Full Name
Nadia Murad
Job Title
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate | Founder and President of Nadia's Initiative
Company
Nadia's Inititative
Speaker Bio
Nadia Murad is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and one of the most influential forces reshaping how the
world responds to conflict-related sexual violence. She has moved survivor-led justice and recovery from
the margins to the center of global policy — changing the standard by which governments, international
institutions, and legal systems are held accountable.
In 2014, Nadia was taken captive by the Islamic State (ISIS) during the genocide against the Yazidi
community. After escaping, she chose to speak out — not to seek sympathy, but to force a global
reckoning with the systems that allowed these crimes to happen and went unpunished.
What followed was not just advocacy — it was transformation. Nadia has driven fundamental shifts in
international legal frameworks, pushed accountability mechanisms into existence, expanded access to
reparations, and embedded survivor-centered approaches into institutional responses across multiple
regions. Where there were gaps in the global system, she has worked to close them.
She has held heads of state, the United Nations Security Council, and governments to account — pushing
them to act on justice for survivors and strengthen global responses to conflict-related sexual violence.
Her leadership was instrumental in establishing the UN investigative mechanism UNITAD and securing
the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2467 — milestones that have reshaped international law.
Nadia is the Founder and President of Nadia's Initiative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rebuilding
communities in crisis and driving global advocacy for survivors of sexual violence. She has championed
reparations access for survivors worldwide.
In 2016, she became the first United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of
Human Trafficking. In 2018, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her leadership in ending the use
of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Her work is grounded in an uncompromising principle: survivors must be at the center of the systems
meant to protect them — not as symbols, but as leaders shaping law, policy, and recovery.
world responds to conflict-related sexual violence. She has moved survivor-led justice and recovery from
the margins to the center of global policy — changing the standard by which governments, international
institutions, and legal systems are held accountable.
In 2014, Nadia was taken captive by the Islamic State (ISIS) during the genocide against the Yazidi
community. After escaping, she chose to speak out — not to seek sympathy, but to force a global
reckoning with the systems that allowed these crimes to happen and went unpunished.
What followed was not just advocacy — it was transformation. Nadia has driven fundamental shifts in
international legal frameworks, pushed accountability mechanisms into existence, expanded access to
reparations, and embedded survivor-centered approaches into institutional responses across multiple
regions. Where there were gaps in the global system, she has worked to close them.
She has held heads of state, the United Nations Security Council, and governments to account — pushing
them to act on justice for survivors and strengthen global responses to conflict-related sexual violence.
Her leadership was instrumental in establishing the UN investigative mechanism UNITAD and securing
the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2467 — milestones that have reshaped international law.
Nadia is the Founder and President of Nadia's Initiative, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rebuilding
communities in crisis and driving global advocacy for survivors of sexual violence. She has championed
reparations access for survivors worldwide.
In 2016, she became the first United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of
Human Trafficking. In 2018, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her leadership in ending the use
of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Her work is grounded in an uncompromising principle: survivors must be at the center of the systems
meant to protect them — not as symbols, but as leaders shaping law, policy, and recovery.
