Alumni Regional Correspondents Scheme
A unique opportunity to enhance writing skills in research and advocacy, the Human Rights Preparedness Blog has been selecting graduates from all eight regional Master’s programmes for a paid training opportunity since 2022.
what is the Correspondents Scheme
Incubating Talent, Empowering Voices
How do we harness and grow the talent of Global Campus graduates? Identifying the Global Campus’ blog, Human Rights Preparedness, as a potential tool, its founder GC Europe Chairperson Thérèse Murphy, designed a paid, competitive training scheme that would allow alumni to design and publish blogposts under the expert guidance of a mentor.
What Benefits Has the Regional Correspondents Scheme Brought to our Alumni?
Mentoring Alumni to Advocate for Human Rights through Writing
Dr. Rosie Cowan, a former Guardian journalist and now an academic at Queen’s University Belfast—one of the GC partner universities—has mentored over 15 selected graduates for the past four years, guiding them in writing about key issues affecting their regions. “The opportunity to learn from a seasoned journalist and contribute to the Human Rights Preparedeness blog was incredibly appealing. It offered a unique platform to combine my work in promoting human rights for all and my desire to write.”
Alumni regional Correspondents
Lakshita Kanhiya
GC Africa alumna
Lakshita Kanhiya (she/her) is a Doctor of Laws candidate and holds an LLM in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the University of Pretoria and an MA in Mass Communication and Journalism from India.
She is an advocate, academic, and activist from the Global South, currently serving as the Advocacy and Campaigns Officer at Pan Africa ILGA. She specialises in human rights, governance, climate justice, and the intersection of religion and sexuality.
Her work spans civil society, government, and private sectors, contributing to strategic litigation, advocacy campaigns, and coalition building. Multilingual and a seasoned presenter, Lakshita is dedicated to transformative justice across Africa.
Johnson Mayamba Banziyanga
GC Africa alumnus
Johnson Mayamba has more than a decade of experience as both a reporter and an editor. He has worked for several media houses but mostly the Nation Media Group in Uganda, East Africa. He is also a seasoned media trainer and mentor with the Journalists for Human Rights, an international NGO that builds the capacity of journalists in human rights reporting.
Johnson was the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow in the 2021-2022 cohort at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University in the US; the 2023-2024 Chevening Africa Media Freedom Fellow at the University of Westminster in the UK; and 2023 Universal Rights Group Media Fellow at the UN Human Rights Council in Switzerland.
Areen Eideh
GC Arab World alumna
Areen Eideh holds a BA in Law and an MA in Human Rights and Democracy from Saint Joseph University, Lebanon. Her expertise includes project management, development, human rights, the rule of law, and gender issues.
She has played a key role in projects and initiatives focused on promoting gender justice, combating violence against women, and empowering youth in Palestine and the MENA region. Areen has collaborated with national beneficiaries, stakeholders and donors, effectively managing projects and fostering strong relationships with implementing partners.
Areen is passionate about defending human rights and striving towards a world free from discrimination, where everyone enjoys full freedom and equality.
Jasmin Lilian Diab
GC Arab World alumna
Dr. Jasmin Lilian Diab (she/هي) is the Director of the Institute for Migration Studies (IMS) at the Lebanese American University, where she also serves as an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Migration Studies at the Department of Communication, Mobility and Identity (CMI).
Dr. Diab is a Research Affiliate at the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University and a Global Fellow at Brown University’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies. As of 2024, she is a Visiting Professor in Migration Studies at Sciences Po Lyon.
In 2025, her research was awarded the Lisa Gilad prize from the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM).
Khadija Mohamed Embaby
GC Arab World alumna
Khadija Embaby is a PhD candidate at the Berlin Graduate School for Muslim Cultures and Societies. Her current research covers post Arab Spring politics, energy justice in the middle east and the anthropology of religion in Egypt.
Gianna Francesca Catolico
GC Asia Pacific alumna
Gianna Francesca Catolico brings experience from Inquirer Interactive, the May 18 Memorial Foundation, and several human rights organizations, including Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS) and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development. She has also contributed to the Development Academy of the Philippines. In 2022, she was selected as a Pyeongchang Youth Peace Ambassador. Her research and professional interests focus on human rights and Southeast Asian politics.
Visalaakshi Annamalai
GC Asia Pacific alumna
Visalaakshi Annamalai is a researcher in labour mobility, migration, gender, climate change and refugee issues in Asia-Pacific. She is pursuing her Master of Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Previously she was a consultant for the International Organization for Migration. She also worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Labour Organization among others.
Salome Abuladze
GC Caucasus alumna
Salome Abuladze works as a lawyer in the Agency for State Care and Assistance for the (Statutory) Victims of Human Trafficking in Georgia. Her main activity relates to the rights of the children, especially to the victims of domestic violence. She is a member of the Regional Council of Guardianship and Care, which issues the children placed in state care. She was part of the Caucasus research group for the GC Global Classroom 2020. She holds an LLB and LLM from Tbilisi State University.
Iryna Bakhcheva
GC Caucasus alumna
Iryna Bakhcheva is a human rights professional with a strong background in international project management. She has 8+ years of experience at the intersection of economic development, human rights and migration. Her international career includes successful implementation of the humanitarian projects for refugees and IDPs, non-formal education initiatives for youth and adults as well as policy analyses and policy development projects and consultancies. She is an Expert in Sustainable Finance at ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability Europe.
Maria Kol’tsova
GC Caucasus alumna
Maria Kol’tsova is a Russian journalist and communication specialist in the non-governmental sector. Her main interests include reporting on human rights issues, NGOs and post-Soviet studies.
Chiara Passuello
GC Europe alumna
Chiara Passuello is a Legal Advisor and Human Rights Specialist. Her main areas of expertise and study concern gender justice, intersectionality, SGBV and climate justice. She was part of the Europe research group for the GC Global Classroom 2022.
Gema Ocaña Noriega
GC Europe alumna
Gema Ocaña Noriega is a PhD candidate at Queen´s University Belfast and member of the Health and Human Rights Unit where she is developing her PhD on Privatisation of Health Care and its Compatibility with International Human Rights Law. Gema is a member of the Global Health Law Groningen Research Centre and works as senior advisor in EU research affairs at the University of Groningen.
Sara Benítez-Mongelós
GC Latin America & Caribbean alumna
Sara Benítez-Mongelós is a Paraguayan lawyer, public translator, researcher, and University lecturer. She holds a Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation in Latin America and the Caribbean from the University of San Martin in Buenos Aires (Cohort 2022-2023). Currently, she is in the process of publishing her research on disappearances perpetrated by non-state actors in Paraguay.
Ezequiel Fernandez
GC Latin America & Caribbean alumnus
Ezequiel Fernandez is an Argentinian anthropologist, journalist and university lecturer. Currently he is researching his PhD on human mobility and public policies with a perspective of social anthropology at the University of San Martin, in Argentina. In 2020, he was a finalist in the Gabriel García Márquez journalism awards and in 2021 he won the International Organization for Migration’s South American journalism award.
Ana Funa
GC South East Europe alumna
A trained lawyer, Ana Funa currently supports the Ministry of Justice – Bureau for Representation of North Macedonia before the European Court of Human Rights, assisting with the preparation of action plans and reports for the execution of the Court’s decisions.
Her research interests cover execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, transitional justice, gender and minority rights.
Ezequiel Fernandez
GC Europe
Lakshita Kanhiya (she/her) is a human rights advocate and scholar from Mauritius, with particular focus on the intersections of religion and sexuality, climate justice, and digital surveillance. Currently pursuing her doctoral studies, Lakshita holds two master’s degrees: an LLM from the University of Pretoria and an MA from Amity University, India, (both with distinction) and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mauritius.
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