The EMAlumni Association

The network of alumni of The European Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation (EMA).

🤝 A Brief Intro: EMAlumni Association

The EMAlumni Association is a network that brings together alumni of the European Masters in Human Rights and Democratisation to create a thriving, global human rights community.

🔑 Our Four Key Pillars

  • 🛠 Governance & Transparency – We promote strong leadership, inclusive decision-making, and clear communication. Join a committee and shape the future!
  • 🤝 Community-Building – With 30+ ambassadors, regional hubs, and meetups, we ensure alumni stay connected worldwide.
  • 🚀 Professional Development – From mental health support to job opportunities, we help alumni grow while staying true to human rights values.
  • ⚖️ Advocacy & Human Rights – We support climate action, global justice, and mental health initiatives to amplify alumni voices where they matter most.

 

🌍 Get Involved!

Team Members

Mélina Pelé

Secretary General, EMA Graduate 2006/2007

Mélina graduated from the EMA programme in 2007. She worked 15+ years in the human rights field, first within international organizations, in Kosovo and Guinea, then within the French Administration working as a refugee status determination officer. She has co-founded non-governmental organizations for the Education of Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon and Franco-German bilingual families in Pantin. In her free time, she has been an elected local representative in France. Since 2022, she has transitioned to become a coach to help human rights practitioners and activists to remain happy, healthy and hopeful while doing what they do best: making the world a better place. She sensitizes change-makers to the negative impacts of vicarious traumatization on the long run and teaches concrete tools to mitigate these effects in daily life.

Mélina joined as Secretary General to better connect with the EMA community and provide support.

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Hélène Bauwens

President

Hélène works for an NGO providing legal support to refugees and asylum seekers. Passionate about advocacy, she actively engages in addressing the pressing issues surrounding refugee rights.

Hélène joined as President because she was motivated by the power of the EMA community as a network of human rights advocates.

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Diego Naranjo

Board Member, EMA Graduate 2010/2011

Diego advocates for the protection of citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms online. In the past, Diego gained experience in the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) and the Free Software Foundation Europe. Previously to all that he worked as a lawyer in Spain. Diego was appointed to the expert group on digital rights set up by the Spanish Ministry of Energy, Tourism and Digital Agenda between 2017-2018.

Diego joined the Board in order to drive advocacy actions with our community of alumni.

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Séphora Kermabon

Board Member, EMA Graduate 2017/2018

Séphora graduated from EMA in 2018. She founded her own law firm specialising in human rights, focusing on areas such as business and human rights, climate justice, and asylum law. Séphora previously worked for international law firms in Montreal, Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. She has also worked as a human rights and business ethics consultant for several firms. Séphora has collaborated with both French and international institutions, working as a litigation lawyer in the public sector and with international organisations such as the UNHCR (United Nations Refugee Agency) and the WHO (World Health Organization).

Séphora joined the EMAlumni Association as a board member to foster greater support and connections between alumni and students, to share diverse stories, and hope!

 

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Gonçalo Quitério

Board Member, EMA Graduate 2020/2021

Gonçalo works in the EU Delegation to North Macedonia, as Human Rights officer, where he follow a vast portfolio, from migration and refugees to gender equality and LGBTIQ+ rights, prisons or Roma and other minorities rights. Before, he worked at Amnesty International as research coordination and advocacy assistant.

Looking towards the future, he sees enormous potential for the EMAlumni Association to become an even more dynamic and engaged community, where people are proud to be a part of. By providing opportunities for alumni to collaborate, share knowledge and ideas, and receive assistance with job applications and career preparation, he is convinced that the EMA community can be stronger than ever before!

 

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Lea Frerichs

Board Member, EMA Graduate 2020/2021

Lea is an EMA alumna from 2021 and is currently doing her PhD in Sociology at the University of Hamburg focusing on the climate transition in Germany and the impact of climate litigation and climate protests.

Lea joined the Board because she wants to implement exciting projects of the EMAlumni Association, further develop the organization together and activate more EMA alumni to create a vibrant EMA community – just like it was in Venice.

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Kelly Christine Wong

Board Member, EMA Graduate 2017/2018

Kelly Wong earned a MA in Human Rights and Democratisation from the Global Campus of Human Rights and Uppsala University. Upon graduating, she completed an internship at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, and subsequently continued her work as an intern to Consultant at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France. She has worked at the Senate of Canada, and is now working as a Security Analyst at an internationally renown civil aviation, defense&security company in Canada. Kelly dedicates her personal time to work with students from her alumni and from all over the world to succeed in international academic and professional opportunities.

Kelly joined the Board to give back to the international community of EMA Alumni, and to help EMA Alumni at all stages of their academia and/or career to succeed.

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Geanina Turcanu

Board Member, EMA Graduate 2011/2012

After graduating from the EMA program in 2012, Geanina joined the European Union Delegation to China in Beijing (EUD), as a human rights EMA trainee.

Upon return, she joined Greenpeace, where she has been active mostly in legal campaign strategy roles over the past decade. Most notably, she served as a legal coordinator in the Amsterdam based Greenpeace International Legal Unit and led the process of building the legal capabilities of Greenpeace in Central and Eastern Europe. Additionally, she has been driving strategic advocacy initiatives on behalf of multiple expert work groups as convener for the Berlin based Europe Beyond Fossil Fuels coalition (BFF) since 2015.

Geanina is based in Vienna, where in her spare time she engages in theatre and creative writing projects, fostering the power of aRtivism for consciously redesigning more inclusive and sustainable futures.

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Merel Cosijn

Board Member, EMA Graduate 2020/2021

As a passionate human rights defender, Merel now works with the Dutch Red Cross in a refugee centre. Furthermore, she is part of the Dutch civil experts pool and is waiting for her first mission with MSF as a Humanitarian Affairs Officer, focusing on advocacy. Merel believes strongly in the power of a community and therefore wants to be actively involved with the EMAlumni Association. For this reason, she joined the board. Furthermore: from my own experiences EMA opens doors! This is something she would like to show and enhance for other students as well. As a community of active and passionate human rights defenders we can reach goals we never even knew we could reach.

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