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August 2008
The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre is pleased to announce the appointment of Ella Skybenko of Ukraine as its first Eastern Europe / Central Asia Researcher & Representative, based in Kyiv (Kiev). Fifty candidates applied for the position and six were interviewed; the applicants were of a very high calibre.
Ella has begun work for the Resource Centre. She will draw attention to the human rights impacts (positive & negative) of companies in the region; highlighting under-reported issues and cases; assisting NGOs by publicising their concerns; building contacts with NGOs, companies, journalists, and governments; and helping these contacts by providing information they need.
The establishment of our Eastern Europe / Central Asia Researcher & Representative post was made possible by grants from Staples Trust and from Fondation des Droits de l’Homme au Travail (the Human Rights at Work Foundation).
Ella is our third regional researcher, joining:
- Roddy Shaw Kwok-wah, East Asia Researcher, based in Hong Kong
- Abiola Okpechi, Anglophone Africa Researcher, based in South Africa
In August we will appoint a South Asia Researcher (based in India), and later this year a Francophone Africa Researcher (based in Senegal). We are now seeking funds to establish regional researchers in Latin America and the Middle East.
About Ella Skybenko:
In June 2008 Ella received her M.A. in International Human Rights from University of Denver. She had been awarded an Edmund Muskie Fellowship for her two years of study at University of Denver. In 2007 she was an intern at Corporate Accountability International, where she worked with key allies in other countries to monitor, expose and challenge tobacco industry interference with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Ella previously worked on issues related to the realization of women’s and children’s rights to health care. From 2005 to 2006 Ella was HIV/AIDS Program Manager at Holt International Children’s Service in Ukraine, where she worked to increase access of HIV-infected children and their families to social, medical, educational and other services. From 2000 to 2004, as Program Coordinator for the American International Health Alliance in Ukraine, she managed health care projects and ensured that street children and disadvantaged women received quality services at clinics and wellness centers.
In 1997 Ella received a degree in International Relations with a specialization in International Law from Lviv University (Ukraine). She also studied at Yerevan State University (Armenia). Ella is fluent in Ukrainian, Russian and English.
In one of her university papers, Ella wrote:
“Human rights have to be more than just saving victims, because saving victims is only the first step in the process of empowering people. Victims who are rescued are beneficiaries of third party obligations. So, after they have been rescued, they need to be transformed into real rights holders. The intrinsic value of human rights lies in their ability to take us out of the world where victims need saviours and to empower people to become their own saviours. So, the focus has to be on empowering people, providing them with the full range of resources they need to build a life of dignity.”
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