When a hydropower dam in Argentina threatened to wipe out the hooded grebe, a bird found nowhere else on Earth, a local fishing community turned to the law for help.
The dam contravened Argentina’s commitment to halt species extinctions under the convention on biological diversity (CBD), an international treaty that obliges nations to address the loss of nature. But the people didn’t choose this legal route. Instead, they sought the UN Human Rights Council, specifically its universal periodic review which enlists countries to assess each other’s compliance with human rights obligations.
