Christiaan van Schalkwyk

Christiaan van Schalkwyk is the current Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the BAOBAB synthesis team EIA4ClimateJustice.

Christiaan holds a BA (Law), BA Hons (English), LLB, and LLD from Stellenbosch University. He received the EP Bradlow Human Rights Bursary to pursue his LLM in 2019, which was subsequently upgraded to an LLD in 2020. Christiaan’s LLD research focused on developing the interdependence between socio-economic rights and environmental rights in South African law through the concept of sustainable development. His thesis, supervised by Prof. Sandra Liebenberg, was titled “Integrating Environmental Considerations in Socio-Economic Rights Adjudication: The Role of Ecologically Sustainable Development”.

Before joining ASCEND as a PDRF, Christiaan was a research and teaching assistant at the HF Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law at Stellenbosch University. He continues to advocate for interlinking human and environmental rights normatively and institutionally to promote climate justice for disadvantaged, vulnerable, and marginalised groups.