Mediators

Anna Cervi is an Italian national with almost 15 years overseas experience with International Organisations in leading humanitarian interventions in Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Darfur. She negotiated and managed anumber of programs in support to peace and reconciliationpromoting the use of ADRs with particular focus on humanitarian access, gender, inclusion and transitional justice. In Syria since 2015, she just ended her assignment as Country Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, where she was a spokesperson with the Government of Syria and in a number of high-level events in European capitals on behalf of the aid community. She became a member of the Mediterranean Women Mediators Network in 2019 to step up her efforts in support of women, peace and security. She is an associate of the School of Development Innovation and Change (SDIC), carrying out research on war and inequality. Anna is a qualified mediator by the International Mediation Institute (IMI), registering as a mediator with the Italian Ministry of Justice. She is currently studying to become a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist with ACAMS and doing research on women leadership in mediation and negotiations in humanitarian action and their contribution to peace. Anna holds two degrees in Development and Cooperation Studies from the University of Bologna and a Master of Science in Forced Migration from the University of Oxford. She further strengthened her mediation expertise by taking the Swiss FDFA’s Peace Mediation Course and other specialised courses on negotiations, women leadership and empowerment.

Edita Tahiri is a key founder and leader of the movement for independence of Kosovo. She was Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs for ten years during the hard times of Kosovo’s liberation (1990-2000), Minister of Dialogue, Minister of Public Administration, Peace Negotiator and Member of Parliament in five terms.

She has a long-standing experience in foreign policy and security, international relations, conflict resolution, international peace negotiations and post-conflict transitions. She is a distinguished peace negotiator and chief negotiator for Kosovo and the Balkan region with about 30 years’ experience. She is recognized as the only woman peace negotiator in the Balkans participating in the international peace processes such as the Rambouillet International Peace Conference on Kosovo (1999), Pre-Rambouillet Peace Negotiation (1998), London Conference on Disintegration of Former Yugoslavia (1992) and Chief Negotiator of Kosovo at the EU facilitated Dialogue on normalization of neighborly relations between Kosovo and Serbia (2011-2017). As the Chief Negotiator of Kosovo in the EU mediated peace talks with Serbia, she is the signatory of first ever-reached agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, after 20 years of peace talks.

She is dedicated to empowerment of women and WPS agenda and has been serving as Chair of the Regional Women’s Lobby in South East Europe for the past 14 years. She is a member of the Women Waging Peace Network.
She is a graduate of Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a major in international relations. She holds a PhD in Political Sciences focused in the international state-building from Prishtina University in cooperation with SAIS Johns Hopkins University. She is a Fulbright Scholar and a graduate of George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.