“Spinning taught me two things about fear”

Michelle Yesudas. Human rights activist, painter, fire spinner & fiction writer

Kuala Lumpur 2016

Michelle Darlene Yesudas traded her career in public  interest litigation for a regional campaigning role in Amnesty International a year ago.

She moved from the courtroom to doing field missions, research and lobbying, and works on human rights issues in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.

“Spinning fire taught me 2 things about fear:
do not fear the opinions of others and do not
underestimate the things you can do without fear”

She has repeatedly stated that a book she found in a dustbin inspired her to work on human rights but claims she has never been called a ‘dustbin lawyer/activist’.

In addition to her human rights activism, she moonlights as a painter, a fire spinner and a fiction writer, and wishes her ‘writing voice’ did not sound like an angry, biracial, Gen-Y human rights lawyer.