Charline Depoorter

Charline Depoorter serves as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Basel, building on her doctoral research at KU Leuven's Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and Division of Bioeconomics. Her academic foundation includes an MSc in Global Environment, Politics and Society from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in International Politics from KU Leuven. Her research focuses on the intersection of sustainability governance and global trade, particularly examining voluntary sustainability standards and their effectiveness in creating positive environmental and social outcomes. As a key contributor to the field, she has led research initiatives at UNCTAD examining voluntary sustainability standards and sustainable development due diligence, while her work investigates how these standards address crucial issues such as deforestation, climate change, and labor rights violations in global value chains. Through her analysis of governance mechanisms and institutional design, she continues to advance understanding of how non-state governance instruments can effectively promote sustainability in international trade, particularly in developing countries and agricultural sectors, while contributing to academic discourse through publications and presentations at international conferences.