OUR VOICE MATTERS

Aleksandra Cherkasenko

Open Society Foundation

Alexandra Cherkasenko is a Team Manager at the Europe and Central Asia program of the Open Society Foundations focusing on Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. Being based in Berlin, she works on protection of activists, promotion of human rights, including in closed societies and countering digital authoritarianism. She joined the OSF’s Eurasia program in 2016 as a Program Officer focusing on human rights protection in the region through grant making and building capacity of human rights activists.

Before joining the Eurasia Program she worked with the Open Society Justice Initiative in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, overseeing efforts to use litigation nationally and internationally to combat torture by police in Central Asia and worked to promote international human rights standards and change law enforcement practices for torture prevention in the region.

She did advocacy with the UN Treaty Bodies and special procedures highlighting cases, pushing for the implementation of decisions, and promoting the Istanbul Protocol to ensure effective investigation and documentation of torture. She also worked for the Danish Refugee Council as a Legal Protection Officer and for the American University of Central Asia’s legal clinic, providing consultations and legal representation for vulnerable clients, and also lectured at the AUCA law department.