SHADIA MARHABAN

s.marhaban@gmail.com

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.