Salma Yusuf
Senior International Expert and Specialist Consultant on Peace and Conflict, Transitional Justice, Human Rights, Democratization and Governance
Salma Yusuf is a Senior International Expert and Specialist Consultant on Peace and Conflict, Transitional Justice, Human Rights, Democratization and Governance providing technical expertise to a range of organizations in diverse sectors.
With an extensive track record encompassing diverse sectors nationally, regionally and internationally, she has served and continues to serve the United Nations, Commonwealth, international and national private and corporate sectors, national and foreign governments, civil society, academia, media and journalism, and international institutions.
She specializes in policy and process design, consensus-building and dialogue development, program and project implementation, research, development of toolkits and knowledge products, conducting training and empowerment initiatives, academic lectures, strategic advocacy, and thought leadership. She has taught on the Masters’s Degree Program of the University of Colombo and the University of Sydney and on the Bachelor’s Program of the University of Northumbria, United Kingdom – Regional Campus for Sri Lanka & Maldives.
She has extensive research experience, and demonstrated thought leadership for national and international initiatives. She has published extensively in scholarly journals, research insights, policy documents, and opinion commentary formats including the Seattle Journal of Social Justice, Sri Lanka Journal of International Law, Frontiers of Legal Research, American Journal of Social Welfare and Human Rights, Journal of Human Rights in the Commonwealth, International Affairs Review, Harvard Asia Quarterly, and The Diplomat.
Most recently, as a Public Official in the Government of Sri Lanka where she led the process of drafting and developing Sri Lanka's first National Policy on Reconciliation which is the first in Asia and among a few in the world.
She is a Founding Member of the Commonwealth Women Mediators Network which was established in 2018 and has now been appointed to its Steering Committee. Further, she sits on Boards of Directors and Advisory Boards in several international organizations and initiatives. Hailing from a “triple minority” background – namely ethnic, religious and linguistic minority communities – Salma Yusuf has translated her heritage into professional acumen by developing ahigh degree of empathy to grievances, sophisticated and nuanced understanding of challenges, and cross-cultural sensitivity to the aspirations and needs of societies, communities and stakeholder
she works with.
Having worked in diverse sectors ranging from Government, Civil Society, Academia, Media, Corporate Sector, and Multilateral institutions such as the United Nations and the Commonwealth, she brings a mutli-stakeholder perspective to all her academic and professional engagements.
She has a Master of Laws in Public International Law from Queen Mary University of London and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the University of London. She is an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.
She has completed specialized fellowships at the University of Toronto, the University of Canberra and the American University of Washington.
In recognition of her professional acumen and technical leadership contributions, she has received recognition and awards from the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the European Union, the Foreign Ministry of France, and the United States Government.
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