Joëlle Spahni, Switzerland

Joëlle is enrolled in the online M.A. in International Law & Diplomacy (UPEACE/UNITAR). She is currently living in Switzerland and is simultaneously working as Head of Operations and Co-head of International Litigation at AsyLex, an online legal advisory for asylum seekers and refugees.

For the first semester, we were lucky enough to have Joëlle here with us in Costa Rica. At our favourite cafe spot, Tulsi, I sat down with Joëlle to discuss her desire to make the world a borderless place, how she got to where she is today, and find out whose money she wants and why…

J: You know what I really just still can’t comprehend? The lottery of birth. Why do some of us have a life so full of privilege and others have to deal with such difficulty and hardship? To me, it is the ultimate injustice. I have had the privilege to travel. With my Swiss passport, I can come here to study in Costa Rica with no problem. But in contrast, my Indian counterparts face extensive visa processes when trying to move around Latin America, and if you are trying to flee the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, you cannot even access a visa to seek asylum through a safe and legal route.

If I could change one thing about the world, it would be to deconstruct borders. I would remove them all. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the uses that they have and I am aware that governing the whole globe would bring about a new set of challenges. But I really just hate this concept of borders and the exclusionist policies they promote. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I would make free movement accessible to everyone. 

Up until now, my career path has been a progressive journey to find the work that I believe has the most potential to have a real impact. When I was interning and volunteering with forced migrants in Greece, France and South Africa, I realised how useful the law is as a way to truly assist refugees. Yes, accompanying people to doctors appointments or doing their shopping for them is important and essential work, but I wanted to do something that changed the situation these people are in in the first place, to try and work towards a position where they have the power, where they have their basic rights, and where they do not need “assistance” to carry out daily tasks. And I realised that to do this, you need to know the law and how a legal system works, as it can be a really useful tool to protect you and others.

My next step on this journey of human rights advocacy is my work now as a legal representative for asylum-seekers. I want to build on this to really advocate to important stakeholders who have the power to change things in favour of the less privileged people. That is why I am studying diplomacy, to learn how to convince someone to act in the interest of less privileged persons. I feel that at the end of the day, because we are living in a capitalist system, money is really what you need to change the world. I want to be able to persuade the people in our society who have huge amounts of capital to support human rights causes. I want to be able to think like people with money, to advocate to them and to make human rights issues matter to them, because it should matter to them, and so much of the work we are trying to do ultimately depends on funding and financial backing.

I think the world would be a better place if people did less talking and more listening. It would open up the possibility to understand the other side. Once you know a person, you are more willing to help them because you have had that very basic human interaction. It would be great, for example, if companies carried out exchange programmes with their employees, making it mandatory to go and live somewhere else. First, they would participate in workshops with their international counterparts before trading places and going to live in each other's shoes for a while. And this brings me back to my point about advocating with corporations. We need them to be a part of the human rights movement, too. I believe, through diplomacy, we can make this happen, and I am utterly determined to do so. 

To find out more about Joëlle’s work and what they do at  AsyLex click the link below: https://www.asylex.ch/?about 

Written by: Lillie Toon

Photo by: Jed Allen 

Sam Stricker, United States

Bio: Sam is enrolled in the M.A. in International Peace Studies, and prior to UPEACE, pursued an undergraduate degree in International Studies at Earlham College (Richmond, Indiana, United States).

If you are ever lucky enough to stand next to Sam, his height is probably the first thing you will notice. Yet his big heart, fueled with empathy for others, and his curiosity for the world, is the most notable of all.

In our conversation with Sam, he shares personal parts of his life that brought him here and an interesting encounter with a local driver…

I don't have the largest family, and it's never really been a travel-heavy family, either, until recently. My mom really showed me the uniqueness that traveling brings to your life. Coming from a small town with values that are based around family and community, here I am as a student in a different country, with aspirations to travel the world. 

I went to a very small liberal arts college with about 1500 people at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. We had a very nice international community there. So, I think being in that community and studying international relations on top of being a traveler naturally makes me enjoy the career of being a peace scholar in the field. And then, learning about UPEACE, I think it really made sense to come here after finishing college. 

Now I am here, with such a unique opportunity, and it is amazing to me that I am here after being in Indiana my whole life. Coming into Costa Rica, to a university in the middle of the rainforest, after being surrounded by a much different environment, it has been a completely different world and one that I have come to love. It's also on such a larger scale than being at college, talking to so many more people from all over the world and from different countries I haven't heard of before coming here. Realizing how big the world is, and how much it has to offer, is another critical thing. Being curious about the world, thinking and studying about world perspectives, and tying these to the ideas of peace, is what we have been able to do on a small scale with so much perspective from different places in the world.

I think one of the keys to enjoying UPEACE has been curiosity. I think curiosity drives a lot of other students here, including me. A curiosity to reach a similar goal, talking about peace, solving the most complex problems in our society, and how to achieve the “impossible,” which is world peace. This includes defining what peace means, how it can be achieved, and how it can be sustained. We all have come here to think, speak, write and share about what we believe and what we can do as individuals, as groups.

Another important aspect with UPEACE has been that we will all encounter differing opinions, perspectives, and you have to be prepared to listen with an open mind. Before meeting anybody at UPEACE, I had an experience with one of my first uber drivers here. I was telling him that I was going to UPEACE; he said that what I would be doing was nothing, what the school is doing is nothing, and said that there is no chance for a fully peaceful society, so why even try? I felt, at that moment, he was right in a way. Peace feels so hard to fight for, but it is a process that doesn't happen overnight. A path that takes… it takes years, decades, centuries. That’s one key component of my learning experience here so far, is that peace is possible in every aspect, but it will always take time, and an incredible amount of patience.

Written by: Patric Hansen

Photo by: Jed Allen 

José Martín Ramos Díaz, Peru

Jos​​é Martín Ramos Diaz is enrolled in the M.A. in Environment, Development and Peace. Back home in Finland, he works at the University of Helsinki as a university researcher in the Department of Food & Nutrition. 

As a Peruvian who has lived in Finland for 12 years, Jos​​é Martín straddles an interesting cultural divide. In our conversation with Martin, he shares his experience of combining these two cultures, how they inform his work and why he has chosen to study at UPEACE now...

JM: I went to Finland initially to study a master’s programme on food science and, from then, I just kind of fell into the world of academia there. Since I was small, I’ve always liked exploring unfamiliar situations, and going to Finland was really testing my limits. How comfortable could I be in a culture that was completely different to my own in every way? When I arrived, I didn’t know anyone there, it was like landing on the moon. But weirdly, I found in some ways my personality suited Finland more, because I’m not a really loud guy. In Peru, I am more of a shy guy, the quiet one, but in Finland, people say how can you be shy!? I’ve now been there for 12 years, but it hasn’t been 12 years of just being in Finland, because my work as a Ph.D. student has actually sent me all around Europe collaborating with different scientists. 

I now work as a food scientist, looking mainly at food processes and structures, and how to transform raw materials like a seed or a grain into a final product like a legume or pasta. I specialise in the ‘extrusion process,’ which is essentially a type of equipment that allows you to carry out these transformations by inserting basic ingredients, such as flour and water, and then changing variables such as temperature to make lots of different food products. I am passionate about the universality of this machine and believe that it could be used in food security. I imagine giving this equipment to rural communities or a single town and how much it could transform their lives by being able to make such a variety of foods from just one piece of equipment. 

At the moment, I am working on using extrusion to make artificial meat products. For example, we are using vegetable proteins and fava beans to try and mimic a chicken breast. This technology has actually been around since the 70s, but back then, no one was interested. Now, with what we know about climate change and the rise of vegetarianism and veganism, artificial meats are in high demand. This is a popular trend in Finland, with many people cutting meat out of their diet, and so they are searching for alternative supplements that feel and taste like meat. 

However, I came to UPEACE because I was feeling that Finland is a bit like a bubble, academia is another bubble, and I felt these two bubbles couldn’t see the bigger picture. Being here is part of me trying to change that. I began to question what I am doing, why am I doing it and who am I doing it for? I really wanted to learn how to connect the knowledge I have with real people, with the development of the community. How could I make the work I am doing to find meat replacements relevant in Peru, in Latin America, where meat is not just part of survival but a part of people’s identity? I don’t want these artificial meat products to just be made for Europe. I want them to be accessible, available and appealing for people all over the world. So I came here to try and learn about food security and work out how I can use my work beyond the lab to really improve people’s lives.

Now I am always asking myself: what is our social responsibility? What can this do for the lives and health of disadvantaged groups? I am applying an ethical focus so that I have a human-based approach to scientific development. 

To find out more about Jos​​é Martín’s innovative work in artificial meat click the link below: 

https://researchportal.helsinki.fi/en/persons/jose-martin-ramos-diaz/publications/

Written by: Lillie Toon

Photo by: Jed Allen 

Pachernwit Saendi, Thailand

A NETWORKING EXPERIENCE THAT LED TO UPEACE

After graduating from Law School in Bangkok, Thailand, Pachernwit Saendi decided that his call for serving humanity was not to pursue the corporate scene but to take part in the work of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Thailand. After four years, thanks to one of his co-workers and fellow UPEACE Alum, Kitprasert Nopparat (M.A in International Law and Human Rights, 2014), he found UPEACE and made the ultimate decision to pursue his M.A. in International Law and Human Rights, thanks to the Asian Peacebuilders Scholarship Programme, financed by The Nippon Foundation.

A PASSION FOR INTERNATIONAL AND REFUGEE LAW

Pachernwit, considering the entire UPEACE academic offer, what made you decide to enrol in the M.A. in International Law and Human Rights?

I have a lot of passion for the work that I did for UNHCR and a lot of interest in refugee issues, which is I decided to apply for International Law and Human Rights, to deepen down my knowledge of refugee law. By studying at UPEACE, apart from the richness and the robustness of the academic side, it also gave me a lot of time to reflect about myself of who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do with my career as a lawyer. The campus, with [its extensive] forest, gives you a lot of calmness to think about the future and who you really are.

FROM THAILAND TO COSTA RICA TO NIGER

What was life like for you after UPEACE?

At the end of my programme in 2017, I went back to Thailand for a couple of months and got a job at UNHCR [out of] Niger in 2018. Working here is quite challenging because I work for an emergency evacuation program, in which we evacuate highly vulnerable [persons], especially refugees, from Libya to Niger to process their asylum claim, so they can continue their journey to their resettlement countries.

What specific topics do you deal with daily in your work with UNHCR?

I work with RSD (Refugee Status Determination), so every day we must talk to people that are fleeing from violence and interview them to see if they fall within the refugee criteria in International Law, and, as we’re the ones that evacuated them from Libya to Niger, we have to provide them protection while they are living here, meaning that we also give them education, training, healthcare, and shelter while they are waiting for the decision.

THE HUMAN SIDE OF WORKING WITH REFUGEES

What is like to be on the frontline helping refugees?

It is quite challenging, because when you are working very closely with refugees, you must understand what they have been through. When I talk to people who are most likely to be considered refugees, I see them as persons who have been through a lot and are very strong survivors. Many of their family [members] have died and when they are forced to leave their home, during that journey, their friends and family continued to lose their lives and face things that you cannot even imagine. At the same time, I feel so grateful that I have the chance to help them and listen to their stories.

Before my Conflict Resolution course at UPEACE, I thought that lawyers should only focus the law and what it says. However, when you are working in the field, you cannot just use all these legal [instruments], because when you are meeting with the people you are helping, there will always be some conflicts happening, so when you gain a different perspective and tools on how to manage conflict, you learn what to say, but most importantly, how to listen and understand before the conflict becomes more severe.

Day to day, I work with refugees that come into the interview rooms with a lot of concern, frustrations, and tears in their eyes and by just sitting them down and giving them space to talk and really listening of them, you can see and feel them release their pain somehow and sometimes they end up thanking you for it.

What advice you would give to UPEACERS interested in working in the field with refugees?

I think that one of the most unique experience that you gain by studying at UPEACE is that you work and learn in a highly multicultural and very well-connected network, because apart from the students that come from all around the world and many different backgrounds, you also have professors who used to work in many UN [agencies] or humanitarian organizations, [as well as] experts or visiting professors. You also have this Alumni network of [professionals] who are already doing their job in the field.

What is the best experience you had on campus on how did it change your career?

I really liked the multicultural diversity at UPEACE. There are a lot of students coming from many countries around the world and [you can] share your experiences and knowledge in the classroom, as well as outside the classroom, with open-minded people. In my class, we all really wanted to learn and share between each other, and I think the location of UPEACE stimulates our passion to learn and the discussions we have.