Bineta Diop

UNIDIR Senior Fellow Madame Bineta Diop has served as the Special Envoy of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on Women, Peace and Security since 2014.

She is the founder and president of Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS), an international NGO founded in Switzerland in 1996 that seeks to foster, strengthen and promote the leadership role of women in conflict prevention, management and resolution in Africa. Ms. Diop has more than 40 years of experience in human rights, gender and development.

This experience includes nearly 20 years at the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, where she implemented a variety of peacebuilding measures to promote women’s participation in peace processes. She facilitated peace talks among women for the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement in 2000 and the 2002 Sun City Agreement.

Through her leadership in civil society, Ms. Diop contributed in the shaping of Africa’s gender normative frameworks, such as the Maputo Protocol on Women’s Rights and the African Union Convention on Human Rights. This engagement led her to set up the Gender is My Agenda Action Network (GIMAC) to promote gender equality in Africa.

Ms. Diop has spearheaded a number of women-led initiatives including the Empowering Women in Agriculture (EWA), which aims to build the capacity of women farmers and promote fair access to agricultural inputs for women, and the Pan African Centre for Gender, Peace and Development (PAC), which is dedicated to building women and youth capacity on gender, peacebuilding and development.

She co-convenes the African Women’s Leaders Network, a platform championed by the United Nations and the African Union to promote women’s leadership in the agenda 2030 and 2063 under the patronage of H.E. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Former President of Liberia.

She has received many honours and awards, including being named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2011. She holds special doctoral degrees from various institutions.

Ms. Bineta Diop’s passion and leadership have made a huge impact on women’s empowerment and peacebuilding in Africa and beyond.