María Emilia Zapata Segovia
Operations Intern
Raised in between Ecuador and the United States, María Emilia is a soon to be lawyer from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, focused on human rights and social justice causes. Her experience with human rights and international law has allowed her to be a part of a team of students handling cases presented in front of the Inter American Court. She has since started exploring law as a tool to fight climate change, participating in a project that aimed to analyze shared but differentiated responsibilities between countries when it comes to climate change action.
At her university she has gotten involved by being a part of the volunteers that received exchange students arriving in Quito, forming
part of the directive of the criminal law and criminology club, and being elected the president of the fourth year law students.
The highlight of her student journey has been doing a semester abroad in Krakow, Poland where she lived with other international students and traveled through Europe. At Jagiellonian University she learned about European law and international cooperation. Having had the opportunity to live in three different continents and being exposed to a wide range of cultures, it has contributed to her open mentality perspective.
María Emilia has past experience working with the human rights organization, Surkuna, in Ecuador. Where she was a legal intern, working with gender violence cases. In addition she has volunteered in the Galápagos Islands, learning about sustainability in community initiatives and the impacts of microplastics in the environment.