Women’s Action for Better Advocacy

Amparo Miciano is the Secretary General of the Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan or National Rural Women Coalition, a coalition of around 300 rural women organizations and peoples’ organizations with members coming from rural women sectors - small farmers, fisherfolk, agricultural workers, informal sector, and indigenous women working for the realization of their rights.

As Secretary General, Amparo is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the coalition, that includes ensuring that the plans, programs, and projects are implemented and monitored. She also provides leadership in the coalition's strengthening and rural women's leadership development. Her work experience has largely been on rural women organizing and advocacy on rural women's rights and empowerment.

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Angelina Nyajima Simon Jial is the Founder and Executive Director of Hope Restoration South Sudan. Her organization currently implements General Protection for people with special needs in Leer and Mayendit Counties in Unity State. Hope Restoration also implements GBV programs in Leer County where it established a women’s and girls’ friendly space for GBV survivors with support from the South Sudan Humanitarian Fund. The participants of their programs number 5,100 persons with special needs, with support from UNHCR.

Hope Restoration is implementing GBV programs in Guit and Rubkona Counties in Unity State. It has served over 3,000 participants, most of whom are women and girls. Angelina is a member of the Gender-Based Violence Sub Cluster (GBV Sub Cluster) and the Protection Cluster in South Sudan. Angelina also represents National NGOs in the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and is a member of the South Sudan Women’s Coalition that was a representative at the peace talks in 2015 and 2018. Furthermore, she is a Council Member of the National Education Coalition (NEC) and served on the National NGO Steering Committee for two consecutive terms.

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Beatriz Borges is a lawyer, academic and human rights defender from Venezuela. Since 2014, she is the Executive Director of The Justice and Peace Center (CEPAZ), a non-profit organization that works to promote and defend democratic values, human rights, and a culture of peace.

She is an associate professor and researcher at the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello and collaborates with other universities in Venezuela and internationally.

Beatriz is an active public speaker and has spoken at the United Nations and The Inter American System to denounce human rights violations and demand respect for international norms and standards. She works tirelessly to increase awareness of the situation in Venezuela among decision-making at the international level to improve the international response to the crisis.

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Fatouma has over 20 years of experience in development and humanitarian programs working in more than 20 countries around the world, in the areas of Gender and GBV in Emergencies. Fatouma has led up to 20 rapid gender analyses and gender impact evaluations in complex emergencies and crises in Africa, South America, and Asia.  She has deep experience in capacity building in emergencies and in gender sensitive programming (design, implementation, review, and evaluation). Fatouma is also experienced in emergency preparedness and emergency program management, humanitarian quality insurance, accountability initiatives and is a member of several feminist groups and networks.

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Hewan is one of the thousands of Yezidis who fled ISIS in 2014 and endured the struggles and discrimination that followed. After graduating with an English degree from the University of Duhok in 2016, she worked as a translator and interpreter, an English language instructor, a secretary, and a women’s rights advocate. After experiencing religious and gender-based discrimination in previous jobs, Hewan came to FYF with a strong dedication to fight for the right of Yezidis, especially women, and to uplift their voices.

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Juana del Carmen Britez is the Recording Secretary of UPACP, Director of Medical Benefits of OSPACP, and Vice-President of FITH. She is a lawyer with 33 years of union leadership and involvement in the struggle of Domestic Workers. She also has experience in working on public policies and training in projects of violence and harassment in the world of work, CARE, Collective Bargaining and Social dialogue.

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Lamia Al-Eryani left government work and now works full-time with the Yemen Peace School organization, which she founded and now serves as its President. She is also a member of the International Women for Peace and Development group (South Korea), Civil Alliance in Peacebuilding, Yemeni Women’s Pact for Peace and Security, Women Solidarity Network, Yemen Peace and Development Initiative, Peace Partners Alliance, and Technical Committee for the national strategy planning for human rights in Yemen.

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Marie Louise Baricako is a Burundian women human rights defender and peace activist, and is the founder and chairperson of the Inamahoro Movement for Women and Girls. She is a member of the Steering Committee of FEMWISE Africa (AU Women Mediators Network) and Member of the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN), as well as the ILF Global Board since 2013, and the ILF Africa Board since 2016.

Marie Louise has been an ILF Leadership and Governance Seminars Facilitator and Coach since 2016. She has also served as a member of the United Nations Secretary General High Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (2014-2015), and was a Founding Member and Chair of the Board of Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) – (1996-2011), serving as the Executive Director from 2012-2013.

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Martha is a bold feminist campaigner from Uganda. Martha currently works as a Program Officer supporting the Africa chapter and coordinating advocacy with Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds.

Throughout her ten-year career – Martha – a communications specialist with a niche in feminist-centered development work, has made it her mission to build, strengthen and fire up women and girls’ collective power in the Global South – particularly amplifying the visibility, appeal and reach of the women’s rights agenda through campaigning and alliance-building.

Martha has actively engaged in the production of feminist-centered knowledge through research, documentation, production of documentaries, films, and political analyses.

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Muzna Dureid is an award-winning policy analyst and researcher. Muzna is a former refugee, an advocate for diaspora women's refugee political participation, and a co-founder of the Syrian women's political movement to engage Syrian women in politics and peace talks and shape Syria's future. In Canada, she is a co-founder of Refugee Advisor Network-Canada, where she works to advance the meaningful participation of refugees in shaping international policies. Currently, she works as a Senior Program Development Officer at The White Helmets (the winner of an alternative Nobel Peace Prize in 2016).

She holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Public Administration from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. She has been involved in multiple initiatives and networks focusing on child and forced marriage issues among Syrian refugees. This includes founding “Women Refugees, not Captives,” aiming to end forced and child marriages among Syrian refugee women and girls.

She is a co-recipient of Canada's first-ever research award on Women, Peace, and Security. The recipient of the Canadian Excellence in Global Women's and Children’s Health Award and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers' annual award for outstanding advocacy on behalf of the human rights of refugees She is an alumna of the Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship at Edinburgh University and a laureate of Femmes d’Avenir en Méditerranée at Sciences Po University.

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Researcher Nevine Ebeid obtained a Master’s degree in Gender and Development from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science in 2018. She also received a training grant to study conflict resolution and peacebuilding at the Institute of Political Studies, Saint Joseph University, in Lebanon, in cooperation with the Danish Center for Human Rights Studies.

Nevine specializes in the integration of the gender dimension into the UN Sustainable Development Goals, especially goals 5, 11 and 12 of the goals concerned with sustainable and secure societies. She works on a comparative and critical reading of programs for protection from violence, such as safe cities programs, whether implemented by governments or civil society.

Nevine specialized in follow-up policies and programs regarding violence against women, and she released an important study in 2020 that monitors and analyzes the map of services regarding violence against women available at the national and regional levels during the Covid-19 pandemic. She has written brief political papers on policies and measures for the economic empowerment of Egyptian women during the pandemic.

Nevine has also contributed with a background paper on the challenges and opportunities of advocacy campaigns within the framework of the International Volunteer Report, and she is serving as Rapporteur for the Population Issue Committee in the National Dialogue in Egypt.

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Razia Sultana is a Rohingya lawyer, researcher, and educator specializing in trauma, mass rape, and trafficking of Rohingya girls and women. She is Rohingya, born in Maugdaw, Rakhine state and now practices law in Bangladesh. She has been working with Rohingya women and girls in the refugee camps in Bangladesh documenting the stories of women and girls who fled Myanmar, and has published two reports, one in 2017, and in February 2018, exposing the widespread and systematic use of sexual violence during ‘clearance operations’ against the Rohingya. She is a Senior Researcher with Kalandan Press, a coordinator of the Free Rohingya Coalition, Director of Arakan Rohingya National Organization’s women section and the founder of Rohingya Women Welfare.

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Dr. Sabine Lamour is a sociologist who received her doctorate at the Doctoral School of Social Sciences of Paris 8 Saint-Denis, in 2017. Since 2012, she is a professor of sociology at the State University of Haiti. She is linked to the CRESPPA/CSU/CNRS/Paris 8 laboratory. Her doctoral thesis is entitled: “Between Imagination and History: A Materialist Approach to Poto-Mitan in Haiti.” Her research concerns gender relations, female migrations, the organization of politics in Haiti, and Caribbean family dynamics. Her reflections start from the epistemological viewpoint of participatory transactional perspective and are inspired by materialist feminism, Afro-feminism and decolonial feminism. In 2018, she co-published the book entitled: “Déjouer le silence: contre-discours sur les femmes haïtiennes” by Editions Remue-Ménage (Montreal).

Dr. Lamour has published in numerous academic journals including Feminist Research, Critical Paths, and International Review of Development Studies. In the United States, she is a member of the Steering Committee of the Haitian Studies Association (HSA). In Quebec, she is also a member of RéQUEF. In Haiti, Dr. Lamour has been working with women's organizations since 2005 as a feminist activist, trainer and independent consultant, in both rural and urban areas. Since 2017, she is the national coordinator of SOFA (Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn).

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Upon receiving her PA degree in nursing, Suheir Farraj opted to turn to her true passion and pursued a career as a professional photographer and film director at the national and international level. Now as a gender specialist, Suheir serves as the Director-General of the Women Media and Development organization (TAM). 

Feminism for Suheir means freedom, justice, equality, independence and aiming for a good future for all women, girls; for herself and other people. Suheir founded TAM with five other women in Palestine hoping to change the stereotypical image of Palestinian women in the media, to have gender-based media, to enhance the voice of the voiceless, to end violence against women and girls, and to achieve justice and equality for women. 

TAM seeks a free media that reinforces equality and eliminates all types of discrimination and gender-based violence. It works on increasing gender groups’ access to infrastructure and information. The organization also promotes the dialogue between civil society organizations, women and youth groups, and governmental institutions focusing on women's rights. TAM seeks to expand women’s roles and participation in decision-making positions.

Suheir represents TAM in the Secretariat of the 1325 Committee, CEDAW Committee, the coalition calling for the implementation of the family protection law, gender forum in local government, the personal code committee at the national level, and other international networks and forums.

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From 2015 to 2020, Tin Tin Nyo was Chairperson of the Burmese Women’s Union (BWU) and since January 2021, she is working as an Advisor of BWU. She has also served as a presidium board member of the Women’s League of Burma (WLB) from 2007-2010 and as General Secretary of this organization from 2011-2015. From 2017 to 2018, she was one of the policy board members of WLB and participated in WLB´s peace-building and policy development efforts. In 2019, Tin Tin Nyo took up the role of Managing Director of Burma News International (BNI), an organization dedicated to building a thriving network of ethnic media and advocating for media freedom and ethnic rights.

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Veronica promotes rights for women and girls with disabilities in Cameroon. She is a disability and inclusive development professional and CEO/Founder of the Community Association for Vulnerable Persons (CAVP), Bamenda Cameroon. She is also the CEO/Co-Founder of the Cameroon Humanitarian Women Network (CAMHWONET) and the Project Officer at the North West Association of Women with Disabilities (NWAWWD) in Cameroon.

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Verónica Supliguicha Cárdenas, a professional in clinical psychology and specialist in Human Rights, is one of the founding members of Fundación Alas de Colibrí (ACF), a civil society organization that has a shelter for adolescent women rescued from human trafficking networks. She has been working on the defense of human rights.

In 2009, she received the Manuela Espejo Award from the Municipality of Quito. In 2019, she received recognition at the international level: the “Faces of Equality” Recognition by the Canadian Embassy, and Recognition as a Hero against Trafficking in Persons by the United States Department of State.

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Zarqa Yaftali is the Executive Director of the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation, which documents violence and discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan.

In October 2020, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325, she was selected to represent civil society and brief at the UN Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace, and Security. She was also recognized for her tireless advocacy as the recipient of UNDP’s prestigious 2019 N-Peace Award, which highlights the contributions of peacebuilders toward the implementation of the WPS agenda.

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