The politician and ethnologist Ruth-Gaby Vermot Mangold launched the initiative "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005", taking over the co-presidency of the successor association PeaceWomen Across the Globe in 2006. From 1995 to 2008, she was a member of the Swiss Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, for which she was, among other things, spokesperson for the improvement of the refugee situation in the South Caucasus, conducted investigations into femicide in Mexico and investigated cases of organ trafficking in Eastern Europe. She also co-authored the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. After studying ethnology and sociology, she worked for several years in various African countries on women's and human rights. In Switzerland, she headed the "Schulstelle 3. Welt" in the 1980s, wrote development and peace policy teaching materials and conducted training for teachers. In 1988 she founded the Hekate office; she still coaches women in difficult professional situations. Today, her focus is on the role of women in conflict transformation and their concrete participation in peace processes.

Vested Interests: President of the Swiss Monitoring Centre for Asylum and Immigration Law, Bern, Switzerland; President of the Somazzi Foundation, Bern, Switzerland; Board member, Geneva Call, Geneva, Switzerland; Board Member, Freedom and Human Rights Foundation, Bern, Switzerland.

Alejandra Miller Restrepo, an economist and political scientist, lives and works in Bogotà, Colombia. She was a member of the official National Truth Commission of Colombia from 2017-2022, where she was one of five women on the eleven-member panel. The Truth Commission interviewed survivors of the armed conflict between the FARC and the Colombian government. Since 2023, she has been the director of the Agencia para la Reincorporación y la Normalización ARN. At the University of Cauca, Alejandra Miller Restrepo also researches and teaches on gender. She focuses on the impact of the armed conflict in Colombia on women. From 2003 to 2015, she was the coordinator of Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres, PeaceWomen Across the Globe's project partner in the department of Cauca. She joined the board of PeaceWomen Across the Globe in 2013.

Vested Interests: none

Cecile Mukarubuga is a development leader with over 30 years’ experience working for government, the UN and International NGOs. She served as an International Gender Expert at the Office of the President in Togo. Prior to that she was UNFPA Resident Representative in Togo and UNWOMEN Regional Director for West Africa.

Before joining the UN System, she worked in the private sector and for International NGOs across Africa, including Agency for Cooperation and Development (ACORD) and the Africa office of the International Planned parenthood Federation. For more than 10 years, the main focus of her work was on national and regional initiatives on peace building, including community reconciliation, and the psychological and economic reintegration of women survivors of armed conflict. She has published books and articles on peace and conflict transformation. Throughout her career, she provided representation and advocacy services at international and highest government level as well as in resource mobilization, institutional development and management, strategic planning, international programming, and peace building. Cecile Mukarubuga has been a board member of PeaceWomen across the Globe since 2013.

Vested interests: She is a board member of the following organisations: the Green Village Foundation, USA; the Africa Center for Sustainability, Kenya; Solidarité Santé et Développement, Belgium; and the Global University (virtual).

Christine Menz has been a member of the board since 2003 and is one of the founding members of PeaceWomen Across the Globe. In this capacity, she actively contributed to the establishment of the organisation and, as an "ambassador" of PWAG in various regions of the world, carried out important mediation and integration work. Since then, Christine Menz is supporting and accompanying PeaceWomen Across the Globe in a wide range of strategic issues and extraordinary situations.

Christine Menz is an entrepreneur and company founder. Prior to that, she has held executive positions in various international companies. As a researcher and lecturer in research methodology, she worked in several Swiss universities and led a number of research projects in the field of cognitive psychology.

Vested Interests: none

Kin Chi Lau is a professor of comparative literature, critical pedagogy, global culture, local governance, and negotiating violence. She lectures at the Department of Cultural Studies at the Lingnan University in Hong Kong. In addition, she is the co-chair of the Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA), a network of scholar-activists in Asia; vice-president of the World Forum for Alternatives; and a founding member of the Global University for Sustainability. She has written on modernisation, rural regeneration, resurgent patriarchy, and alternative practices in China, and she has produced documentary films on women and peace in China. Kin Chi Lau has been a member of the International Board of PeaceWomen Across the Globe since 2003. She was also the regional coordinator for East Asia.

Vested interests: She is a board member of the following organisations: World Forum on Alternatives, Dakar, Senegal; the Global University for Sustainability, Hong Kong, China; ARENA, Hong Kong, China.

Laila Sheikh Rüttimann is Head of Programmes and Partnerships at the House of Religions – Dialogue of Cultures in Bern, Switzerland since October 2023. The House of Religions is a multi-faith and multi-cultural space that aims at promoting inter- and intra-cultural and faith dialogue. Eight religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Alevism, Baha’ism and Sikhism) participate in this globally unique project.

She joined Switzerland’s Foreign Service in 2001 and worked in and on the Middle East and Africa. She served as Deputy Head of Swiss Cooperation for Gaza and Westbank, Deputy Head of Mission at the Swiss Embassy to Kenya, Somalia, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda, Regional Director of the Swiss Cooperation Programme for the Horn of Africa and Head of Cooperation in Mozambique. She has specialised in combining diplomacy with humanitarian, cooperation and peacebuilding instruments.

Laila Sheikh is a member of the Swiss Women in Peace Processes (SWIPP) Network and a board member of the Swiss Charitable Society. Laila Sheikh is fluent in English, French and German and has a good knowledge of Portuguese and Arabic. She is the mother of two sons.

Louisa Seferis is a freelance humanitarian working at the intersection of conflict resolution, economic recovery, participation, and accountability since 2006 in places affected by crises around the globe. She began her career supporting community-led returns alongside women in Northern Uganda and designed market-based responses for the Darfur Community Peace and Stability Fund. From 2011 she worked with the Danish Refugee Council in the Middle East, Europe, and across the African continent. She led DRC’s global work on cash and economic recovery programming from 2015-2018, and managed the Cash Barometer initiative at Ground Truth Solutions, an NGO focused on participation and accountability. In 2020 she went independent. She now collaborates with a range of local and international humanitarian and social protection actors to leverage solidarity networks and participatory solutions in crises. She holds a Bachelor of Science in international politics and justice and peace studies from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a Master of Arts in humanitarian studies and conflict resolution from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Margareta Kiener Nellen is an attorney-at-law and former member of the Swiss Parliament for the Socialist Party (National Council, 2003-2019). From 1982 to 1984, she worked as rapporteur in Southeast Asia for the International Commission of Jurists focusing on constitutional and human rights violations of the then military dictatorship in the Philippines. At that time, she was also involved as a lawyer in developing the first social clause for fair labour conditions between Migros in Switzerland and Del Monte in the Philippines. Her political focus is on equal opportunities and women’s rights, improved conditions for employees and social justice for everyone. She is committed to socially just and ecologically sustainable fiscal policy. As a member of the Swiss parliament, she chaired the Finance Committee, the delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and its Standing Committee for Human Rights, as well as the delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). She led human rights missions in countries such as Ukraine, Mongolia and Turkey and participated in Election Observations Missions (EOM) throughout the entire OSCE area, heading missions in Azerbeijan and Kazachstan.  Margareta Kiener Nellen joined the Board in 2010.

Vested Interests: Founder and Partner of the law office Kiener & Nellen, Bern, Switzerland; Delegate of the Socialist Women of Switzerland to the Socialist Women of Europe (PES women), Brussels; Board member of various Organizations: Basel Peace Office; Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non Proliferation (PNND), International; Friendship Association Switzerland-Belarus (Chair), Switzerland; nafasi sawa children’s Foundation, Switzerland; Swiss Greina Foundation for the Preservation of alpine rivers (SGS), Switzerland; Diemtigtal Regional Nature Park, Switzerland; Bolligen Women's Gymnastics Association (Chair), Switzerland; Swiss Women's Football Council; active in various human rights and non-profit associations.

Sandy Fong has been involved with PeaceWomen Across the Globe since the start of the initiative “1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005” in 2003. She served as the PeaceWomen Across the Globe regional coordinator for the Pacific region prior to joining the International Board. She has worked with various NGOs internationally and in Fiji, including setting up the Dialogue Fiji secretariat and briefly as the Programme Manager for the Citizens Constitutional Forum before moving to Switzerland. Sandy Fong is Fundraising and Donor Coordination Manager for the CHS Alliance in Geneva.

Vested Interests: none

For more than 15 years, Sidonia Gabriel has engaged in peace, reconciliation and human rights work. Her focus lies in conflict and risk analysis, supporting peace processes, dialogue facilitation and strategic networks for political engagement. She also is actively engaged in strengthening women’s participation and decision-making in political processes. She has worked for the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), the European Union, the United Nations as well as for local and international civil society organisations in various conflict and post-conflict countries. She developed new approaches to working in networks in her function as the director of KOFF, the Swiss platform for peacebuilding, and as the Head of the Policy and Platform team at swisspeace. Her training modules, both online and live, on conflict sensitivity have gained international recognition. She is currently a Human Security Advisor at the Swiss Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Vested interests: The FDFA, one of PeaceWomen Across the Globe’s donors, is informed and gave the green light for the mandate as PWAG board member.

A nominee for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize and renowned human rights advocate, Sima Samar has dedicated her life to humanitarian work and advocating for human rights, equality, access to justice, the reduction of conflicts and the empowerment of women, children and minorities. Sima Samar, a medical doctor, was a member of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement from 2019-2021 and has held the following positions in Afghanistan: chairperson of the Commission for the Prevention of Torture, Special Envoy for the President of Afghanistan, State Minister for Human Rights and International Affairs, chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (2002-2019), and Vice President and Minister of Women’s Affairs in the interim government (2001-2002). She also was the chairperson of Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (2017-2018), UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Sudan (2005-2009) and a member of the United Nation Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation (2018-2021). In 1989 she founded the Shuhada Organization, an independent non-profit organisation dedicated to the welfare and progress of Afghan citizens with a focus on the empowerment of women in Afghanistan. She also served on Shuhada’s board. In 2011 she founded and served as chair and trustee of Gawharshad University, one of PeaceWomen Across the Globe’s project partners. She has won numerous awards, including the 2012 Right Livelihood Award, known as the alternative Nobel Peace Prize. Since 2017 she serves as a jury member.

In 2021 she moved to the United States where she currently is a Visiting Scholar at Tufts University.

Vested interests: none

Peace work and women’s empowerment have been the main themes of theologian Susanne Schneeberger’s work for many years. In Switzerland she has encouraged women from all age groups to engage in open dialogue and local initiatives through organising discussion forums. With the Lutheran Church of Bethlehem, she has been involved in different dialogue projects with women and young people in the occupied territories of Palestine. At present, Susanne Schneeberger is working at the OeME Department (Ecumenism, Migration and Development Work) of the Bern – Jura – Solothurn Reformed Churches. Justice, human rights, participation, poverty reduction, resource distribution and global responsibility are the focal point of her work. Susanne Schneeberger joined the Board in 2016.

Vested Interests: Co-President Guatemala Network, Bern, Switzerland; member of the Management Committee of the Berner Pensionskasse, Bern, Switzerland.

Verena Flück is a specialist in organisational development. For over 20 years, she has worked in Switzerland and internationally as an independent consultant and coach for numerous organisations and companies in the areas of strategic planning, organisational development, financing, and capacity development. She also coaches managers. During these years, she has been involved on a voluntary basis in various national and international non-profit organisations, such as the Swiss foundation Sexuelle Gesundheit Schweiz as well as Sinnovativ and Cooperaxion. After completing her teaching degree, she studied at the Universities of Bern and Fribourg, where she specialised in the management and marketing of non-profit organisations. Verena completed her studies with a Master's degree in management.

Vested interests: Verena Flück's consulting work focuses on non-profit organisations and socially oriented networks and initiatives.