Biography
Kristina Touzenis,
Senior Consultant, UN; Associate Director, Strategia Worldwide, Head of International Partnerships and Human Rights, Presidium Network
Kristina Touzenis is a lawyer and a recognized leader in the effective and concrete operationalization of international human rights standards and principles in complex settings worldwide requiring long-term engagement with a multitude of stakeholders, from both the public and private sectors.
She has more than 20 years of experience in advocacy, human rights reporting, monitoring, and evaluating as well as in policy making and negotiating at national, regional, and global level. Kristina founded BST impact sàrl to help companies and investors to effectively operationalize ESG criteria and the Business and Human Rights agenda into their respective sustainable business strategies, investment processes and risk assessment management systems. Previously, Kristina created the International Law Unit at the International Organization for Migration – IOM, the UN Agency for Migration and served as Head of the Unit from 2011 to 2020. In that role, she built internal organization-wide policies and guidance for offices worldwide on how to operationalize, report, and monitor impact of programmes from a rights-based perspective, developing indicators and methodologies to measure and leverage benefits to broader societies and beneficiaries. She also engaged with government counterparties on legislation development and review as well as with other Agencies within the UN common system, on advocacy and implementation of programmes worldwide.
Prior to her appointment at the IOM HQ, Kristina worked from 2006 to 2011 in the IOM Regional Office for the Mediterranean Region, on translating international norms and standards into practice on the ground and from 2002 to 2006 on implementing children’s rights in the Mediterranean Region for an NGO. Throughout her career, she has taught post- and undergraduate courses in international law at several universities. Kristina is Associate Director with Strategia Worldwide where she advises Strategia clients on how to integrate sustainability criteria in their business conduct. BST can refer to Strategia for independent fact finding and due diligence missions. Kristina is also Mentor for LevNet Ventures, an investment firm focusing on funding start-ups with a prominent financial inclusion component. Here she advices investees on how to ensure they are sustainable and show sustainability. Kristina is also on the Steering Board for SESA – focusing on resilience and mental health amongst youth and frontline workers worldwide. Kristina holds an LLB and LLM from the University of Copenhagen. She is currently Head of the Geneva branch of Women in Sustainable Finance (WISF), a member of Geneva Sustainable Finance Geneva, a member of the Female Founders Collective, and a member of the British Swiss Chamber of Commerce.
