Mediators

Bochra Bel Haj Hmida is an attorney at the Court of Cassation and a member of the Assembly of People’s Representatives since 2014. She is a feminist activist who has contributed to the creation of several associations and has participated in human rights campaigns. She was the President of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women and then appointed General Secretary from 2003 to 2005. She is a member of the first network of Arab women. Additionally, she is also the co-founder and member of The Caucus for Women Politicians in the Arab Region, working with women in conflict zones on UNSC Resolution 1325 related issues. She was appointed President of the Committee on Rights and Freedoms of the People’s Assembly, is President of the Committee on Individual Freedoms and Equality and a member of the G7 Advisory Council for Gender Equality. She has given several conferences internationally. She was awarded honors by several Arab and Western organizations and women’s magazines additionally to being given the medal of the Type 2 Order of the Republic, the Anna Lindh Civil Society Award in 2015, the Hero award of the Global Campaign against Extremism and Intolerance from the International Coalition of Hope and the Fatima El Fehri award from the Muslims for Progressive Values Association. She has always been involved in mediation, as a lawyer practicing family mediation, as an activist when attending international trials and investigation on human rights violations including sexual violence in conflict zones and as a member of parliament negotiating between parties including for the introduction of a law on violence again women.

Dilara Gök is one of the founders of Conflictus Training and Consultancy. She has been working in the discrimination, conflict resolution, mediation and peacebuilding fields for almost 7 years with many national and international organizations such as GIZ, UNHCR, RET International and etc. in Turkey. Currently, she has developed training programs, new modules, approaches and practical solutions in the conflict resolution field by engaging with social and disadvantaged groups, as a trainer. Together with this, after the Syrian crisis, she has also been working on social cohesion by handling this issue under the umbrella of conflict resolution tools. In this context, she has developed and applied trainings by working with both local and international organizations in cities which have intense Syrian population. In addition to this, she had worked as a program coordinator of the Young Mediators Program which was implemented under the support of U.S. Embassy in Istanbul. Now, Dilara is one of the founding member of the Turkish Antenna of The MWMN. Also, since 2016, she has been working as victim-offender mediator in Istanbul Courthouse. She is also trained in Women in Conflict 1325 Fellowship Program. https://tr.linkedin.com/in/dilaragok

Emine Çolak is a Turkish Cypriot lawyer/barrister practicing in Nicosia since 1982, specializing in human rights. For 25 years, she has trained in and used mediation and negotiation skills professionally and in activism. She is member of several cross community dialogue groups for reconciliation and reunification focusing on tangible ways to resolve the frozen conflict. She coordinated Committees negotiating laws attached to the comprehensive solution proposal, the Annan Plan in 2004. As a co-founder and head of the Turkish Cypriot Human Rights Foundation for 10 years, she worked to elevate the standard of human rights in her community through awareness raising, reporting and legal challenges also contributing to the formation of the Immoveable Property Commission to solve property disputes pending a solution. She speaks fluent Turkish and English and reasonable French. During 2015 and 2016 she served as the Foreign Minister of her community. She considers her expertise to be in conflict dynamics arising after independence in former colonies with communities clashing over ethnic/linguistic differences believing that reinforcing human rights is an essential tool for overcoming disputes within and between communities. Being dedicated to achieving gender equality and the effective participation of women in all fields of life and governance she regards the absence of enough women and gender sensitivity peace processes is clearly a major cause of the limited success of many of them. Consequently, she is now a member of the Women Mediators Across the Commonwealth and the Mediterranean Women Mediators networks, and co-founder of its Cyprus Antenna.

Karima Megtef is a doctoral student, teacher, researcher, and gender and radicalization expert. Her commitment to the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network is to raise her voice to promote peace and women’s empowerment. As a victim of Terrorism (the Black Decade when 10 members of her family were killed) it is a question of honouring the memory of her 6 sisters kidnapped by terrorists and those of all the victims by bringing their stories to life and share her experience of reconstruction and mourning.

She is a founding member of the OAF (Algerian Observatory for Women) and a member of the ONVT (national organization of victims of terrorism).  Former executive in charge of study and synthesis, she held the position of central director in charge of the status of women. As a member of ANMJA (National Association of Algerian Judicial Mediators) she is in charge of communication and cooperation. Ms. Megtef is an active member of many networks and commissions on peace promotion, fight against violence, extremism, and radicalisation at both national and regional level. She provides consultancy for the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). As a gender equality and women’s rights activist, she has attended the Seminar of Panafrican Network of the Wise in Algeria on the occasion of the establishment of the African Network of Women Mediators FemWise-Africa.

Khadija Cherif is a feminist activist and winner of the 2014 Minerva Award. In August 2015, she was awarded the Legion of Honor, granted by the President of the Republic of Tunisia. She teaches sociology at the University of Tunis. Parallel to her academic work, she is involved in the Tunisian civil society movement. She joined the Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH) in the early 80s. From 1985 until 1994 she was first the Chair of the Women’s Commission and then Vice-President of the National Board. She is a founding member of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women (ATFD), for which she was President between 2006 and 2008, and the Women’s Association for Research and Development (AFRD). After the revolution, she was appointed to the High Authority to prepare for the democratic transition. Today she chairs the ATFD’s Equality in Legacy Commission. In 2008 she received the Human Rights Prize of the French Republic on behalf of the ATFD. She has several publications on women’s rights and social change. Her commitment to equality and the importance attributed to women’s participation in decision-making and in all negotiation processes, drives her interest in being a member of the MWMN for its capacity-building and the role it can play in making UNSCR 1325 effective.