environmental Law Clinic and Environmental Law in Practice modules.