Becoming Change Makers

Herausgeber*innen: Reina-Marie Loader / Leonard Cuscoleca Autor*innen: Mimi Chakrabarty Mimi entered the Vienna Master of Arts Human Rights Program with an undergraduate degree in Translation, from the University of Ottawa, in Canada. Her prior stints in Canadian federal service enabled her to work with judicial documents, including court decisions (e.g. on asylum applications) - which furthered her pre existing interest in the advancement of women's rights and led her to apply for the Vienna program. During her time in the MA program, she completed two internships: The first, at the Vienna-based Regional Office of the International Organization for Migration, with a focus on immigration and border management; and the second, a remote work term with a Kabul-based non-governmental organization, DROPS Afghanistan (a policy/research/advocacy group), in a research-and-communications capacity. With an interest in applying the analytical skills and subject-specific knowledge gained during her Master's studies to human-rights issues prevalent in her home country, Canada, Mimi decided to research the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. In particular, she examined how ongoing tensions between Canadian institutions at various levels result in implementation gaps in investigations and violence prevention, further distancing Canada's Indigenous women from their rightful claim to safety and justice. Since graduating, Mimi has held a management position at a non-governmental organisation, in policy work, in Ottawa; and subsequently transitioned back into federal government. She currently works in an analytical role as a junior policy officer in the Department for Women and Gender Equality in the Gender-Based Violence Program-Policy team. Natsumi Koike After completing a 'bachelor's' degree in Policy Management at Keio University, worked more than 6 years as an educational video producer for a Japanese civil society organisation names Pacific Asia Resource Center (PARC). Subsequently, she worked as a staff writer / translator for a news agency specialised in economic and business news in Malaysia, before joining the Vienna Master of Arts in Human Rights. Before writing her thesis, she gained further insights into business and human rights issues through an internship experience at the Transnational Institute, an international research and advocacy institute in Amsterdam. She is currently taking a break from work to take care of her child at home, while participating in drafting of a shadow report for the CEDAW committee as a member of a Japanese women's organisation, advocating on the issues of reproductive health and rights. Anna-Maria Steiner, MA holds an MA in Human Rights and a BA in English and American Studies of the University of Vienna. After internships at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, the London office of Reprieve and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights in Vienna, she worked as a human rights officer at the Austrian Ministry of Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, dealing with a variety of human rights issues but focussing mainly on women's rights, human rights defenders, election observation, and the death penalty. She was also the national delegate in the EU Working Party on Fundamental Rights, Citizens' Rights and Free Movement of Persons (FREMP), including during the Austrian EU Council Presidency. Since January 2019, she works with Manfred Nowak in the General Secretariat of the Global Campus of Human Rights, and in this function has also been involved in a capacity-building project in Timor-Leste, as well as the UN Global Study on Children Deprive