Alba Gabriela Alencastro Nuñez is is an Alexander Von Humboldt International Climate Protection Fellow 2026-27 hosted at the Centre for Fundamental Rights. She is a lawyer specialized in human rights and environmental governance, with over a decade of experience working at the intersection of human rights, climate change, and biodiversity conservation. She holds a Master’s in International Human Rights Law from the Université de Nantes and a Master’s in Territorial Governance and Local Development from the Université Paris-Saclay, France, alongside a law degree with a minor in international relations from the Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
Her career spans state institutions, civil society, and international organizations, including litigation before the Inter-American Human Rights System and UN mechanisms. She led the creation of the Forest and Climate Change Observatory and has served as an expert consultant on safeguards, environmental governance and human mobility across Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa.
Deeply motivated by climate justice, she focuses on strategic advisory work to ensure equitable, rights-based responses to the climate and environmental crises. Her current research project, Protecting Environmental Human Rights Defenders in Latin America and the Caribbean, examines the effectiveness of regional mechanisms, particularly under the Escazú Agreement, in guaranteeing a safe and enabling environment for those defending territories, biodiversity, and collective rights.
