Vicente is an international human rights lawyer with 10 years of experience addressing inequalities and advancing economic justice across geographical borders. Currently, Vicente works as a Programme Officer at the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR).
At GI-ESCR, Vicente has worked to enhance the protection of socioeconomic and environmental rights and contributed to sustainable economic policy reforms globally, including the reform of the international taxation system and promoting south-south collaboration across regions. He has built global and regional networks in collaboration with civil society, unions, activists, and scholars worldwide to enact global advocacy strategies related to taxes and climate negotiations, public services, and constitutional law. His research and advocacy for climate policies and fiscal reforms at the United Nations has been particularly relevant to the field, where he has worked to integrate human rights and climate justice into international frameworks, promoting equitable fiscal policies to support a just and green transition.
Before GI-ESCR, Vicente worked at TECHO-Chile, a leading Latin American NGO tackling urban poverty and inequality, where he served as National Legal Director and headed a multidisciplinary team engaged in rights-based advocacy and strategic litigation. Vicente contributed to securing the right to housing for people living in informal settlements and led campaigns and legal cases aimed at protecting land rights and expanding access to essential services for disadvantaged communities across the country.
Vicente holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex. His dissertation project ‘The impact of the right to housing to addressing vertical inequalities’ was awarded with distinction and later published as a chapter in ‘Human Rights and Economic Inequalities’ (Cambridge, 2020).
What inspires me as a changemaker is the opportunity to collaborate with others to develop bold policy alternatives to the status quo and economic injustices. The chance to collectively rethink how we organise our society and rebuild our broken social contract fuels my motivation. In the face of the current global crisis, we can't afford to remain indifferent and keep doing the same. We need to act swiftly and cross borders to create a more equal and inclusive world where systemic barriers are dismantled, and resources and opportunities are equitably distributed.Vicente Silva Didier