Introduction: Quo Vadis, Latin America? Human Rights, Environmental Governance and the Sustainable Development Goals

ABSTRACT

As Latin America emerges scathed from the COVID-19 pandemic, the political pendulum appears to turn once again towards its longstanding calls for greater social inclusion. Inequality, inflation and continuous resource extraction without sufficient inclusiveness – in the forms of mining, expanding export-oriented agriculture or, increasingly, exclusionary approaches to sustainable development through renewable energy projects or the bioeconomy – have all driven social discontent. The region saw remarkable socio-economic progress during the 2000s, but those achievements largely relied on extensive natural resource exploitation in a development strategy sometimes dubbed neo-extractivism. Unequal access to decision-making and skewed distribution of benefits and burdens then fostered significant discontent as well as counter-reactions in many Latin American countries. The end of the so-called pink tide of more progressive governments and the emergence of right-wing populism have only made things tenser in the past years. It might be too early to speak of a new tide of socio-economic progress for the region, but rising commodity prices and the election of various left-leaning presidents since 2020 do give out signals reminiscent of the start of the century. However, it remains to be seen what this new political and economic cycle of Latin America entails for the environment, inclusiveness, and human rights.