Page 28 - Human Rights Program 2025 Annual Report

27
FREY FELLOW GAINS GLOBAL ADVOCACY
EXPERIENCE
Natika Kantaria (MHR ‘24) fondly remembers following coverage of the United Nations (UN)
General Assembly through her childhood. “Someone would come out with a microphone
standing in front of the flags reporting on world issues,” she recalls, “and that was the reason
why I really wanted to be in the international public.”
In spring 2024, Kantaria graduated from the
Master of Human Rights (MHR) program. That
spring, Kantaria was also awarded the Barbara
Frey Fellowship. Established in 2022, the
Barbara Frey Human Rights Fellowship
promotes the legacy of HRP founder and former
executive director, Barbara Frey. The fellowship
supports a year of paid, full-time employment in
the field of human rights for an exceptional
graduating student from a professional or PhD
level program at the University of Minnesota.
In September 2024, Kantaria began her year
working with the International Service for
Human Rights (ISHR) in New York. ISHR is a
Geneva-based international organization that
protects and promotes human rights, from
global systems to the activists themselves. Natika Kantaria
Kantaria and her colleagues also monitor human rights developments globally and decisions
impacting policies and international human rights law made within the UN. She recently observed
various UN sessions, and was given the opportunity to closely monitor and observe open
negotiations between countries about civil liberties.
From her experience as a Frey Fellow, Kantaria has developed greater skill in advocacy, legal
research, UN expertise, and political nuance. “Now I have very different analyses based on the
decisions and political acts of different member states,” she says. “Sometimes I was surprised.”
In spring 2025, Léocadia Tchouaffé (MHR ‘25) received the Frey Fellowship to work at the
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Tchouaffé will contribute to SPLC’s engagement with the
United Nations and other international mechanisms, and provide assistance with activities to
raise internal, public, and elected official awareness of human rights standards and coordination
of US civil society coalition work. We look forward to following Tchouaffé’s journey.
Adapted from an article by Rory Schaefer, first published at https://cla.umn.edu/human-
rights/news-events/story/building-human-rights-leaders-natika-kantarias-fellowship-
experience.