Citlali Rovirosa-Madrazo

Dr Citlali Rovirosa-Madrazo research interests include, indigenous peoples’ rights, the rights of nature, climate justice, decolonisation, human rights, and the international crime of Ecocide. Citlali argues that, placing Ecocide as an international crime alongside Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, and the Crime of Aggression at the International Criminal Court (ICC), is a condition of possibility comprehensively to deliver the commitments made by the UN to mitigate the bioclimate crisis and to tackle some of the most pressing issues of our times – from mass migration and famine, to pandemics and war. Crucially, such recognition is necessary to reinforce international law regarding the protection of indigenous peoples and territories. The international criminalization of Ecocide is, she argues, decisive for further advancing Earth jurisprudence and, indeed, consolidating international criminal law (ICL), international environmental law (IEL), and international human rights law (IHRL). Citlali explores the normative value of classifying Ecocide as a crime, and the deterrent and cultural effects such a decision would carry. To this end, she argues, universities play a crucial role where Ecocide should be the at the heart of the post-Anthropocene epistemology and the teaching and research agendas. Her research goes on to deconstruct the epistemological foundations of ‘Western thought’ and its distinctively anthropocentric approach to nature. 

Citlali holds a PhD in Sociology (Essex) and an M.A in Government (Essex). Some of the institutions that she has worked or collaborated with as a researcher, consultant, and educator include, the International and Human Rights Commissions of the Mexican Senate, the UN Panama Regional Office of the OHCHR, the Third World Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CEESTEM, no longer in existence), UNESCO, and the Ministry of Education of Nicaragua. Her publications include Francisco: entre la Ciencia y la Teología Moral (with Fernando Cardenal SJ) and, Living on borrowed time (with Zygmunt Bauman).  Her forthcoming book, “Colapso bioclimático, Derechos Humanos y la Encíclica Ecológica Laudato si’” examines the relevance of Pope Francis’ ecological teachings for human rights worldwide. She is currently involved, in collaboration with various academics and practitioners, in the preparation of an interdisciplinary compilation on Ecocide.

Her paper recently presented at a Symposium on Ecocide at the UCLA School of Law will be out soon. Her later opinion article regarding the crime of Ecocide, the so-called “Doctrine of Discovery” and Pope Francis’ socio-ecological encyclical, Laudato si’, can be read at: 

https://confidencial.digital/opinion/ecocidio-o-la-nueva-doctrina-del-descubrimiento/