Esma Gumberidze

Esma is a human rights, defender, a disabled activist, Georgia’s Youth Representative to the United Nations in 2019-2021, a citizen journalist and a blogger.

Upon high school graduation and return to Georgia from the US she was interested just in politics and international relations. However, once she entered university, she realized how her status of a blind person was negatively influencing everything she was trying to do. So, she started writing and conducting awareness raising speeches and giving interviews on disabled persons’ rights.

She has graduated from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University with an undergraduate degree in law in 2018.

In 2016 she co-founded a disabled women’s organization ‘ The Platform for New Opportunities’.

Since November 2017, she has been a member of the consultative Council on the monitoring of implementation, protection and promotion of the UNCRPD with the Ombudsman of Georgia (a national human rights institution).

She is also an author and a host of the on-line radio show Beyond the Horizon on the Radio My Voice of the Helping Hand that has been running since August 2017.

She is a Leadership Council/board member of the European Democracy Youth Network/EDYN (a member since 2019, LC member since 2020).

In addition to all of this, Esma has authored few pieces of research including one for UNPRPD through the UNDP Georgia. She wrote a situation analysis of participation of persons with disabilities.

Now, she has 8 years experience in disabled persons’ and women’s rights, youth empowerment.

In her free time she enjoys writing posts for Facebook.