Virisila Buadromo is a Pacific feminist and political activist who co-leads the Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights Asia and the Pacific - the first rapid response grant maker for women and non binary human rights defenders for the regions. Prior to joining UAF A&P - Virisila was at the helm of the Fiji Women's Rights Movement for 14 years. Virisila has a background in media and communications. She was given the 'International Women of Courage' award in 2008 by the US Government and the inaugural 'Courage Award' by 'Women have Wings' (established in memory of Amelia Earhart) in 2012. Virisila plays a leading representational role at national, regional and international levels.
Suri Kempe is currently the Programme Manager at Musawah, a global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family that works to advance human rights for women in Muslim contexts, in both their public and private lives. Prior to that, Suri held the portfolio for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment for the United Nations Development Programme in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. She was responsible for the development and implementation of gender thematic programmes and integrating a gender perspective into the design and implementation of UNDP’s initiatives as well as strengthening the agenda on inclusion, resilience and sustainability. Her other work experiences include working with the civil society organisation, Sisters in Islam, advocating for Muslim women’s rights; and the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development as a Parliamentary liaison and Special Officer to the Minister. She was also a Project Manager with UNDP Malaysia on a project that focused on increasing the participation of persons with disabilities in the workforce in the state of Johor (2008-2010). She graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a Masters in Southeast Asian Studies, Bachelor in Global Studies and a certificate in Global Cultures.
Dr. Hoang Tu Anh (MD) is both founding member and Director of the Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP), which has strong focus on promoting gender and sexuality research, training and program in health and population programs and policies. She works in number of research, training and intervention programs on gender, sexuality and HIV. She has extensive experiences of working with disadvantage groups such as adolescents, gender-based violence survivors and perpetrators, people living with HIV and sexual minorities using participatory and right-based approach in Vietnam and in the region. Much of her effort is on building research and dissemination capacity in Vietnam and transforming research into effective advocacy and interventions. She is the former chair of the Vietnam Sexual Rights Alliance, faculty member of the SouthEast Asia Consortium on Gender, Sexuality and Health, Program Advisory Committee member of the Asia-Pacific Research and Resource Center for Women and member of the IDAHO International advisor committee. Her current interests are civil society movement in Vietnam and gender-based violence toward married women and LGBT people using symbolic violence, heteronormativity and panopticon framework.
Maya Indira Ganesh is a feminist technology researcher, speaker, and writer with a hybrid portfolio of work across arts and cultural organisations, academia, and NGOs. She has two Masters degrees and is a doctoral candidate at Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany. Since 2008 she has worked as a researcher and information-activist at the intersection of visual digital culture in activism, digital security, and privacy in human rights with Tactical Tech, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, and the APC Women’s Rights Programme. Prior to this Maya worked with international organisations like UNICEF, and Indian feminist movements on HIV/AIDS prevention, SRHR, and gender-based violence. She lives in Berlin, Germany.
Rachel is currently working as East Asia and ASEAN Advocacy Programme Manager of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA). Prior to that she was the Programme Manager for ASEAN Parliamentarian for Human Rights, an organisation working to mobilise member parliamentarians in pushing progressive agenda toward achieving equity within the sub-region. She also served as Asian Pacific Research and Resource Centre for Women (ARROW)’s Programme Advisory Committee. Rachel has worked with the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), a global women’s rights organisation based in Canada, as young feminist activism co-coordinator. Prior to that, Rachel also had experiences as Executive Coordinator of Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (YCSRR), a global network of youth and children based in Canada to advance the human rights of young people. Previously, Rachel has served ARROW as Programme Officer to coordinate women's health and rights advocacy partnership in South-East Asia (WHRAP-SEA). The seven countries programme focused on young women’s sexual and reproductive health. The programme main strategies were capacity building, evidence-based advocacy, mobilisation of civil society and women activist, as well as utilisation of knowledge management. Rachel has also worked in Indonesian Red Cross Headquarters as HIV and AIDS Officer. The programme focus on gender based approach in addressing HIV and AIDS issues. For her commitment and contribution on women empowerment and civil society mobilisation she was appointed as gender advisor from developing country delegation to the board member of Global Funds to fights against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis (GFATM); FRIDA young feminist funds advisory board; United Nations Population Funds Indonesia youth advisory panel; civil society coordinator (youth forum) of High Level Panel of Eminent Person meeting managed by President delivery unit for development and oversight (UKP4); civil society representation in 2011 Commission of the Status on Women; member of women major group; and civil society/youth representative to join the Indonesian government on Commission on Population and Development the 45th and 47th session.
Professor Rashidah Shuib is currently a Professor at the Women’s Development Research Centre (KANITA), Universiti Sains Malaysia, where she was the Director from 2005–2012. Her main work revolves around gender, health and development issues. She was the Principal Investigator of several government and internationally funded research projects, including research in sexual and reproductive health and rights, women’s health, violence against women, marriage and migration, polygamy, and microcredit and empowerment. She led her research team members to produce the first prevalence national study in Malaysia on domestic violence against women using the WHO multi-country questionnaire. Currently she is a Council member of the Asian Association of Women Studies (AAWS), an Advisory Member of the Ewha Global Empowerment Program (EGEP) of the Ewha Womans University, South Korea, and a committee member of the Korean-ASEAN Women’s Studies Leadership and Network as well as a life member of the Malaysian Social Science Association. She was a member of the Gender Advisory Panel (GAP) of the WHO, Geneva, for six years and a member of the International Women’s Advisory Panel (IWAP) of the IPPF, London for several years. Currently, she is a Board member of Sisters In Islam. She considers herself to be an academic-activist.
