Marcos Orellana

Marcos A. Orellana is the director of the Environment and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. He has worked most recently at the Washington DC-based Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). At CIEL, Marcos collaborated with many environmental and human rights groups and multilateral institutions around the world, participated at processes leading to environmental agreements, and conducted advocacy on environmental issues at regional and global human rights forums.

Marcos is adjunct associate professor at the George Washington University School of Law. He was, at various times, a fellow at the University of Cambridge, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Pretoria. He was also a visiting scholar with the Environmental Law Institute in Washington DC and instructor professor of international law at the Universidad de Talca, Chile. 

Marcos represented the eight-nation Independent Association of Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC) in the negotiations of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. He has also acted as legal counsel to the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs on international environmental issues, such as the Rio+20 process leading to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. At one point, he was legal advisor to several international institutions, including the United Nations Environment Programme and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Marcos, a Chilean, holds an LL.M and an S.J.D..