Jhanisse Vaca Daza

Jhanisse Vaca Daza is co-founder of Ríos de Pie, a nonviolence citizens movement defending human and environmental rights in Bolivia, and Senior Program Officer and Director of the Freedom Fellowship at the Human Rights Foundation. Ríos de Pie has led humanitarian and environmental efforts during the Amazon fires since 2019 and continues educating Bolivians in strategic nonviolent resistance. In 2025, Jhanisse led Cuidemos el Voto, the largest citizen-driven electoral monitoring effort in Bolivia's history, mobilizing over 60,000 volunteers nationwide to protect the integrity of the vote. Her work has earned international recognition, including the 2023 Sákharov Fellowship from the European Parliament and the 2021 Peace Ambassador designation from One Young World and the European Commission. She has also received Sucre's Coat of Arms of the City and Municipal Scroll of Honor for her leadership of nonviolent protests in Bolivia. Jhanisse holds an honors bachelor's degree in International Relations from Kent State University and has completed executive programs at Harvard Kennedy School.