Yasmine Sherif

Yasmine Sherif (Sweden) is a Laywer specialized in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law (LL.M) awarded in 1987 from Stockholm University. She has over 30  years of experience with the United Nations. 

A Human Rights lawyer, Author, Public Speaker, she is also Co-Founder of the forthcoming Humanity Brand, and is currently serving as Senior Global Ambassador for the Varkey Foundation. She served as the Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW) for over eight years, establishing and leading the Education Cannot Wait Fund towards $1.6 billion in financial resources and reaching 14 million children with quality education in crises-countries. 

Ms. Sherif has held numerous senior positions in the United Nations. She has served in some of the most crisis affected countries and regions on the globe, including Afghanistan, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and across the Middle East, as well as in New York and Geneva, and has led high-level missions to numerous conflict and crisis-affected countries. Her expertise spans conflict and post-conflict, education, humanitarian, development, human rights, advocacy & communication, gender, peacekeeping and United Nations policies.

Ms. Sherif has also worked as an Adjunct Professor responsible for the Masters Programme on the United Nations, humanitarian assistance, and human rights at Long Island University (LIU), and has lectured at Columbia University, the University of Hawai’I, Northwestern University and New York University. She has published on international humanitarian and development issues, as well as international law. 

She is the author of the book, The Case for Humanity: An Extraordinary Session, which was launched at the United Nations in New York in 2015, and her forthcoming book: Unleash Your Humanity: Where Personal Awakening Becomes Collective Change, co-authored with Scott Tavis, to be released on September 17, 2026. She has received numerous awards, among these; the annual award Sweden’s UN Friend of the Year, the Global Educator Award in the United States, Who is Who in America in 2024, and the prestigious Mother Teresa Award.  She is an avid writer and public speaker, frequently featuring in national (US) and international media.