Samuel Kofi Woods is an ISS alumnus from Liberia (postgraduate diploma in international law and development, 1999). After a long period of human rights activism, for which he received national and international recognition (including a 1994 Reebok Human Rights Award and honors from the Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2005), Woods became Liberia's Minister of Labour in the government led by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as from february 2006. Since May 2009, he is Liberia's Minister of Public Works. On 10 December 2010, on the occasion of a seminar on human rights defenders organized by Justitia et Pax in The Hague, Woods delivered an iinspiring speech on human rights, human rights defenders and the current worrisome negative trends concerning human rights in western Europe including the Netherlands.

Samuel Kofi Woods (1999)

Masashi Tsudaka (07-08)

Masashi has been working in Palestine for the Japanese development organisation JVC.

I am mainly in charge of nutrition projects in Gaza and a community health project and advocacy in East Jerusalem. If you are interested in the Israel/Palestine conflict and the humanitarian situation in Gaza/West Bank/East Jerusalem, you can read what's happening right next to my neighborhood.

After leaving the ISS, Kwanravee (Ei) continued her work as a journalist and photo-journalist in Thailand, covering social justice developments there, including the "red shirts" movement. She was quoted in a newspaper article about her perspectives on the movement. In July 2011 she was appointed as an assistant lecturer at the Centre for Human Rights and Social Development, Mahidol University.

It is realised that a much-touted dichotomy of the discourse splitting 'Bangkokians' and 'Countrymen' has been perpetuated, intentionally or unintentionally, in order to stigmatise and discriminate against those joining the red shirts ... We want to be a mirror reflecting as closely as possible the complete picture of the red shirts movement, which has been staged non-violently thus far.

Kwanravee ("Ei") Wangudom (08-09)

Chantelle de Nobrega (08-09)

Chantelle is currently working at Isandla Institute in Cape Town, as coordinator for the Good Governance Learning Network (GGLN). The GGLN is a coalition of about twenty member organisations, including NGOs, research institutes and think-tanks that are committed to equitable and sustainable urban planning, with a particular focus on issues of land, housing, HIV/Aids and democratic local governance. Prior to her return to Cape Town, Chantelle worked at Mama Cash in Amsterdam, the oldest international women’s fund in the world. She recently co-edited and published an article in a special ISS Alumni issue of DevISSues.

I came from South Africa to join the HDS programme with the intention of broadening my knowledge on international human rights law, human rights approaches and social justice perspectives. Studying within the HDS specialisation provided an opportunity to consider and compare the various perspectives on social movements, human rights, social justice, and legal frameworks, while allowing access to other conceptual positions on everything from Marxist economics to environmental justice. I was also offered the space to pursue my own interests and passions, such as feminist theories of international law and the shifting dynamics of civil society in a post-apartheid South Africa. My studies at the ISS have been integral to the ongoing process of building my own conceptual understanding of how the world works – the patterns and complexities of human society – it has been exciting to see my academic studies being an important part of the way that I see and approach my current job and my future careers options. The opportunity to consider the multiple layers of human society from the perspective of multiple identities and fields (law, economics, sociology, history / herstory etc) was central to my studies at the ISS and was an important part of my work at Mama Cash. It continues to be directly relevant to my work at Isandla Institute and with the GGLN, as well as my political identity as a feminist.

With the support of Civil Society Building Knowledge Program (ISS-Hivos collaboration), Cypri has continued his research on social movements, human rights and development and in particular the strategies of civic actors in Papua, Indonesia (January - June 2011). He also works for an Indonesian civil society organisation, SUNSPIRIT FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE and inititated a people-to-people solidarity movement called Gerakan Baku Peduli from Indonesia.

He also published an article on 'Development Aid: Challenge for Real World Justice' in the Dutch magazine Vice Versa. The article can be downloaded for free here.

Cyprianus ("Cypri") Jehan Paju Dale (09-10)

Sebastien Fekete (08-09)

Sebastien works as the Consultation Coordinator for the Mikisew Cree First Nation in Canada. See a recent news report related to his work. N.B. Click on TAB: NEWS HOUR FINAL (under Global Edmonton) on the left sidebar, then select the June 6th video, and scroll to the 6th minute.

It’s an intense job with lots of responsibilities. While my thesis (editor note: on 'Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in Alberta’s Oil Sands: The Roles of Corporations and the State') has been beneficial in many ways, nothing compares to the learning done in the field. Reading has become an integral part of my work, as the regulatory framework guiding oil sands development is ever-changing. Policies are construed in a lopsided manner, and seem to ignore First Nations interests, despite certain guarantees in the Canadian Constitution. I engage and have meetings with different stakeholders, including the Alberta Department of the Environment (talking about water management), the Alberta Department of Energy (to decide how extraction should take place) with lawyers (deciding which parcels of land need to be protected) and with oil companies (deciding how to “minimize” the impacts of a pipeline). I am also working with consultants, who aid us in performing Traditional Land Use studies (to identify areas of special interest such as hunting grounds or spiritual sites). By demonstrating land use, we are more in a position to make stronger claims for change. However, change is a slow process in such a bureaucratic environment.

I am dealing with people that have a lot of power; that much is evident, and it appears as though First Nations are on the lower end of the power spectrum. Consequently, the pace of development is having a tremendous impact on cultures and traditions. As development continues (largely unhindered), certain forms of knowledge and ways of understanding the natural environment are disappearing. Gradually, it seems that participation into the "mainstream" economy is the way forward for many of these peoples, whether this is positive remains a question of perception of course.

Symph started at the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) of Kenya in January 2011 as a Research Associate that has been tasked to carry out field and desk research in preparation for a hearing of victims that will take place some time in May 2011. Previously Symph worked as Programme Associate at the Kenya Human Rights Commission, an NGO started ten years ago by Professor Makau Mutua and others, and not the 'external oversight body' - the Kenya National Human Rights Commission.

I have been fortunate during the course of 2010 to literally put into practice what I had learned from the MA in Human Rights Development and Social Justice (HDS) specialization. The HDS programme is quite unique in comparison to similar programmes offered by other institutions around the world. As a social scientist coming from a non-legal background, I appreciated that the HDS team avoided too much legal jargon in their lectures. Most important of all I liked the team's socio-legal approach to the human rights discourse, moving beyond the notion that rights realization can be approached in a relatively straightforward way through the law.
While helping to develop a reparation and rehabilitation programme for victims who had suffered gross human rights, I realized that the domination of human rights studies by legal practitioners has led to a gap between human rights law and the realities of human rights violations faced by people on the ground. I think the contribution of law and the social sciences are mutually exclusive in the realization of human rights in the world today.

Symphorosa ("Symph") Oundo (08-09)