Florian Irminger
Florian Irminger is an advocate, strategist, and advisor dedicated to advancing human rights, climate justice, fair and effective international relations, with exceptional experience at both national and international levels. Over the past two decades, he has served as a local elected official, as secretary general of a national political party, as well as in leadership positions of local and international NGOs.
Drawing on his experience, Florian in 2023 launched Progress & Change Action Lab.
Florian has spent a decade cooperating with human rights defenders in Central and Eastern Europe, as he worked for the Oslo-headquartered Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF). He established its offices in Geneva and Brussels, led the foundation’s advocacy programme and was instrumental in developing a United Nations mechanism for monitoring rights to freedom of assembly and association. He has also worked towards the protection of human rights in Crimea and Belarus, led research and advocacy on illiberal regimes in Hungary and Poland and campaigned extensively for human rights in Russia following the election of Vladimir Putin to the presidency in 2012.
Florian later served as executive director of Penal Reform International in London, where he led a team of over 50 staff across four continents and guided the organisation through the COVID-19 pandemic. In his role at PRI, Florian facilitated the demilitarisation of prisons in the Central African Republic by working with local authorities and developed the organisation’s programmes on criminal justice institutions and climate change.
Throughout his international commitments, Florian has remained strongly engaged in activism in his home country. At 16, he co-founded a youth suicide prevention group that rapidly grew into a unique campaign group for mental health and suicide prevention. He is also widely known for campaigning in favour of introducing restrictions to minors accessing firearms, including against young conscripts keeping firearms in their homes. He secured that the Maison des Associations in Geneva gained independence from the state and served as its first chairperson. As an elected member of the assembly responsible for drafting the new constitution of Geneva from 2008 to 2012, Florian chaired the drafting committee and ensured the right to a healthy environment was enshrined in the constitution. In 2020, he became secretary general of the Swiss Green Party in Bern, where he was instrumental in developing the party’s policy towards the European Union, shaping its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including through the introduction of a war tax on “big oil,” and reinforcing the party’s foreign policy with a focus on feminism and international climate policy.
In January 2023, Florian resigned from his post as secretary general of the Swiss Green Party to support his wife, at the start of her new career. His home is now wherever his family is stationed, yet Florian's commitment to global advocacy remains unwavering.
Florian has spent a decade cooperating with human rights defenders in Central and Eastern Europe, as he worked for the Oslo-headquartered Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF). He established its offices in Geneva and Brussels, led the foundation’s advocacy programme and was instrumental in developing a United Nations mechanism for monitoring rights to freedom of assembly and association. He has also worked towards the protection of human rights in Crimea and Belarus, led research and advocacy on illiberal regimes in Hungary and Poland and campaigned extensively for human rights in Russia following the election of Vladimir Putin to the presidency in 2012.
Florian later served as executive director of Penal Reform International in London, where he led a team of over 50 staff across four continents and guided the organisation through the COVID-19 pandemic. In his role at PRI, Florian facilitated the demilitarisation of prisons in the Central African Republic by working with local authorities and developed the organisation’s programmes on criminal justice institutions and climate change.
Throughout his international commitments, Florian has remained strongly engaged in activism in his home country. At 16, he co-founded a youth suicide prevention group that rapidly grew into a unique campaign group for mental health and suicide prevention. He is also widely known for campaigning in favour of introducing restrictions to minors accessing firearms, including against young conscripts keeping firearms in their homes. He secured that the Maison des Associations in Geneva gained independence from the state and served as its first chairperson. As an elected member of the assembly responsible for drafting the new constitution of Geneva from 2008 to 2012, Florian chaired the drafting committee and ensured the right to a healthy environment was enshrined in the constitution. In 2020, he became secretary general of the Swiss Green Party in Bern, where he was instrumental in developing the party’s policy towards the European Union, shaping its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including through the introduction of a war tax on “big oil,” and reinforcing the party’s foreign policy with a focus on feminism and international climate policy.
In January 2023, Florian resigned from his post as secretary general of the Swiss Green Party to support his wife, at the start of her new career. His home is now wherever his family is stationed, yet Florian's commitment to global advocacy remains unwavering.
