Mediators

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.

Zineb Touimi Benjelloun, from Morocco is a career United Nations development practitioner. She served the organisation in various capacities and in different countries: Research and Training Officer with INSTRAW in New York and the Dominican Republic; Assistant Representative with UNFPA in Morocco; Regional Programme Director for North Africa with UNIFEM; United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Albania and Kuwait. In these various capacities she has led and developed United Nations programmes and projects addressing the sustainable development challenges and priorities of the countries served, including violence against women, women’s leadership and political participation, gender and transitional justice and women’s economic empowerment.