BIO Magdalena Smieszek

Dr. Magdalena Smieszek is an international lawyer, humanitarian, and educator working at the intersection of human rights, development, and planetary futures. For over a decade, she has worked with UN agencies including UNHCR, UNICEF, UNDP, and IOM, inside the very systems designed to protect human dignity. What she encountered, again and again, was that those most affected by global decisions are often the least able to shape them.

This experience led her to ask not only how law and governance function, but who they are for, and what kind of inner capacities are required to lead in a world shaped by complexity, displacement, and rapid technological change.

Magdalena’s research explores how legal and governance systems evolve in response to global challenges. She has numerous publications on the subject of international law, peacebuilding and the governance of emerging technologies, and is the author of The Evolving Psyche of Law, a psychohistorical account of human rights in relation to refugees, migrants, and citizens.

She writes The Cosmocitizens’ Tribune, a Substack exploring planetary citizenship as an inner and civic practice. She is also founding The Cosmocitizens Foundation, a seed-stage initiative devoted to building ethical and civic foundations for a planetary era, so that governance, technology, and law serve human beings, not the other way around.

At the heart of her work lies the simple question of what does leadership become when it is guided not only by intellect and power, but by conscience, ethics, compassion, and the courage to imagine a different future?