miriamcoronelferrer@gmail.com
MIRIAM CORONEL-FERRER
Miriam Coronel-Ferrer is the first woman in the world to sign a final peace accord with a non-state armed group as chief negotiator. In behalf of the Philippines government, she led the negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and supervised the first two years of implementing the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.
Miriam served in the UN Standby Team of Senior Mediators for three years from 2018 and was deployed to support the UN’s work in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Maldives and the ASEAN region, advising on peace process design and modalities of inclusion. She is currently a member of the board of the International Crisis Group and the Geneva-based peacebuilding organization, Interpeace. She sits in the advisory bodies of the Barcelona-based Institute for Integrated Transitions’ Peace Treaty Initiative, the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders, and Harvard University’s Negotiations Strategies’ Institute. She was a professor at the University of the Philippines, where she taught and published on Southeast Asia politics, human rights, peace processes, and democratization.
Miriam was extensively involved in civil society campaigns. She co-led the initiative to draft the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security that was adopted by the Philippine government in 2010; organized various peace advocates’ platforms in the country; and co-chaired the Non-State Action Working Group of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines from 1999-2004. In 2015, she received the Hillary Clinton Award for Women, Peace and Security given by Georgetown University, and was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation Award for Women Pioneer in Peacebuilding in 2023.
miriamcoronelferrer@gmail.com
d.jularat14@gmail.com
JULARAT DAMRONGVITEETHAM
Jularat Damrongviteetham is a seasoned practitioner in conflict resolution and diplomacy, focusing on Southern Thailand’s intricate dynamics for over a decade. As a consultant with the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, she provides strategic counsel on civil society engagement, peace process advancement, and stakeholder analysis. Her expertise is further demonstrated through her board membership with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and her participation in the South East Asian Women Peace Mediators Core Team.
Previously, she delivered a decade of consultancy for the Berghof Foundation, driving multi-track peacebuilding through high-level dialogue, negotiation, and strategic partnerships with government, academia, and key stakeholders. Jularat’s deep theoretical and practical foundation is built upon advanced degrees in Sociology and Anthropology (MA, Chiang Mai University) and Mediation in Peace Processes (MAS, ETH Zurich).
Currently, she leverages this extensive experience as an Advisor to the House of Representatives, serving both the Standing Committee on National Security, Border Affairs, National Strategy and National Reform, and the AD-HOC Committee focused on peacebuilding guidelines for the Southern Border Provinces.
tecla_lila84@yahoo.co.id
LEONÉSIA TECLA DA SILVA
Leonésia Tecla da Silva has over 20 years of peacebuilding and mediation experience focused on conflict resolution, women and youth empowerment, and building resilience and social cohesion. She has been serving as the National Consultant for Women, Peace, and Security with UN Women Timor-Leste, implementing the country’s WPS agenda to establish the first national network of mediators, connecting the public sector and community-based justice actors in providing gender sensitive conflict resolution, and eliminating gender discrimination towards women participating in peace processes and co-drafter of the UNSCR 1325 NAP (National Action Plan) Second Generation of Timor Leste.
Tecla was one of the lead mediators and facilitators for internally displaced persons who worked with Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Social Solidarity during the country’s 2006 Crisis Reintegration Process. Between 2009 to 2017, Tecla was engaged in several UNDP programs focusing on building Mechanisms for Social Cohesion in Timor Leste, utilizing both local and national peacebuilding networks to manage and prevent conflict from reemerging, and providing spaces for women’s participation in peacebuilding efforts. She is also a consultant to international organizations like Bridging Peoples, Integrated Risk Management Associates LLC (IRMA), Syspons Germany, DevTech System, UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and United Nations Volunteers (UNV) working towards development and sustainability.
Her work in promoting the inclusion and meaningful participation of women as mediators and negotiators, from access to justice, human rights to peace and security have been recognized and featured in Geneva on Women4Multilateralism by the Delegation of EU to the UN and Permanent Mission of Gabon on 8 March 2022 in the occasion of International Women’s Day together with first Timorese Woman Ms. Rosa Muki Bonaparte as a frontliner of human rights defenders for self-determination of Timor Leste.
tecla_lila84@yahoo.co.id
lilianne@geutanyoefoundation.org
LILIANNE FAN
Lilianne Fan is a leading expert on the Rohingya crisis, Myanmar and the role of ASEAN. She is Head of the Secretariat of the Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar, chaired by Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, former Foreign Minister of Malaysia. An anthropologist with over 25 years’ experience in armed conflict, displacement, and humanitarian crises, Lilianne has been leading the Secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia on Refugee Policy since 2018. She is Co-Director of refugee protection organisation Geutanyoe Malaysia. She also serves as Asia Coordinator of the Gaza Scholarship Initiative, supporting Palestinian students to access higher education in Malaysia and in other Asian countries.
Between 2008-2010 Lilianne served in Myanmar as Advisor to the ASEAN Special Envoy for Post-Nargis Recovery, and from 2005-2008 in Aceh as Advisor to the former Governor on post-conflict recovery following the signing of the Helsinki MoU between the Free Aceh Movement and the Government of Indonesia. She co-founded the humanitarian organisation Geutanyoe Malaysia that works with communities affected by war and persecution including from Myanmar, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen. She served as Commissioner on the Lancet Commission for Health and Human Rights from 2020 to 2022. Lilianne holds an MA in Anthropology from Columbia University, New York.
emmacambodia@gmail.com
EMMA LESLIE
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.
emmacambodia@gmail.com
SHADIA MARHABAN
Shadia Marhaban focuses her mediation efforts on consultations for peaceful dialogues in various conflict areas. She serves as a regional consultant for Southeast Asia with the Mediators Beyond Borders International, building local capacities for peace, advocating for mediation, and facilitating conflict transformation globally.
Shadia was the only woman to actively participate and support the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) peace negotiating team in Helsinki (2005) that ended the 30-year conflict in Aceh, Indonesia. In 2003, she came to the United States as a political refugee and returned to Aceh after the peace agreement was signed in 2007. Upon her return, she co-founded the Acheh Women’s League (LINA) to oversee the implementation of the reintegration programmes for women ex-combatants and to provide training for their political participation. Since then, she has been engaged in peaceful dialogues throughout the region including Colombia, Nepal, Afghanistan, and recently the Ambazonia conflict. Her mediation work focuses on the political transition of resistance liberation movements, ceasefire, disarmament, and reintegration of female former combatants.
Shadia also serves as consultant for the UNDP ExpRes (Expert Roster for Rapid Response), ASEAN, and Berghof Foundation. She is a founding board member for the School of Peace and Democracy in Aceh, and is a Fellow of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University.
znangraw@proton.me
Z NANG RAW
Z Nang Raw has over 20 years of experience as a mediator/facilitator and active civil society leader in Myanmar. She is a Visiting Senior Expert for the Burma Program of the United States Institute of Peace, linking research, policy, training, analysis and direct action to support those who are working to build a more peaceful, inclusive world. She is also a member of the National Unity Consultative Council, a body known as one of the most inclusive political dialogue platforms in Myanmar’s history, where she represents the Women Advocacy Coalition-Myanmar.
From 2012 to 2018, Nang Raw supported the Myanmar peace process as a technical advisor and lead documenter for the Nationwide Ceasefire Coordination Team of 16 Ethnic Armed Organizations during negotiations for the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement. She also served as a lead facilitator in security thematic sessions of the Union Peace Conference of Myanmar Peace Process. She was with Nyein (Shalom) Foundation for over 20 years and recently served as the Director, where she was in charge of the organization’s program strategy and high-level coordination with Union and State level governments, parliaments, ethnic resistance organizations, and religious institutions aiming to build sustainable peace in Myanmar.
znangraw@proton.me
adelinakamal.ak@gmail.com
ADELINA KAMAL
Adelina Kamal is a humanitarian and disaster management practitioner, and an independent analyst working at the intersection of disaster resilience, humanitarian action, conflict transformation, peacebuilding, and regional leadership. From 2017 to 2021, she led the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Centre) as its first female Executive Director, facilitating ASEAN’s collective response to major disasters. Under her leadership, the AHA Centre was awarded the Asian of the Year honour by the Straits Times Singapore.
Prior to this role, Adelina spent more than two decades at the ASEAN Secretariat, where she played a key role in developing the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response, and was central to ASEAN’s response to Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008—negotiating humanitarian access, leading ASEAN’s first large-scale humanitarian response operation on the ground, and serving as the only female member of the high-level Tripartite Core Group coordinating international assistance.
Following her tenure with the AHA Centre, Adelina has been consulting for governments, international and regional organisations, advocating for innovative approaches to disaster governance, humanitarian reform, and peacebuilding, and serving on multiple international advisory and governance roles. In December 2024, she received the Ambassadors’ 75 Peace Award, jointly conferred by the UK and Indonesia, in recognition of her contributions to fostering peace through international dialogue and cooperation.
Adelina also contributes to academia as a regular guest lecturer at the University of Indonesia’s Master’s Programme in Disaster Management, and has authored numerous research-based articles and papers on humanitarian assistance and disaster management.
