Léo Heller is the former UN Special Rapporteur for the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation. He is a Leading Researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation and previously was Full Professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Léo has a BA in civil engineering, MSc in sanitary engineering and PhD in Epidemiology. He has extensive experience in teaching and researching in the fields of public policy and management and environmental health related to water and sanitation. He has a consolidated experience supervising MSc and PhD candidates and in coordinating large interdisciplinary research groups.

Léo is also the author of many books, book chapters and journal articles, including the book The Human Rights to Water and Sanitation, published by Cambridge University Press.

Research

• Water and sanitation
• Public policies
• Human rights
• Environmental health

As the chair holder of Catedra Rio Branco (2025-2026), Léo is developing research on the privatization of water and sanitation services in Brazil. His project firstly includes strengthening the theoretical and methodological approaches of ongoing projects, involving PhD candidates at Fiocruz and UFMG and engaging with a dialogue with King’s College academics working on the topic. Secondly, he plans to draft an article, in collaboration with colleagues at King’s College, on the privatization of water services and social mobilization in Brazil.

The subprojects to be worked on at the Catedra are:

1. Privatization of water and sanitation services in Brazil: the case of Alagoas (provisional title of the PhD thesis of Bárbara Furtado Barra, Graduate Program on Collective Health, Fiocruz).
2. Comparative assessment of water and sanitation providers in Brazil through the lens of the human rights to water and sanitation (provisional title of the PhD thesis of Alex Moura de Souza Aguiar, Graduate Program on Water, Sanitation and the Environment, UFMG).
3. Private sector participation and oligopolization of water and sanitation provision in Brazil (project developed through a partnership Ondas-Fiocruz.
4. Reactions of social movements to water privatization: a typology (manuscript to be drafted and submitted to a prestigious journal).

Teaching

• 7YYBN001 Contemporary Brazilian Politics and Society
• 7YYBN020 The Political Economy of Latin America