Did you know about the Global Campus and the LATMA Master’s before? Why did you accept the invitation to teach?
No, I didn’t know about the Global Campus or the Master’s programme. I accepted the invitation because I was interested in the possibility of contacting Argentine and international students who seek education in human rights and to learn firsthand about concrete cases of impact and intervention. That feedback is always interesting, and the opportunity to exchange ideas with young people coming from different experiences is extremely enriching.
What approach did you adopt and what topics did you address?
I sought an experiential yet complex perspective: to tell the story of a complex event, such as the initial mobilization of “Ni Una Menos” in 2015, from the aspect of organizing in the midst of an unprecedented situation. How the long history of grassroots feminist organizations’ experience, which is deeply limited in its reach, combined with the expertise of journalists and producers from different media platforms at the time. finding themselves in an unprecedented dilemma: a mobilization proposed (by us) on social media that was exponentially accepted by millions of people who, for the most part, had not had contact with feminist activism.
What was the experience like? What kind of feedback did you receive from the students? What aspects did they find most relevant for their career (if it can be deduced from their comments/questions)?
The experience was very enriching, at least for me, and according to the interventions and comments from students, mobilizing for them. My classes presented something that happened ten years ago, when they were in childhood or transitioning out of it, and the perspectives of what and how it happened were very different. In the cases of students from other countries, the situation became even more complex: in these years of distance from the foundational event (the “Ni Una Menos” mobilization) to the reality of 2025, social media, app development, and Through AI, situations of violence and virtual harassment have multiplied in unimaginable ways until a few years ago. And yet, many experiences found points of contact on which to dialogue and reflect.
Could you tell us a bit about your experience as a co-founder of Ni Una Menos? And, if possible, some current data on gender violence?
Ten years after that event, the world seems to have travelled millions of kilometres and experiences. Today’s social networks -even though they may seem similar on the surface- are not the same, their uses and the people who use them are not either. It’s not a matter of individuals but of mentalities. I often think about that temporal distance that alters experience and the possibilities for social intervention or organization in -so to speak- unexpected ways, as it unfolds. Social networks in 2015 helped to catalyse a social conversation that converged on a series of demands and demonstrations; a group. A group of journalists and activists managed to channel it all in less than a month, in a country accustomed to the unexpected, to the unforeseen. And even so, what happened exceeded expectations, which definitely were not up to the level of what actually occurred. Currently, some issues that Ni Una Menos had claimed (and achieved) have been dismantled by political sectors in charge of the State: it is officially denied that there is such a thing as gender-based violence, the validity of sexual and reproductive rights is threatened, and there is an attempt to undo the guarantees for comprehensive sexual education. For that same reason, even the official measurements that allow establishing the dimensions of the problem are at risk.
Do you think that social media can help combat gender-based violence? If so, how?
I believe that social media can always help to combat inequalities, inequities, and violence. But not in an absolute or magical way: there are balances, interests, social interests and concerns that must operate to that end. Also, unpredictable events that cannot be calculated. Sometimes I think that in this global reality, with social networks working as they do today, “Ni Una Menos” might not have grown into the event it became. But that doesn’t mean I doubt its power to generate events of interest for the exercise of human rights. I believe there are always ways: we just have to work to create them.
Could you leave a message for the students, teachers, and human rights defenders of the Global Campus network?
I am by nature pessimistic, but how can we not take action? Or at least, how can we not try? In human rights, what other option do we have? There is always something to contribute, to do, to seek, and to change. I believe that a large part of our mission, if we have one, is that. The other is to see others and understand that we are part of the same, whether we think the same way or not: there is no choice but to coexist, to guarantee the full exercise of human rights for us and for others is essential to enjoy our lives.
For more information contact our Communications and Press Offices:
Elisa Aquino – Isotta Esposito – Carlotta Brunetta
pressoffice@gchumanrights.org - communications@gchumanrights.org
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