Former Chief of the Secretariat, United Nations Permanent Forum on Ιndigenous Issues and Former Director, Indigenous Peoples' Rights Program, Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights.
Elsa joined Columbia in 2011 after a 31-year service at the United Nations with some 22 years dedicated to human rights, in addition to 8 years exclusively devoted to Indigenous Peoples’ rights. Indigenous issues and women’s rights were part of her portfolios and pro volunteer work since the early 1980s. She became the first Chief of the Secretariat of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2003. She taught the first-ever course at Columbia on Indigenous Peoples’ rights (2011), the first course on cultural rights (2016) and became the first Director of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights. She established the International Program on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Policy at Columbia and directed it as its Academic Coordinator from 2013 to 2025. She co-founded and co-chaired Columbia’s University Seminar on Indigenous Studies from its inception in 2014 to 2020.
Elsa’s academic background is in law, international law, criminal justice and political science (Athens Law School, Vienna University, Northeastern University (USA), Graduate Institute of International Studies at the University of Geneva). She has worked on international normative frameworks, institution-building, the rights of Indigenous Peoples, minorities and other groups, women’s rights, cultural rights, development and international cooperation. She has collaborated closely with human rights non-governmental organizations around the world and has received awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award by the New York City Bar Association, 2024; the Ingrid Washinawatok El Issa O’Peqtaw Metaehmoh-Flying Eagle Woman Peace, Justice and Sovereignty Award; the award of the NGO Committee on the Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples; the Eleanor Roosevelt Award of the Human Rights Center and of Voices 21; the Innovation in Academia Award for Arts & Culture, 2016, University of Kent (UK); in 2010, the Museum “Tepee of the World” was given her name in the Republic of Sakha, Russia. In 2016, she was featured as one of the UN’s 80 Leading Women from 1945-2016. She co-chairs the International Commission on the Chittagong Hill Tracts and is on the Board of the International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) and other boards.
Elsa left Columbia University in June 2025. She continues her research and work of human rights and social justice advocacy at various levels.
