The School of Public Policy and Global Affairs is pleased to welcome Soo-Young Hwang to our community as a Practitioner Fellow from September until December, 2025.
Pursuing her deep-seated commitment to justice and equality, Soo-Young is a demonstrated legal and policy professional with 20 years of experience in public policy and diplomacy, spanning the United Nations, government, academia, and civil society. She previously served with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), where she worked on a broad range of issues—including economic, social, and environmental rights— and supported intergovernmental bodies such as the UN Human Rights Council in shaping and implementing policies. She is currently with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), working on rights-based environmental governance, environmental rule of law, and the advancement of the right to a healthy environment, which the UN General Assembly has recognized as a universal human right in July 2022.
We caught up with Soo-Young to discover more about her career, as well as what she is most looking forward to during her time at SPPGA.
What has been a meaningful moment in your career that underscores the need for good public policy?
The moment. On 28 July 2022, when the UN General Assembly recognized the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, I felt the weight of what principled, collective policymaking can achieve. As a UN official who had the privilege to support the process, it reminded me that public policy, when guided by people’s voices, can translate shared aspirations into the recognition of a new universal human right.
The process. That achievement was the culmination of years of work by States, Indigenous Peoples, children and youth, civil society, academics, environmental activists, and UN experts. My role was to help coordinate, synthesize evidence, and support negotiations—molding diverse interests around the shared goal of recognizing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The work often meant navigating doubts and political sensitivities, convincing one another across differing perspectives, and showing resilience when progress felt like one step forward and two steps back, all while building the trust and consensus needed to reach agreement.
The work ahead. Since the resolution, the right has gained further political and legal traction, reaffirmed in court judgments, legislation, regional agreements, and policy frameworks. It is driving governments, institutions, and movements to adopt human rights-based environmental action, speeding real-world progress. Yet recognition is only the starting line. The GA resolution proved that people power and solidarity can deliver change—now we must make this right a reality for every person on the planet.
What are you most looking forward to engaging in as an SPPGA Practitioner Fellow?
Space. A pause to breathe, step back from the UN’s relentless cadence, and re-examine how environmental rights can be advanced with fresh eyes—free from urgent emails, deadlines, and back-to-back meetings. That breathing room will let me refine unfinished ideas, test new approaches, and design solutions that put people and planet at the centre.
Learning. Equally, I’m drawn to the fellowship’s promise of mutual learning. I want to exchange front-line insights for the sharp questions and novel frameworks of SPPGA’s students and faculty, weaving their perspectives into my own practice while grounding their academic pursuits in real-world context. I aim to leave the fellowship having learned, better equipped for the next chapter of impactful public service work.
