Florian Irminger is an advocate and strategist with over two decades of work on human rights at the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Union. He has served as a local elected official, as secretary general of a national political party, as well as in leadership positions of local and international NGOs.
The Start of Florian's Journey
Aged sixteen, Florian co-founded a youth suicide prevention group that grew into a unique campaign group for mental health and suicide prevention. He is also known for campaigning in favour of introducing restrictions on minors accessing firearms, including against young conscripts keeping firearms in their homes. He contributed to the development of a national action plan on youth suicide prevention through advocacy at the Council of Europe and the United Nations. As one of the two youngest elected members of the constituent assembly of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, Florian chaired the drafting committee and secured the inclusion of the right to a healthy environment in the new constitution, adopted by popular vote in 2012.
Florian's Human Rights Work
At the United Nations, Florian contributed to the establishment of the UN special rapporteurs on Belarus and on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. He has also worked towards the protection of human rights in Crimea and Belarus, led research and advocacy on illiberal democracies in Hungary and Poland and campaigned for human rights in Russia following the election of Vladimir Putin to the presidency in 2012, and authored the first UN submission on Russia's 2012–2013 repressive legislation package, which became a model for autocrats around the globe over the past decade. In 2016, a Russian diplomat made a death threat against him.
Following his work with Human Rights House Foundation across Europe, Florian served as Executive Director of Penal Reform International, leading the organisation through the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and refocusing its work around a human rights based approach to criminal justice. In his role at PRI, Florian facilitated the demilitarisation of prisons in the Central African Republic by working with local authorities and developed the organisation’s programmes on criminal justice institutions and climate change. He later served as the Secretary General of a Swiss Green Party, with responsibility for a national electoral cycle and the party's response to Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine, including through the creation of a war tax on “big oil”. He led the development of the party’s European and foreign policies.
Launch of Progress & Change Partnerships
He resigned from his post to support his wife at the start of her new career and launched Progress & Change Partnerships through which he now works on shaping the future of civil society and the protection of human rights defenders, on reinforcing the rule of law, and on identifying pathways to build a stronger rules-based international order, in the context of the global realignment. His work spans over 35 countries across Europe, the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and South-East Asia.
Florian's Recognitions and Networks
He is a member of the boards of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law in Washington and of FGIP Human Rights in Mental Health, as well as on the advisory board of the Foreign Policy Centre in London.
Florian has been recognised as a “tireless human rights advocate” (Le Temps), named one of French-speaking Switzerland’s “100 most influential people” (L’Hebdo) and served for the Václav Havel Jury Award at the One World Human Rights Film Festival. Florian is also an alumnus of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers and recipient of the Open Society Foundations’ New Executive Fund.
Florian attended the University of Geneva in law and international relations. He operates in French, English, and German. He is also a father.
