The Road Less Traveled

Animated by the sense of justice, the guest of this episode, Francesco Bruscoli, started his career working for international organisations such as OSCE, ICRC and the UN in the protection domain. He then took two surprising segways in his career and found ways to apply his human right knowledge in places where human rights is not always given a predominant place. First, he worked for a few years f...

Our guest for this episode is Vladimira Briestenska, the co-founder of Neem, a financial wellness business out of Pakistan, enabling underserved communities across emerging markets. With a global perspective and a strong commitment to social impact, she conceives entrepreneurship as a force for good, committed to create positive impact in the society.​She went on this journey when realised that on...

Our guest for this episode believes that businesses can contribute to human rights and that human rights can be conducive to business. Barbara Linder focused most of her career on human rights and business. She currently works as a Senior Environmental and Social Manager for the Austrian Development Bank (OeEB), which is a private stock company with a public mandate. Through her work, she strength...

Mfon Udechukwu is a dedicated community coordinator at WeRobotics, blending her passion for human rights advocacy with her commitment to promoting responsible data and technology use. With a human rights and international relations background, Mfon has always been driven by a desire to create positive societal change. Her career journey took an exciting turn when she recognized the transformative...

The guest of this episode, Una Bejtovic has three decades of experience in media and public relations, with human rights as a red thread for more than two decades. She decided to use the tools she masters to give back to society. She believes that “public relations can contribute to a better understanding among the people and make us better individuals.”She studied human rights 10 years after star...

Finding clarity through media literacyThe guest of this episode, Mihajlo Lahtov, has 25 years of experience as a media literacy trainer, project manager, and communications specialist. He is currently the project director for the USAID Media Literacy Project YouThink, implemented in North Macedonia by IREX a global development and education organization. and three local partners. What lead him to...

Italian, migrant, human rights practitioner. This is how Sabrina Galella describes herself. She has been guided since her childhood by a sense of empathy and compassion. Before her master in human rights, she studied politics and international relations. She thinks that combining the world of politics and the world of law make for a more enriching journey to understand just all of the issues that...

The guest of this episode, Federico Batista Poitier, studied first forensic anthropology and then human rights. After graduating from the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation, he specialised in issues related to accessibility and the implementation of the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Federico started working on issues related to disability when he was an...

Mary Izobo, the guest of Episode 19 of the podcast The Road Less Traveled, wears many hats. She is an international human rights lawyer, governance specialist, and is currently studying for her PhD in International Law and Governance at the University of Pretoria. In this episode, we ask her more about her gender advocate hat as the Founder and Executive Director of The Amazon Leadership Initiativ...

The guest of Episode 18 of the podcast The Road Less Traveled is a perfect example of the beauty and depth of non-linear paths. She worked as a civil servant, for the United Nations and as a freelancer. She finds her joy when taking the hat of an activist: Maite Arrondo is an expert on the right to adequate housing and has been working for the past 8 years as a consultant on innovation in housing...

The guest of Episode 17 of the podcast The Road Less Traveled is Jean Linis-Dinco, a human rights activist, academic and data scientist from the Philippines. She is currently doing her PhD in cybersecurity at the University of South Wales Canberra, focusing on the analysis of government propaganda, and disinformation in the context of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. Already a good communicator by...

Our guest, Inge Jacobs, is currently leading sustainability for Mars Food, focusing both on human rights and livelihoods as well as climate and water use in Mars Food supply chains. In her job, she uses not only the lenses of human rights but also the ones from sustainability, gender and ecology. Curiosity is the red thread throughout her career. She keeps looking at new opportunities and networks...

The guest of this episode is a Bulgarian-Armenian director, choreographer, producer, and writer exploring empathy through movement and storytelling. His dancing career started with ballroom dancing when he was 5. After a childhood full of dance competitions during weekends, Kosta started working as a professional dancer at 18 with Dancing with the stars Vietnam. While he was studying dance in New-...

Moana Genevey, the guest of this episode, is a Senior Policy Officer at Equinet at day, and a stand-up comedian at night. By doing the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation, she had for the first time a sense of belonging and a sense of legitimacy. The master created career opportunities working for human rights (e.g., paid traineeships, work as co-Secretary General of the EMAlumni A...

The guest of this episode has let his curiosity and constant questioning about the best way to have an impact on human rights guide his career. This less usual path led him to focus those last years on Hope-based communications because he strongly believes in our shared humanity and the need to stand in solidarity. “Hope is the idea that we can make change happen, and that human rights are too imp...

The guest of our 12th episode is Lydia Malmedie, a graduate of the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation, who currently works as Deputy head of the LGBTI Unit at the Berlin State Ministry for Justice, Diversity and Anti-discrimination. Sub-national level is getting more and more important with several networks of cities and public authorities working on different human rights issues....

For this episode, we have invited the creative alumna of the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation who conceived the jingle for the podcasts The Road Less Traveled: Laura María Calderón Cuevas. Laura grew up in a family who enjoyed the arts and encouraged her passion for music and dance. She started being aware very young of the inequalities in Colombia. She understood the power of s...

The guest of this episode is wearing many hats: Barbora Vágnerová, a graduate of the European Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation, created her own company, works for a foundation and is a jazz singer. Because of her own experience of caring for a sick relative, Barbora got involved in issues related to health and health care workers. She started her own company, which offers hospital plac...

The guest of episode 9 of our podcast is Godfrey Odongo, a human rights graduate from GC Africa, currently working as Senior Program Officer with the Human Rights Program at Wellspring Philanthropic Fund in New York. Godfrey got motivated to work in human rights because of his desire to use the law as one of the tools to help others. What keeps me hopeful is giving hope and building the resilience...

Our guest in this episode is Sinead Duffy, a graduate of the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation, who founded Yogandha, a range of multi-awarded meditative oils. For her primary degree, she chose to study philosophy out of interest for ethics and morality, modalities of thoughts, concepts of existence and all aspects of the human condition. She then took a meandering route from phi...

The guest of our 7th episode, Marco Blanco, is the founder and CEO of Child Safeguard, an award-winning consultancy firm, that helps organisations implement strategies to prevent harm and abuse to children through the implementation of Child Safe Best Practices. From a young age, Marco had a strong interest in human rights and sense for social justice through his volunteer work. Marco worked first...

The guest of our sixth episode is Marina Shupac, an award-winning journalist, self-shooting documentary filmmaker and human rights practitioner from Moldova. Since she was a child, she wanted to be a journalist but was also already taking a stand on injustice due to her family’s commitment to a more just society in Moldova. She did not perceive it at that point as human rights but more as a politi...

The guest of our fifth episode is Vanessa Trapani is a graduate of the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation. She currently works as an independent consultant for the social innovation of SMEs and co-founded an NGO called Sloworking, which is committed to spread a work-life balance culture and support women in their professional and economic empowerment. Her passion for diversity bro...

In this conversation, Niamh Walsh, a leadership and career coach, looks back at what brought her to coaching and her human rights education underpins her work. The conversation is rich in advice and will give you an idea of what rights-based coaching might look like. Niamh, a graduate from the European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation, started working as a coach and mentor after a more c...

The third guest of our podcast series ‘The Road Less Traveled’ is David Nnanna Ikpo, a Nigerian lawyer, storyteller, researcher and filmmaker. He finds all his passions quite complementary and despite the growing acceptance of intersciplinary teams, he still finds that he is stuck with assessments that are incomplete and stay in the limbo. There is no protocol for a lawyer who is at a filmmaker an...