A LAW professor at a Scottish university has been named a UN special rapporteur.
Professor Elisa Morgera, from the University of Strathclyde, is the only independent expert appointed to the international body to be based in Scotland.
Morgera will serve as the UN’s special rapporteur on climate change and human rights after being confirmed in the post by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, from a pool of more than 50 candidates.
The role will see the professor work closely with UN member states on issues such as how the adverse effects of climate change impact on people’s human rights, especially for those living in developing countries which are particularly vulnerable to it.
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Morgera said: “It is a critical time to illuminate the full potential of human rights to respond to diverse demands for climate justice and clarify how public authorities, business, and civil society must leave no-one behind in urgently charting a transformative path towards a safe climate for present and future generations.
“I look forward to working with the United Nations and its member states, human rights holders and experts to enhance our opportunities to learn from one another in co-developing effective, fair and inclusive solutions to the greatest challenge of our times.”
Morgera has conducted field work, for the UN or on academic research projects, in more than 30 nations, the University of Strathclyde said.
She is also a member of the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and Environment and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
In 2019, Morgera became the director of One Ocean Hub on its establishment.
It aims to bring together researchers, coastal people, decision-makers, civil society, and international organisations and “support learning from different knowledge systems on the inter-dependence of human rights and a healthy ocean, including at the ocean-climate nexus”.
The One Ocean Hub was part of a global coalition of 1350 civil society organisations which won the UN Human Rights Award in 2023.
While Morgera will be the only UN special rapporteur based in Scotland, Dr Sorcha MacLeod, who was educated at Dundee and Glasgow universities, also holds a position on the UN’s working group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights.
However, MacLeod is now an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen.
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