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Lithium and Energy Transition: 10 Key Questions

Lithium has become a central resource for the global energy transition, driven by growing demand for rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. Argentina, with its high Andean salt flats in Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca, holds a significant share of the world’s reserves — but its exploitation generates tensions that go far beyond the economic.

This document addresses ten questions about lithium and the energy transition: what it is and why it gained relevance, how it is extracted, what environmental and social impacts it generates in the territories, and what legal framework regulates the activity in Argentina. It also examines what a “just transition” means and how the country fits into the global lithium supply chain.

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MERCOSUR and Front-of-Pack Labeling: Legal Arguments to Preserve Argentina’s Protection Standards

The Healthy Eating Promotion Law is currently at risk due to the MERCOSUR front-of-pack labeling harmonization process, which threatens to weaken the protection standards achieved in Argentina. This document provides concrete legal tools and arguments for those defending the human rights to health and adequate food. The analysis reviews the constitutional and international principles that require the Argentine State to uphold the current level of protection and examines the compatibility of the octagonal warning label system with international trade law. A technical resource to challenge, on every level, any regulatory rollback

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The Right to Food in Argentina: Implications and Challenges of the Healthy Eating Promotion Law in the Context of Emergency Food Policies

Despite the constitutional recognition of the right to adequate food in 1994, food insecurity and the logic of emergency-based responses have shaped Argentina’s food policy over the last decades. This report analyzes that process from a human rights perspective, reviewing the main regulations and policies between 2002 and 2025. It examines the tensions between the prevailing assistance-based model and the State’s obligations under international human rights law, and presents the Healthy Eating Promotion Law (Law No. 27,642) as the most significant paradigm shift in this field in the last two decades. In a context marked by regulatory setbacks and worsening food insecurity, the document identifies current challenges for the effective implementation of the right to food and outlines possible paths for its protection and enforceability.

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Abortion in Córdoba: Progress and Challenges in the Implementation of Law No. 27.610

The report presents the findings of a study aimed at identifying the conditions of access to Voluntary Termination of Pregnancy (IVE) within the public healthcare system of the province of Córdoba.Through a participatory survey of 80 healthcare providers who guarantee the service across 18 departments, the research examined team characteristics, conditions of access to legal abortion, the implementation of the Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) technique, the impact of the current context, and good practices in the care of specific populations.
The report serves as a key advocacy tool to strengthen access to safe abortion throughout the province.

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Much more than labels: Legal keys for the defense of the Law for the Promotion of Healthy Eating

In a context of regulatory setbacks that threaten public health policies, this legal compendium provides concrete tools to defend the Law for the Promotion of Healthy Eating. The publication brings together contributions from various authors who, from complementary legal perspectives, offer clear and actionable arguments to uphold its full validity, demand its effective implementation, and challenge setbacks in the political, institutional, and judicial spheres. A collective effort to strengthen the human right to adequate food in Argentina.

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How can the IDB make a stronger contribution to a Just Energy Transition in Latin America and the Caribbean?

n 2024, civil society organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean participated in a dialogue space with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on Just Energy Transition. The report systematizes the main concerns raised by these organizations regarding the IDB’s role, including continued support for fossil fuels, the absence of clear goals, limited effective participation, and impacts on communities and environmental defenders. It also puts forward a set of recommendations aimed at advancing an energy transition grounded in social and environmental justice and a human rights–based approach.

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Argentina and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: Characteristics of the First Loan Approved in the Country

This report, prepared by FARN, Fundeps, and Fundación CAUCE, analyzes the first financing approved by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Argentina and its socio-environmental implications. Drawing on the case of the wind power project in Tierra del Fuego, the document is key to understanding the challenges of international financing for the energy transition, as well as the importance of ensuring transparency, citizen participation, and adequate environmental standards.

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Regulatory tools to promote Healthy Environments in Municipalities

Fundeps, in partnership with UNICEF Argentina, developed this technical document that brings together regulatory tools and practical recommendations to help local governments promote sustainable public policies that improve the habits and nutrition of children and adolescents. It is a resource designed to support municipalities in creating healthier environments with access to safe water, adequate food options, recreational spaces, physical activity, and breastfeeding support, among other key measures.

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The VUDAS fight crosses borders: the IACHR analyzes the case for human rights violations in Córdoba

Fundeps, together with the United Neighbors in Defense of a Healthy Environment (VUDAS), submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The goal is for this international body to assess the responsibility of the Argentine State regarding the illegal operation of the company Porta Hnos. S.A. in the San Antonio neighborhood of the city of Córdoba. Recently, the IACHR notified that the petition is in the “admissibility” stage, and the Argentine State must submit relevant information before July 25.

In April 2024, the Foundation for the Development of Sustainable Policies (Fundeps), together with the United Neighbors in Defense of a Healthy Environment (VUDAS), submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The purpose of the petition is for the IACHR to become aware of the violation of fundamental rights resulting from the illegal operation of the company Porta Hnos. S.A. in the San Antonio neighborhood of the City of Córdoba, and to assess the responsibility of the Argentine State in this regard.

Over the course of these 13 years of struggle, VUDAS has filed numerous administrative complaints and legal actions at various levels of government, supported by solid independent studies that prove the serious damage caused to the environment and the health of families in the neighborhood. However, to this day, they have not received any solutions from local authorities. That is why we decided to bring their case before this international body.

Recently, we were notified that the petition has moved to a new stage in the process: the admissibility stage. This means that the IACHR considers the petition to meet the formal requirements and is ready to be analyzed in depth. To that end, it has requested information from the Argentine State, which must respond within four months of the request being sent—by July 25. Reaching this stage is of great importance, as only a small number of the thousands of petitions the IACHR receives annually make it this far.

In the petition, we request that the competent authorities be required to:

  • Adopt the necessary measures to stop the pollution caused by Porta Hnos. S.A.

  • Order the immediate relocation of the plant located at Avda. Valparaiso 4850, City of Córdoba, outside the urban area of the city, in compliance with current environmental legislation.

  • Take all necessary measures to identify and remediate the environmental damage caused by the plant’s operations.

  • Provide free medical and psychological assistance to those affected by the environmental pollution.

  • Order the creation of a Community Development Fund to be financed by the company.

All of this is within the framework of the serious pollution caused by the company’s operations, which affects the community’s rights to health, a healthy environment, a dignified life, and citizen participation, among others, for those living near the bioethanol plant.

A company that breaks the law with state backing

Over all these years, the company has failed to comply with the Environmental Impact Assessment procedure, despite it being a mandatory legal requirement for this type of industry and having been ordered by at least four court rulings at different levels. Even more serious is the fact that this noncompliance is not only due to the company’s refusal, but also because the Ministry of Environment and Circular Economy itself has refused to require the company to carry out the assessment.

In this context of state absence and neglect, progress in this international instance represents an opportunity to seek justice for all the environmental and social harm caused by the company. It also represents a renewed push in the sustained struggle of VUDAS, supported by Fundeps, which motivates us to continue forward with the same commitment to access to justice and environmental democracy. As well as for a more just, equitable, and sustainable society, based on public policies that guarantee the human rights of all people.

Author:

Ananda Lavayen

Contact:

Laura Carrizo, lauracarrizo@fundeps.org

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Marketing of substitutes and rights at risk

This report seeks to reflect on the scope and limitations of breastfeeding protection policies in Argentina, with an emphasis on regulatory acceptance and the effectiveness of their implementation. It begins by analyzing the international human rights regulatory framework that promotes and guarantees the protection of breastfeeding and the importance of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (ICMSM) and subsequent World Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions as a tool to guarantee adequate and effective protection of the rights to food, health, and information of children, women, and pregnant people. It then analyzes, from a human rights perspective, the findings of the monitoring carried out by the ObservaMaS platform, which reflects the worrying noncompliance with national and international regulations and the advancement of the marketing strategies of the breast-milk substitutes industry.

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More than a health problem: the multiple impacts of smoking. An intersectional approach

This report aims to contextualize the problem of smoking and analyze its multiple impacts on health, the environment, the economy and society, from a comprehensive, relational and intersectional perspective. Based on an exhaustive review of the literature and scientific evidence from sources without conflicts of interest, this work focuses on the specific effects of tobacco consumption and the activities of the tobacco industry in Argentina and the region.

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Questions and Answers on Access to Environmental Information

In the following guide you will find questions and answers about access to public environmental information and useful information to make requests to the State.

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