EMMA LESLIE

emmacambodia@gmail.com

Emma Leslie, an Australian Cambodian, has worked on conflict transformation and peacebuilding throughout Asia since 1993. She is a co-founder and current president of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, a Cambodian NGO accompanying peace negotiations and conflict transformation processes in the Asia region.

As a member of the International Contact Group (ICG), Emma supported the Philippine Government–Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace talks for over a decade, culminating in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) in 2014. She has been actively engaged in the Myanmar peace talks processes for 25 years, generating deep analysis, convening, briefing, and facilitating dialogues between key conflict actors. She has made numerous peace missions to North Korea and accompanies several non-state actors and liberation groups in negotiation strategy.

Emma is an active member of the Women Mediators Across the Commonwealth (WMC) and serves on the boards of the Centre for Peacebuilding – University of Melbourne and the Cambodia Peace Gallery, Battambang. She has taught mediation and dialogue for ten years at the Swedish government’s Folke Bernadotte Academy, is a long-standing consultant to Conciliation Resources, and recently founded the Australian company – Dialogue Australia.

Emma had previously led the inception of the regional peacebuilding network Action Asia, developed MA and Ph.D. programs in Applied Conflict Transformation Studies (ACTS) at Paññāsāstra University of Cambodia, and launched a Peace Museum for Cambodia in 2019. Emma holds the title Order of Australia (AM), an MA in International Development and an Honorary Doctorate in Education.