The Frey Fellowship in Action: Bridging Global and Domestic Human Rights Advocacy
For Léocadia Tchouaffé, human rights have always been personal. As the daughter of immigrants who came from Cameroon to the United States seeking opportunities, Tchouaffé grew up understanding that access to rights often depends on geography. This awareness has helped shape her academic and professional path and eventually led her to the University of Minnesota Human Rights Program to pursue a Master of Human Rights (MHR). Now, as a Barbara Frey Fellow working as a policy fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, she is applying the interdisciplinary training she received at UMN to bridge international human rights frameworks with domestic policy work. The Frey Fellowship supports a year of full-time employment in the field of human rights for an exceptional graduating Human Rights student from a professional or PhD level program at the University of Minnesota. Tchouaffé’s fellowship has expanded her professional skills as well as reshaped her understanding of where and how human rights advocacy can make an impact.
Rooted in Justice: A Path to Human Rights Advocacy
Tchouaffé has been drawn to human rights and policy work from a very young age. Her background as a child of immigrants has shaped her understanding of global rights and injustices that persist around the world. As a young person, she always questioned why geography has such a significant impact on the rights that people have access to. She wanted to be someone who made change to these structural barriers and reformed the global political atmosphere to be a more just and righteous world for everyone, no matter their geographical location.
During undergrad, Tchouaffé worked at a refugee camp in France assisting refugees with resettlement. This experience made her question even further why certain people have access to certain rights and how we can create a world where human rights are realized across all nations and all people. This experience motivated her to pursue a graduate degree that she could use to make a difference to global human rights. This led her to the Master of Human Rights program. “When I found out about the MHR program at the U, it felt like it was made for me,” Tchouaffé shares. “I loved the interdisciplinary approach to the program.” The MHR program helped her learn more about international human rights policy, with a focus on international development and African development. Last spring, Tchouaffé received the Barbara Frey Human Rights Fellowship and joined the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) for the year-long fellowship.
Empowering Advocacy Through the Frey Fellowship
The Frey Fellowship has allowed Tchouaffé to further her experience and interests in human rights and policy work. “The Frey Fellowship allows for people to get into human rights work without tons of experience,” Tchouaffé says. “During the fellowship, you're still learning but also fully involved and working, which has been a great experience.” As a policy fellow at the SPLC, Tchouaffé has been involved in many different projects and is currently working on a human rights advocacy toolkit. The toolkit will be a resource for grassroots activists to incorporate human rights into their activism on a local level. She hopes the toolkit will have a lasting impact on the organization and coalition. In addition, she was also able to go to the United Nations in New York City for the People’s Universal Periodic Review in October to co-organize and moderate a panel on youth justice in the US. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council that calls for each UN Member State to undergo a peer review of its human rights records every 4.5 years. The People’s Universal Periodic Review was a side event organized by civil society organizations to draw attention to the U.S.’s human rights record after the U.S. did not participate in its 2025 formal review, making it the only government to boycott the UPR since its inception. The U.S. had participated in the UPR three previous times in 2010, 2015, and 2020.
Tchouaffé applies many principles she learned as an MHR student at the U at her current position. “A guiding principle that I bring to my work is the idea that when people have basic rights, they have the capacity to aspire, which is something I learned during my time as an MHR student,” says Tchouaffé. Working at SPLC has increased her knowledge of international human rights work, a great complement to her experience in international human rights. “During my role at the SPLC, I have implemented the international mechanisms I learned as an MHR student on a domestic level,” she says. “It has opened my eyes that there is a lot of important work to be done in the US.” This experience has helped spark her interest in future domestic policy work.
Carrying Human Rights Forward
Between creating an advocacy toolkit, organizing events alongside the UN, and learning more about domestic policy initiatives, Tchouaffé’s experience as a Frey Fellow has been nothing short of transformative. Through the resources that the MHR program, and the Frey Fellowship offers, Tchouaffé has been able to get involved in meaningful human rights work and discover her newfound interest in domestic policy and advocacy. “I hope my work is able to serve as a reminder and resource for people that the power is in the hands of the people and local government,” Tchouaffé says.
