Executive team

Yenny Vega Cárdenas, Doctor of Law and lawyer, is president and co-founder of the International Observatory of the Rights of Nature, as well as a member of the network of experts of the United Nations Harmony with Nature programme.

Recipient of the Coronation Medal of King Charles III for her exceptional contribution to the protection of Nature in Canada, she played a key role in the recognition of the rights and legal personality of the Magpie River, a historic first in Canada.

Furthermore, Dr. Vega Cárdenas is an invited researcher at the Max Planck Institute for International and Comparative Law in Hamburg, Germany. She is a lawyer in Canada and Colombia, holding a Master’s degree in Business Law and a Ph.D. in Water Law in North America from a Canadian university. She is an expert in the field of transboundary water law and teaches courses on public international law, water and governance, and comparative law at numerous universities in Canada and Latin America. She has published a substantial body of scientific articles and books in English, French, and Spanish, and is frequently invited to present at national and international conferences on water and rights of Nature issues.

She is currently spearheading a campaign for the legal personality recognition of the Saint Lawrence River in Canada through the International Observatory on the Rights of Nature.

She recently co-directed a collective book on the recognition of Nature and Rivers as subjects of rights. Titled “A Legal Personhood for the Saint-Lawrence River and other rivers of the world”, this book represents a significant contribution to the field. Her most recent book, Methodology and Epistemology of Comparative Law, published by LexisNexis Canada, represents a further advancement in the field, offering a new methodology of decolonization of the law.

Inès Benadda graduated in 2020 with a Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B.). and is also Member of the Quebec Bar since January 2023. Recipient of the Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for youth in 2017, her actions within the Faculty during her degree, namely with the Indigenous Law and Environmental Law committees, reflect her keen interest in the environmental cause.

In the spring of 2018, she completed a summer school in Costa Rica in international and comparative climate change law, where she was able to delve deeper into the rights of Nature, which is of particular interest to her. Her internship at the Centre québécois de l’environnement (2018-2019) allowed her to perfect her legal knowledge of Quebec environmental law.

Inès deeply believes that there is no better time than now to act on environmental issues, and it is in this perspective that she serves as the vice-president of the International Observatory of Nature’s Rights.

Board of directors

Daniel Turp (www.danielturp.quebec) is a graduate of the University of Montreal and the University of Cambridge and holds a doctorate (summa cum laude) from the University of Law, Economics and Social Sciences of Paris (Paris II). In 1989, he earned the prestigious Directed Studies diploma from the Academy of International Law in The Hague.

Mr. Turp is a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Montreal. He teaches international public law, international and constitutional human rights law, and advanced constitutional law. He is president of the Association Québécoise de Droit Constitutionnel, the board of directors of the Société Québécoise de Droit International, and the Research Institute on Self-Determination of Peoples and National Independence (IRAI).

Professor Turp was elected member of the House of Commons of Canada where he represented the Bloc Québécois and the riding of Beauharnois-Salaberry between 1997 and 2000. He was also elected member of the National Assembly of Quebec for the Parti Québécois and the riding of Mercier between 2003 and 2008.

He is the author of several books and articles on constitutional and international law, including La Constitution Québécoise.

Alexandra Baer is working for the International criminal Court. She has obtained a bachelor degree in Law from the Université de Montréal. She joined the Observatory in 2019.

In 2019, she completed a summer school in Costa Rica concerning individual and collective human rights, environmental law, and international and comparative law of indigenous peoples. This experience has made her more aware of the relationship between human beings and nature, which is why she is committed to the International Observatory of Nature’s Rights.

Kayley Laura Lata joined the Observatory team in 2019 as Head of Communications. She subsequently held the position of Political Affairs Officer for almost three years. Her mandate culminated in the presentation of a bill to grant legal personality to the St. Lawrence River. Today, she sits on the Observatory’s Board of Directors.

She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in law, and lectures on the rights of Nature to students, elected officials and environmental organizations.