As sustainability is linked to social responsibility, sustainable development is inherently linked to human rights. The social, economic, cultural and environmental struggles among indigenous communities of Chiapas, Mexico, speak of the centrality of human rights in achieving sustainable development. This paper addresses the theoretical and practical implication that human rights have if placed at the center of sustainable development models. Through an examination of the Sustain-Able Chiapas Program (among Maya and Zapatista communities) and the insights of Dr. Alfredo Sfeir Younis (the first environmental economist of the World Bank) the paper offers innovative insights into a right-based model for achieving sustainable societies in the Global South. The model, emerging from the lessons of Chiapas, offers new insights in the discussion of the pillars of sustainability, and an integrated model emerging from the natural law into an interdependent and interconnected global village. As the right-based approach to development has been gaining importance in the field of international development, the human right-based approach to sustainable development can be central to inspire a process that is not just based on responsibilities, but also economic, social, environmental (human) rights.