About Me

Hi everyone,

I’m Colombe Cahen-Salvador, a political activist fighting for a fairer world, one broken system at a time.

I'm currently doing a fellowship working on tax fairness. A system where billionaires pay a fraction of what everyone else does isn't a technical glitch, it's one of the clearest reasons our institutions can't deliver on climate, poverty, or almost anything else that matters. Making sure billionaires pay their share is where I'm putting my energy now.

Prior to this, I ran the weirdest stunt campaign of my life. I ran to become United Nations Secretary-General, not because I expected to win, but because I wanted to force a conversation the UN itself refuses to have: about climate change, artificial intelligence, wars, dictatorships, pandemics, and poverty finally being tackled by an institution built for a different century.

That campaign is now closed. I'm proud of what it did. It was never about me winning. It was about making it impossible for whoever does win to say no one asked for better. Together with Atlas volunteers, my campaign team, and everyone who endorsed this, we built the Survival Bill, the first people backed political programme for the UN. We held grassroots consultations. We met with high level representatives and lobbied the candidates in this race directly. We filed a formal complaint to the UN's Special Procedures. None of it was ever about me. It was about making sure whoever gets this job inherits a programme they can't pretend doesn't exist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWYzyPsySyQ

Background

Besides running for the most unusual job on earth, along with Andrea Venzon, I co-founded Atlas, the global political movement uniting people for survival. Since 2020, Atlas has campaigned and organised protests and lobbying efforts to fight against authoritarianism, climate change, and inequities.

For example, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we campaigned for health workers to have priority access to vaccines when they would have become available, regardless of their nationality. History taught us that in pandemic times, some countries hoard vaccines to the detriment of others, and companies put profit first, refusing to share tech know-how and intellectual property with those who need it most during a crisis. And history too often repeats itself. Despite the World Health Assembly welcoming our campaign to ensure the bare minimum level of equity for health workers, we saw vaccine apartheid take over the world.

We sought to use the flaws of the United Nations system to give it a shock by, for example, organising stunt primary elections for the role of Secretary General in 2021. Through it, we wanted to understand if we could mobilise people around the topic of UN leadership (spoiler alert, yes!), and disturb the status quo (yes as well!). I then ran myself for the role from 2024 to 2026.

Before that, I co-founded the first pan-European political party, Volt Europa, which elected representatives at the 2019 European Elections and local elections on a vision of a more united and progressive EU. I was a trustee of the United Nations Association - UK, and worked to support them in improving knowledge of transnational organisations and reform. I was also a board member of the Democracy and Culture Foundation, supporting their work in improving and innovating democracy. Finally, I sometimes get to teach seminars and university classes, and love learning from students! I was for example a Guest Lecturer at Northeastern University for the Socioloy & International Relations Department, where I focused on survival threats and power dynamics.

Always happy to chat!