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About Manushya’s Founder:
Emilie Palamy Pradichit
Founder & Executive Director of Manushya Foundation
Emilie Palamy Pradichit
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Emilie Palamy Pradichit, the Founder & Executive Director of Manushya Foundation, is an intersectional feminist visionary & international human rights lawyer specializing in accessing justice for marginalized communities through strategic litigation before the United Nations (UN) — where her innovative work has successfully held governments and businesses accountable for their human rights abuses and violations. Working on the ground, she also endorses women & youth to speak truth to power at the forefront of their fight for justice and equality as well as defends indigenous, forest-dependent, LGBTIQ+ & marginalized communities across Asia.
Growing up as a Lao refugee in the disenfranchised suburbs of Paris, 'la Banlieue', her family having fled there from Laos, she experienced first-hand negative impacts of injustice, racism, discrimination, exclusion, inequalities, and inequities. As a child, she always dreamed of bringing justice to her neighbors and communities. The challenges she encountered during her childhood, education, and life, rooted her passion to fight for equality for all, social justice, and the right of local communities to be treated as Equal Human Beings, to be ‘heard’, ‘seen’, and ‘understood’, and to be at the heart of legislative and political decision-making processes that affect them, nothing less.
By founding Manushya in 2017, Emilie followed her childhood dream and envisions building a movement of
Equal Human Beings ∞ #WeAreManushyan ∞:
Prior to founding Manushya, Emilie was the Asia Regional Director of the nonprofit UPR-Info and served as a Human Rights and Advocacy Officer with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in New York and Bangkok, protecting the human rights of the LGBTIQ+ community and People Living with HIV. She also worked for Transparency International Thailand and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris upon graduating with her Master of Laws in Public International Law and a Postgraduate Law Degree in International Administration, both from the Sorbonne Law School, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.
In addition to Manushya, Emilie sits on the Scientific Board of the René Cassin Foundation (the International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg, France), where she teaches the Protection of Human Rights in Asia during its summer sessions. Since February 2022, Emilie is one of the Moderators of the Symposium on Strength and Solidarity for Human Rights, a multi-year project bringing together human rights leaders to provoke new efforts and energy for building organizational strength and increased solidarity across the human rights field. In July 2022, Emilie joined the Advisory Council of ICNL (the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law), comprised of global leaders who help shape its direction. Since 2023, Emilie is part of the Coordination Committee of the OECD-Watch, where she serves as the Asia Representative.
In May 2022, Emilie received the Leader by Head and Heart Award, under the patronage of the Asian Network. See her speech receiving the award here.
Listen to Emilie’s story on the Symposium on Strength & Solidarity Podcast, episode 8 ‘When does the language of Rights have power?’, where she shares about her childhood as a political refugee, surrounded by migrants and refugees in the disenfranchised suburbs of Paris “la Banlieue”, and how it has transformed her life and guided her to become a Human Rights Lawyer fighting for the rights of marginalized communities. Access the Podcast on the Symposium Website or on Spotify.
Read Emilie’s interview with the Feminist Alliance for Rights (FAR) as she shares about Manushya’s work and campaign to #SaveNittaya and the Sabe Wai Villagers, a forest-dependent community unfairly criminalized by Thailand’s greenwashing false climate solutions. Access the interview here.
Watch Emilie’s interviews on #WhatsHappeningInThailand and the brave Youth leading the pro-democracy movements here.
To learn more about Emilie:
