Incomindios team

We are an autonomous, politically independent organization. Our board makes the strategic and content-related decisions. Our work is supported by active members, interns and permanent staff of the office.

Permanent staff and dossiers managers

Pascal Elsner

Management

Pascal Elsner has been the Managing Director of Incomindios since June 2017. He studied ethnology and environmental sciences and completed postgraduate studies in civil peacebuilding and conflict-sensitive project management. During field research in the Amazon, he has worked extensively on oil exploration and community-based tourism on Indigenous land.

He has volunteered in various peacebuilding projects in Kenya and Brazil.

He also works as a freelancer in the field of cinema technology for open-air cinemas.

He is the father of two children and lives with his family in Zurich.

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Nina Reuther

Project INSCHU

Nina Reuther has a doctorate in music ethnology and has been researching Indigenous systems of access rights to tangible and intangible cultural assets with a focus on North America since the late 1980s. She spent many years on the reservations of the Secwepemc Nation (British Columbia/Canada); she has since been involved in different ways of mediating between Indigenous and European ways of thinking, e.g. through accompanying and translating Indigenous delegates and artists and through projects, workshops and seminars for people of all ages across Europe on various topics related to the historical experiences and current situations of the Indigenous Peoples of North America. At the beginning of 2021 she was entrusted with the (re)construction of the INSCHU project (Incomindios in schools).

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Séverine Ospel

Intern

Séverine Ospel studied for a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Law, specialising in International Relations. Her academic interests focus in particular on international human rights mechanisms and multilateral decision-making processes. Supporting equality and self-determination, as well as strengthening the legal standing of indigenous voices, are very important to her.

At Incomindios, she accompanies indigenous delegations to the United Nations and manages the communications department. In addition, she contributes to the preparation of meeting agendas and statements on human rights issues, as well as to analytical work.

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Helena Nyberg

Mandate Member Magazine, UNO

Helena Nyberg has been a member of Incomindios since 1980. As a qualified conference interpreter and translator, she has connected her profession to the association from the very beginning. To this day she maintains contact with partner organizations in North America and Europe, is responsible for publishing the members' magazine MagazINC and strives to continuously monitor the situation of Indigenous Peoples.

Her main areas of focus are political rights and resource exploitation and their impacts on Indigenous Peoples, specifically concerning uranium and coal. In this capacity she represents Incomindios as an advisor in the Swiss Energy Foundation SES and in the Alliance Nein-zu-neuen-AKW and is a board member of AMERINDIAS.

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Henriette Éva Stierlin

Active Member UN and Indigenous Rights

Henriette completed a Master’s degree in Anthropological Sciences at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, a PhD in History at the University of Szeged, and has a CAS in International Cooperation/Migration from NADEL in Zurich.
Henriette has travelled extensively since she was a young woman and has worked for three years in the USA and 18 years in Bolivia, initially as a researcher in the field of international cooperation and later for national institutions on projects involving indigenous communities. She also headed the environmental NGO Aguaragüe in Bolivia for eight years. She has taught at several universities, including environmental sciences and anthropology at the University of Zurich, and currently works in the Department of Latin American Cultures at the University of Szeged. In Switzerland, she is involved in interdisciplinary projects focusing on human rights, the environment and oral history. Henriette leads workshops and gives lectures in Central and South America and is the author of various publications on indigenous topics.

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Our board

Christoph Kleber

Department of International Cooperation & Indigenous Communities

Christoph Kleber began his professional career as a journalist in Chile and Switzerland before turning to the humanitarian sector. For more than two decades, he served as a delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. At the ICRC, he worked in the field and in coordination, and was involved in projects with indigenous communities, particularly in the areas of protection and WATHAB. His interest in indigenous peoples dates back to his youth in Chile, where he traveled through Mapuche communities in the Alto Biobío region and learned about their forms of resistance. He currently works as a German and Spanish teacher.

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Leticia Rost

Communications, Climate Justice & Indigenous Rights Division

Leticia Rost holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of St. Gallen and a master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Konstanz. She works in communications for the Swiss Alliance for GMO-Free Agriculture, which advocates for sustainable and GMO-free agriculture. Her interest in Indigenous peoples developed during her childhood and has remained with her ever since. Among other things, she worked for a small nonprofit that oversees a climate partnership with a community in the Brazilian Amazon, and in her master’s thesis, she examined Indigenous peoples’ right to free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) in the context of resource extraction. Leticia is particularly interested in issues related to climate justice and extractivism on Indigenous lands.

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Elida Villalba Vargas

Department of Indigenous Rights & UN, Department of Environment & Resources, Legal & Politics Department

Elida Villalba Vargas has more than 20 years of legal experience. She holds a Master's Degree in Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), a Master's Degree in Human Rights from the University of Castilla-la Mancha, and a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and her doctoral thesis focused on the study of community water management. She has worked as a legal advisor and consultant in different countries and has collaborated with Incomindios as an intern. She is currently developing projects related to access to water for Indigenous communities in Paraguay. Her goal is to make visible the effects of climate change on human rights, especially the violation of the rights of Indigenous peoples.

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Aline Kunz

Department of International Cooperation & Indigenous Rights

In 2024, after earning her bachelor’s degree in social sciences with a minor in sustainable development from the University of Bern, Aline completed a 7-month internship at Incomindios. She currently lives and studies in Lucerne, where she is writing her master’s thesis as part of the Global Studies program. During her studies, she focused on topics including international human rights, indigenous peace processes, and social anthropology. During her internship at Incomindios, Aline assisted indigenous delegates at the United Nations and organized and co-moderated our side event. Aline has experience working with various NGOs and in intercultural cooperation. Traveling and living in South America have further deepened her interest in international cooperation and the perspectives of indigenous communities. Her goal is to advocate long-term for the rights of indigenous peoples and for equitable international cooperation.

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Alicia Krömer

Department of Indigenous Rights & UNO, Department of Education & Culture, Co-president

Alicia Krömer is from Canada. She has an MA and PhD in Political Science with a focus on Minority, Human and Indigenous Rights. She has worked on a film production in collaboration with Indigenous groups in Canada and has taught at the University of Vienna, at City, University of London and at SOAS in the UK. She has worked and published articles for Minority Rights Group International and Survival International. She has been with Incomindios since 2017, represents the organization at the United Nations and is a member of the board. She also previously worked at the United Nations in Vienna. She is a founding member of Incomindios UK and lives in the UK.

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Carmen Kronenberg Müller

Finance Department, Legal & Politics Department

Carmen Kronenberg Müller lives in the canton of Aargau and has been rooted in numbers since her apprenticeship as a commercial employee. With targeted business education and training, she is a generalist in the field of finance / accounting, HR and administration and uses these skills for Incomindios since March 2023 as a financially responsible board member. She has been involved with the life, culture and fate of Indigenous peoples around the world since her teenage years. Several individual trips to the Indigenous peoples of North America resulted in valuable encounters and personal contacts.

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Silva Lässer

Migration & Nonprofit Organizations Division

Silva Lässer holds a master’s degree in Changing Societies (Resources, Migration, Conflicts) from the University of Basel and is currently conducting research at the University of Bern on volunteer work and the role of Swiss nonprofit organizations in the field of refugees and migration. She has gained her own experience in the nonprofit sector in various countries: at a Swiss grant-making foundation, where she worked closely with NGOs in Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe; through the implementation of social projects in Switzerland; and through her work at a small NGO in Peru. Since her youth, she has enjoyed traveling the world, including spending a year in Canada and nine months in Latin America. In addition to her work, she is pursuing further education in environmental education and outdoor education and has been on the board of Incomindios since 2026.

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