Our Team

Rasha Jarhum is a Canadian citizen of South Yemeni origin. She is a co‑founder of the Peace Track Initiative (PTI), which is hosted by the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa. She served as Executive Director, later as Co‑Director, and currently sits on the Board of Directors.

Through her work with the Peace Track Initiative, Jarhum has supported the inclusion of women in peace processes, including sending independent women’s delegations to UN‑ and GCC‑led peace talks, leading Track II diplomatic consultations with women’s groups, and working to protect women human rights defenders in Yemen. She also led efforts to develop the Yemeni National Agenda for Women, Peace and Security, and facilitated civil society consultations that contributed to Yemen’s National Action Plan for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325. She is recognized as an expert in gender, peace, and security, with over 15 years of experience advocating for the rights of women, children, and refugees with organizations such as Oxfam, UNICEF, ESCWA, UNDP, and JICA in Yemen and the broader MENA region.

Jarhum was appointed as a member of the National Consultation and Reconciliation Commission in 2022, and in 2024 she chaired the Permanent Committee for Rights and Freedoms in Yemen. She was named to Apolitical’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy in 2021.

She was among seven women invited by the UN Special Envoy to support the 2016 Kuwait peace talks, and she briefed the UN Security Council on Yemen and women’s rights to advocate for peace. Jarhum holds a Master’s degree in International Business Management from the University of Nottingham and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Bangalore University in India. She is the recipient of the Women Have Wings Award (2016), the Women Rebels Against War: Anita Augspurg Prize (2019), and the IRENE – Strength in Peace Award (2026).

She is a member of the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL) and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa. She is also a New Voices Fellow (2016) at the Aspen Institute in the United States, and an alumna of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (2018). Additionally, she is a founding member of the Yemeni Women’s Solidarity Network, a member of the Regional Coalition of Women Human Rights Defenders in the Middle East and North Africa, and a member of the Women, Peace and Security Network – Canada.

 University, India.