TODD HOWLAND

I am a human rights scholar and practitioner with extensive practical experience in a wide range of human rights and international issues, having worked in or related to more than thirty countries. Over the course of my career, I have approached human rights challenges from multiple vantage points. As an NGO advocate pressing governments and powerful entities to change their policies, as a United Nations official working to ensure government compliance with international standards, and as an advisor to governments striving to align their practices with international law.

In all of these roles, I have sought to make human rights a practical tool for positive change. I have led and contributed to numerous capacity-building and educational initiatives designed to strengthen institutions and promote greater respect for human rights.

I currently serve as Interim Director and Visiting Professor at the Environmental Justice Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School, where I teach and write on the intersections of human rights, environmental justice, and economic transformation. My main work focuses on advancing the concept of the Human Rights Economy, an emerging framework that seeks to align economic systems, public budgets, and environmental policies with the realization of human rights and the sustainability of our planet, for human rights to come before benefits.

Previously, I served as Chief of the Development, Economic and Social Rights Branch at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), where I guided global policy development, Human Rights Economy implementation and advocacy, and managed a diverse team supporting human rights work in more than 100 countries. From 2012 to 2018, I was the UN Human Rights Representative in Colombia, leading the office’s efforts during the peace negotiations with the FARC and the implementation of the peace accords.

Throughout my career, from Angola to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Colombia, I have worked to strengthen the impact, accountability, and vision of international human rights institutions. I have also served as Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, Co-Founder of International Rights Advocates, and Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School, and have taught graduate courses in human rights law and international relations in Korea and the United States.

My publications and commentary, in venues such as Human Rights Quarterly, Open Global Rights, VTDigger, and Oxford Human Rights Hub, explore how human rights can drive meaningful social, economic, and environmental transformation. Across all of my work, I aim to bridge the gap between principle and practice, helping to shape societies that are fair, sustainable, and grounded in respect for human dignity. In short, to help build a Human Rights Economy.