Biography
Jhanisse Vaca Daza is co-founder of Ríos de Pie, a nonviolence citizens movement focused on human and environmental rights in Bolivia. She is also President of The Jucumari Foundation and Senior Programs Officer at the Human Rights Foundation. Her work focuses on nonviolence as a technique of mass mobilization for social & environmental change, with a focus on nonviolence theory as taught by Martin Luther King Jr, Mohandas K. Gandhi & Gene Sharp.
Jhanisse began teaching nonviolence in Bolivia at the age of 23, which later led to the creation of Ríos de Pie (Standing Rivers in English). She obtained her honors bachelor’s degree in International Relations at Kent State University, and completed the Nonviolent Movement Leadership for Social Progress and Leadership in Crisis executive programs at Harvard Kennedy School. She received recognitions such as the 2023 Sákharov Fellowship from the European Parliament,and Peace Ambassador by One Young World and the European Commission in 2021