Not Really Strangers
Discover just how connected the refugee experience is to our everyday lives, and to the social issues that matter to us most. Join host Suzanne Ehlers, Executive Director and CEO of USA for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, as she and her eclectic guests share personal stories and frontline insights. We’re more connected than we may think.
Not Really Strangers
Human Rights and Democracy in the Age of AI: A Conversation with Malika Saada Saar
In the latest episode of Not Really Strangers, Suzanne sits down with Malika Saada Saar, a human rights lawyer and tech policy strategist whose career spans grassroots advocacy to leadership roles at Google and YouTube. Malika shares how she fought to end the shackling of incarcerated women in childbirth, founded Rights4Girls to combat child trafficking and worked to embed human rights into global tech platforms. Together, they explore the intersections of displacement, vulnerability and innovation and why designing from the margins creates stronger, more just systems. Malika also reflects on collapsing the concept of “stranger” and reimagining belonging in our communities and technologies.
Topics:
- Malika’s path from community organizing to human rights law and why she chose that framework over civil rights
- Her groundbreaking advocacy to end the shackling of incarcerated pregnant women
- The intersection of displacement, trafficking and technology — and how refugees face heightened vulnerabilities
- Lessons from embedding human rights into Google and YouTube’s policies, products and partnerships
- Collapsing the concept of “stranger” and reimagining community, belonging and design from the margins
Episode Resources:
- Rights4Girls
- “We Were Here”: UNHCR and YouTube highlight the shared passions that bring us together
- PAI 60: Rights and Results: A Reproductive Health Index
- Black feminist theorist, Patricia Hill Collins on the “Outsider Theory”
Resources: