Klaudia Zielinska is an 18-year-old high school student from Malmö and recipient of the 2022 ‘UN Youth of the Year’ Award. Every year, this title is awarded to a young person in Sweden who has been extra committed to furthering the goals of the UN.
From a young age, Klaudia has been very interested in human rights, and especially women’s and children’s rights. Already at the age of 13, she began lecturing on human rights in connection to important topics that were taboo, such as online sexual crimes and reproductive health. When she then started at ProCivitas high school, a UN school, she became president of the school’s student association and later got the chance to be trained as an ambassador for Sweden’s UN association. Many students were inspired by her commitment, and she managed to expand the student association enormously.
As a girl with Polish roots, Klaudia grew up with two different cultures and societal views on women’s rights. Therefore, she realizes the importance of having the courage to talk about difficult subjects and injustices in society.
“The most important thing is to always be yourself and have courage. It won’t always be easy and you will get many negative responses, you will have many people who laugh in your face, but in the end you will succeed.”
In the fall, Klaudia plans to start studying the bachelor’s program in human rights at Lund University. In the future, she wants to combine her theoretical knowledge of human rights with practical work as a midwife. She sees many opportunities ahead of her, such as working at the UN, but most of all she dreams of going back to Poland and starting a youth clinic there. In this way, she hopes to change the unfair treatment surrounding abortion and body issues that is common in Poland.
Klaudia Zielinska also believes that it is extremely important to cooperate on these matters. “As long as we stick together and work together, I think we can achieve fantastic things,” she says.