Students in the Human Rights Study Project at the University of Virginia School of Law spent a week of their winter break in the Ecuadorian Amazon learning about the indigenous rights movement.
The yearlong project, which began as a student-run organization before evolving into a course for academic credit, offers participants a chance to research human rights in the field in a different country each year. In studying Ecuador, the six students this year also learned about international activism by indigenous peoples, which focuses on land rights, cultural preservation and environmental protection.
“The trip was a wonderful opportunity to learn how international legal systems interact with local ones,” HRSP student Caroline Fernandez ’26 said. “The more we learn about others, and their legal and cultural systems, the more we learn about ourselves and our own systems. This helps us become more informed lawyers.”

The visit this year provided students with insights about advocacy led by indigenous rights and the protection and conservation of strategic natural resources, such as those found in the Amazon rainforest, explained Professor Camilo Sánchez, who directs the project and co-directs UVA Law’s Immigration, Migration and Human Rights Program.
As part of the project, students learn about human rights research ethics and methodologies in the fall and delve into their selected topic of interest. After conducting fieldwork abroad over the break, they draft research papers in the spring, concluding their studies with a presentation to the Law School community.

According to Sánchez, indigenous peoples’ global activism has led to notable achievements, such as the adoption of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007, and “influenced national policies and legal frameworks in various countries to promote the inclusion of indigenous perspectives in decision-making.”
To facilitate the fieldwork aspect of the course, HRSP collaborated with leaders of the Kichwa People of Sarayaku, who call the Ecuadorian Amazon their home.
“The Sarayaku community has long been at the forefront of defending their lands and heritage,” Sánchez said. In 2012, they won a groundbreaking legal victory at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against the Ecuadorian government, protecting their land from unauthorized oil exploration.
“Beyond legal battles, the Sarayaku continue their struggle to maintain autonomy amid the encroachment of extractive industries and the rapid acceleration of Amazon deforestation,” he said.
HRSP’s first stop in Ecuador was the capital of Quito, where they held meetings with academics and human rights defenders, learning about how local advocates work to protect both human rights and the rights of nature.
The group then descended along the slopes of the Andes to the city of Puyo for a day, hearing from Amazonian women in the Huaorani, Kichwa and Sapara indigenous nations about issues they are involved with locally.
“Throughout the trip, there was a paradox of feeling both very surrounded by community and very far from the ‘Western civilization’ we know,” Fernandez said. “At periodic points I would remember that I was in the middle of the jungle and, if left to my own devices, would not be able to make it back to Puyo.”

The next day, students rode in trucks and then transferred into motorized canoes that ushered them along the Bobonaza River to Sarayaku. For the next four days, the group lived alongside the Sarayaku community, “striving to ensure [their] presence was as unobtrusive as possible,” according to Sánchez.
They participated in sacred guayusa tea ceremonies each morning beginning at 4 a.m., as well as various community activities such as a general assembly of the Sarayaku people, a work session focused on building a school and a collective fishing event.
“The Sarayaku people explained that the guayusa tea ceremonies are important for education, since oral histories are told during that time and plans for ‘la lucha’ (in English, ‘the fight’) to protect their rights and community are discussed,” Ana Hallman ’26 said. “I really appreciated having this time to learn more about the challenges they are facing, as well as the accomplishments they’ve won.”
One of the community’s most significant contributions to environmental protection is their Kawsak Sacha (meaning “living forest”) initiative, which aims to sustainably preserve and conserve territorial space, along with the material and spiritual relationships that native peoples establish with the forest and its inhabitants, Sánchez explained.
“It reflects their worldview — recognizing Kawsak Sacha as a conscious, living entity and a subject of rights. This concept prompted us to reflect quite a bit and is worth exploring further in the context of global activism against the climate crisis,” he said.
Funding for this year’s trip was provided by the Law School Foundation's Cowan Human Rights Study Project Fund.

Students met with professors at Universidad San Francisco de Quito from the international law department and activist Vivian Idrovo.

Students met with Amazonian women activists in Puyo.

Students take a break along the Bobonaza River on their way to the Sarayaku community.

Students visit the Assembly House of the Sarayaku People and pose with the president, vice president and other traditional authorities of Sarayaku.

Students and Sánchez stand in front of a scenic view with a Sarayaku community member.

Students prepare for their return back home.
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