Ramiro Ávila

Ramiro Ávila is an Ecuadorian lawyer and an expert in human rights and the rights of nature. From 2019 to 2022, he was one of nine judges of the Constitutional Court in Ecuador, which has been instrumental in anchoring the rights of nature in Ecuadorian society.

Ávila obtained his law degree from the Catholic University in Ecuador, a doctorate in sociology of law from the University of the Basque Country and a master’s degree in the same field. He also holds a Master’s degree in Law from Columbia University in New York.

During his professional career, Ramiro Ávila held several public posts, such as Undersecretary of Justice Reform and Regulatory Development in the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights during the Raffael Correas government. During his tenure at the Constitutional Court, Ávila was particularly influential in the development of the rights of nature and animals: Thanks in no small part to Ávila, the Court has declared non-human entities such as the mangrove swamp or the „Los Cedros“ forest to be legal subjects for the very first time since the Constitution was enacted.

Thus, the legal scholar advocates for ecosystems to be considered as life systems and to be granted the greatest possible legal protection in order to protect them from damaging economic activities, such as mining in the case of „Los Cedros“. Ávila has done fundamental work on ‚Buen Vivir‘ and has written an insightful book on the subject.

He is also known as one of the authors of the book ‚Pluriverse – A Post-Development Dictionary‘, which inspired the PLURIVERSUM event series.