Yuri Ramkissoon

Yuri began her career as a researcher at the Community Agency for Social Enquiry, where she started as an intern and was appointed as a research project officer at the end of her internship. She was appointed as a senior researcher: environment at the South African Human Rights Commission in 2008 and was thereafter promoted to senior researcher: economic and social rights in 2012. In that role she was responsible for monitoring the realisation of a range of rights by the State, including the right to a healthy environment. Yuri has a Master of Science degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a post-graduate diploma in Sustainable Development and Human Rights from the United Nations Human Rights Centre.

Yuri has done much work in the field of environmental justice and its link to human rights, including work on the link between human rights and climate change – which she has a particular passion for. She also has a special interest in the role of the private sector in climate change and a just transition. She is working on a proposal for her PhD on the potential role of quasi-State institutions in advancing environmental and climate justice.