Ryan Schlief

Ryan leads the global campaign on forced evictions and is the focal person for the Asia-Pacific region. He is a life-long activist and campaign strategist who first picked up a video camera and began editing in his teens. Throughout his career Ryan has led local and global human rights campaigns in several countries around the globe - primarily involving economic, social and cultural rights. He was a local community organizer in the US and worked on international human rights issues for the progressive political leader, US Senator Paul Wellstone.
 
Ryan received his MA in international law from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, where he focused on economic, social and cultural rights and comparative constitutional law in Africa and Asia. He subsequently joined the Amnesty International, International Secretariat in London where he managed the global campaigns on human rights in India and Southeast Asia. Ryan was named the 2011 Humanitarian of the Year by the University of St. Thomas. Ryan speaks German, intermediate French and basic Hindi.