Biography

Greta Ríos is a Mexican young leader in the nongovernmental sector. She founded Ollin, a youth-led local NGO in 2011 and has focused ever since in the design and lobbying of inclusive and high impact youth policies at the national and international level.

Having obtained her first degree in International Relations from the Monterrey Institute of Technology, she started her professional career working for Reforestamos México. Greta later completed the Master of Advanced Studies in International Dispute Settlement, a joint program offered by the Graduate Institute and the University of Geneva. While enrolled in the program, she took an internship at the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations, where she assisted the Mexican Delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

On her return to Mexico, she joined the team of the Human Rights Division at the Mexican Ministry of the Interior, where she was in charge of overseeing all matters related to International Humanitarian Law, refugees and asylum seekers, among others.

She has done consultancies on International Human Rights Law. She was the coordinator of the Special Report on Human Rights and Urban Mobility, produced jointly by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy in Mexico and the Mexico City Human Rights Commission, in 2013. She has also co-authored several articles on immunities and International Human Rights Law.

As the head and founder of a successful NGO, Greta has been recognized a promising young leader by the Líderes Mexicanos magazine in 2012. She was also appointed keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of the Fist Global Forum on Youth Policy, in Baku, on October 2014. Greta was a speaker for the Mexico City Youth TEDx Talks session in November 2014. In 2016, she became an Ashoka Fellow and is currently enrolled in the Vital Voices VVLead Fellowship.