Bineta Diop is one of the most consequential women’s rights leaders of the past three decades—a Senegalese activist, diplomat, and institution-builder whose work has helped reshape how Africa approaches women, peace, and security.
Born in Guéoul, Senegal, she was deeply influenced by her mother Marèma Lô, a feminist politician who fought to bring women into public life and insisted that her daughters be educated and independent. After working at the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, Diop founded Femmes Africa Solidarité in 1996 with a clear conviction: that African women belong not at the margins of peace and governance, but at the center of them. Over the decades that followed, her work moved from grassroots organizing to continental diplomacy, including service as the African Union’s Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security from 2014 to 2025. She has been recognized internationally for her leadership, including being named to Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and receiving the African Women Impact Award 2026. But what makes her perspective especially valuable is not simply the positions she has held or the honors she has received—it is what she has learned about how change actually happens: the patience, the strategy, the alliances, and the refusal to accept that the world as it is must remain that way.
She recently joined Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights Director Mathias Risse for a fireside chat as part of his Executive Education Emerging Leaders program curriculum. The following interview is taken from that conversation and has been edited for clarity.
On the Origins of Leadership
MATHIAS RISSE:
You grew up watching your mother fight for women's rights within a political party in post-independence Senegal—organizing, advocating, pushing against enormous resistance. How much of what you became as a leader was shaped by watching her? And what did you learn from her that no institution or training program could have taught you?
BINETA DIOP:
People often think leadership starts with ambition. For me, leadership started with discomfort.
My journey did not begin in boardrooms or international summits. It began in Senegal, in a family where public service and political consciousness were part of everyday life.
I was born in Guéoul, Senegal, and raised by my mother, Marèma Lô, who was deeply committed to women’s advancement and community service. At a time when many girls were not encouraged to pursue leadership, she insisted that her daughters must study, think independently, and understand the world around them.
What I learned from her was not politics in the traditional sense, but the value of service. She believed leadership must always remain connected to people’s realities. She organized women, supported communities, and used politics as a tool for impact. My Mother was my role model.
Later, as the wife of a diplomat, I lived across different countries and witnessed both privilege and inequality. I saw the distance between international diplomacy and the struggles of ordinary people. I kept asking myself:
“Why are women always discriminatied against and missing at the decision-making tables”
“Why are African women spoken about, but rarely listened to?”
Those questions became the foundation of my life’s work.
MATHIAS RISSE:
Your mother worked within a political party structure. You ultimately built your own institution—Femmes Africa Solidarité— rather than working through existing ones. Why? What did you understand about institutions that made you decide you needed to create something new?
BINETA DIOP:
In the 1980s, I joined the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, becoming one of the first African women to work there on human rights and justice issues.
That experience exposed me to international legal systems, but also to their limitations. I realized that many global frameworks discussed Africa without African women being present in those conversations.
The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights is an example of male Judges designing an international framework without women’s contribution. Later, female lawyers organized around the Protocol on Women Rights in Africa to close the existing gaps.
At the same time, Africa was experiencing devastating conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Women were holding families and communities together, yet they were absent from peace negotiations.
I remember attending meetings where armed actors and political elites discussed peace agreements while the women sustaining communities during war remained outside the room. I knew that had to change.
That realization led me to found Femmes Africa Solidarité in 1996 to advance women’s leadership in peacebuilding and governance across Africa.
MATHIAS RISSE:
You have spoken about your mentor Niall MacDermot at the International Commission of Jurists. Here was a mentor from a very different background—British, male, from the global North. What did you learn from him about leadership and institution-building?
BINETA DIOP:
Niall MacDermot was major influence in my life, with whom I worked closely early in my career. He was globally respected for his knowledge, integrity, and commitment to human rights.
He taught me how to articulate ideas with confidence, engage leaders with conviction, and understand that leadership is about institution-building and service to humanity. Watching him transform the International Commission of Jurists into a globally respected institution taught me that real leadership creates opportunities for others to grow. Niall was my mentor.
On Building a Movement Across Difference
MATHIAS RISSE:
Much of your work has involved bringing women together across borders during moments of violent conflict — not simply as victims of war, but as political actors and peacebuilders. What did those experiences teach you about movement-building and about the role women can play in peace processes?
BINETA DIOP:
One of the most important lessons I learned is that peacebuilding cannot succeed if it is disconnected from people.
During the crises in Liberia and Sierra Leone, women across borders came together because conflict did not respect national boundaries. We helped establish the Mano River Women’s Peace Network, bringing together women from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea to advocate directly with governments and regional institutions.
These women were not career diplomats. Many were teachers, market women, faith leaders, and mothers. Yet they understood something essential: peace cannot be outsourced.
I also participated in major peace processes, including the Arusha Peace Process in Burundi, working closely with President Nelson Mandela, as the mediator, the Sun City negotiations for the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Akosombo (Ghana) peace talks on Liberia.
What struck me repeatedly was that women entered these spaces with the language of survival and community. They asked:
“How do displaced families return home?”
“How do children go back to school?”
“How do communities rebuild trust?”
Those questions changed the nature of negotiations.
One powerful lesson came from Liberia, where women mobilized collectively and insisted that political leaders remain at the negotiation table until an agreement was reached. That spirit of persistence and moral authority shaped my understanding of movement-building forever.
MATHIAS RISSE:
One of the most striking features of your leadership is the strategic decision to bring men into the women's rights movement through the Positive Masculinity agenda. You said: "We realized that if we have to advance gender issues in our society, we need to bring the men into the discourse. We cannot continue to talk to ourselves." That is a significant strategic and philosophical choice — one that not everyone in the women's rights movement has agreed with. You’ve also worked to engage male political leaders directly through initiatives such as the Kinshasa Declaration. How did you arrive at this strategy? What did you hope those efforts would achieve?
BINETA DIOP:
We cannot ignore that we still operate within deeply patriarchal systems, even though African history reminds us that women have always led.
This is why the agenda around positive masculinity is so important. Gender equality cannot advance if men are absent from the conversation. In Africa’s top-down political systems, engaging influential male leaders remains essential to opening decision-making spaces for women.
Initiatives such as the Kinshasa Declaration were important because they challenged men to become active partners in advancing gender equality, not as charity, but because inclusive leadership produces stronger societies.
On Leadership in Conflict Zones
MATHIAS RISSE:
You have worked in some of the most dangerous and broken places on the continent—Somalia, Darfur, the Great Lakes region, South Sudan, Liberia—and you’ve said that women are not merely victims of conflict they are architects of peace. But in many of the peace processes you have worked on, women were almost entirely absent from the formal table. How do you sustain that conviction—and sustain the energy to keep pushing—when the evidence in front of you is so discouraging? What did those experiences teach you about leadership, peacebuilding, and the role women play in sustaining communities during crisis?
BINETA DIOP:
Conflict zones teach you humility very quickly.
I have met women in refugee camps who lost everything yet still organized food distribution for others. I have met survivors of violence who later became mediators in their communities. Those experiences transformed my understanding of leadership.
Leadership in conflict is not about speeches. It is about presence.
When I became the first Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security at the African Union in 2014, my goal was to ensure women’s realities were no longer treated as secondary within peace and security discussions.
One area I focused on deeply was electoral violence prevention.
Across Africa, elections were becoming moments of insecurity and polarization. Women were targeted, youth were manipulated into violence, and communities were divided.
That is why we developed the Women Situation Room, an African-led model for early warning, mediation, and rapid response during elections.
Women leaders, mediators, legal experts, and grassroots actors came together to monitor tensions and intervene before violence escalated. The model was first launched during the 2011 elections and later replicated in countries including Senegal, Mali, and Guinea.
What made it successful was not only technology but also trust and community credibility. Political actors listened because these women were respected and seen as neutral protectors of peace.
The initiative later gained international recognition, including from Hillary Clinton, because it demonstrated that women were not only victims of conflict but leaders in prevention and peacebuilding.
Throughout my work across Africa, one reality remained constant: women and children suffer the most during conflict, while unemployed youth are often manipulated into violence.
Yet women are rarely recognized as peace actors, despite being mediators, survivors, and community organizers.
Too often, mediation processes invite only those carrying guns to the table, while excluding the women holding communities together. But every conflict eventually ends at the negotiation table, and peace agreements are more sustainable when women are involved.
Women ask different questions:
“How do families rebuild?”
“How do children return to school?”
“How do communities heal?”
Those are the questions that sustain peace.
On the Gap Between Law and Reality
MATHIAS RISSE:
The Maputo Protocol, ratified by 46 of 55 African Union member states, is by any measure a remarkable legal achievement. And yet you have said repeatedly that implementation lags far behind the normative framework — that there is an enormous gap between what the law says and what women's lives actually look like. How do you sustain the work of legal advocacy when you know how wide that gap is?
BINETA DIOP:
One of the frustrations of my career has been seeing excellent frameworks exist on paper while realities on the ground remain unchanged.
I was involved in efforts around the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and later the Maputo Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. The adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 was also transformative because it formally recognized women’s role in peace and security.
But implementation remains uneven.
The Women, Peace and Security agenda is built around four pillars: Protection. Prevention. Participation. Post-conflict reconstruction.
We have made progress in participation. We see more women leaders and mediators today.
But protection remains inconsistent. Prevention mechanisms are underfunded. And post-conflict reconstruction, especially economic recovery for women, remains one of the weakest areas.
Peace is not sustainable if people cannot rebuild their lives.
That is why accountability matters. We cannot continue producing treaties and declarations without measuring their impact on communities. The real question is: How do we ensure member states implement these commitments at national and local levels?
On Africa’s Place in the World
MATHIAS RISSE:
You’ve often argued that Africa should not be seen only as a recipient of global norms, but as a source of institutional innovation and leadership. During your time at the African Union, you worked to build new structures around women, peace, and security that later influenced institutions elsewhere. How do you see Africa’s role in shaping global governance today?
BINETA DIOP:
Africa must stop being viewed only through the lens of crisis.
Africa is a continent of innovation, resilience, and leadership. With the youngest population in the world, Africa will shape the future of global growth and transformation.
But institutions must become more people-centred.
During my time at the African Union, I worked to advance gender parity within AU leadership structures and supported initiatives such as the African Women Leaders Network.
When I became the AU’s first Special Envoy on Women, Peace and Security, no similar role existed globally. Later, countries such as Canada and Norway adopted similar models.
My objective was clear: build an ecosystem around Women, Peace and Security within the African Union itself. This required reforming policies, strengthening institutions, and ensuring women were integrated into peacekeeping, mediation, and governance structures in measurable ways.
Today, however, the multilateral system is under strain. From Sudan to the Middle East to Europe, we see institutions struggling to respond to modern realities.
Many global governance systems were built after World War II for a different era. The world has changed, and institutions must evolve with it.
This is also a wake-up call. We must rethink development beyond economics and markets alone and return to people-centred approaches rooted in dignity, education, opportunity, and justice.
On Legacy and the Next Generation
MATHIAS RISSE:
You have said that the AU institutionalized the Office of the Special Envoy — meaning that when you left, the position continued. That is a particular kind of leadership achievement: building something that outlasts you. What lessons do you hope will endure?
BINETA DIOP:
As I reflect on my journey, I think less about titles and more about institutions and systems that will outlive me.
I am proud of helping establish structures such as:
Femmes Africa Solidarité
The Women Situation Room in Electoral Process
The Gender is My Agenda Campaign Network (GIMAC)
The African Women Leaders Network
The PanAfrican Centre for Gender, Peace and Development
Peacebuilding and mediation platforms across Africa
Because leadership is not about becoming indispensable. True leadership creates space for others to lead.
And I say this especially to young women:bDo not wait for perfect conditions before stepping into leadership.
Many spaces we entered did not welcome us. We entered anyway. Many believed women could not shape peace processes or influence global institutions. We proved otherwise.
One lesson I learned over many years is that peace cannot survive where people lack economic opportunity.
That is why we worked extensively on women’s economic empowerment, especially in agriculture. We supported women through mechanization, access to land, value addition, trade, and commercialization because economic empowerment is peacebuilding.
When women have economic opportunities, communities become more stable and resilient.
In the end, the most powerful leaders are not those who accumulate power. They are those who create dignity, opportunity, and hope for others.
MATHIAS RISSE:
Finally, for emerging leaders in the Executive Education program—many of them from Africa and the Global South, working in organizations that may not always take them seriously, trying to build change in contexts that feel resistant to it—what is the most important thing you have learned about what it actually takes to make progress on something that matters?
BINETA DIOP:
My message to all the leaders here is simple: Be bold. Be persistent. And dream beyond what feels comfortable.
I often remember the words of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.”
Transformation requires courage. Many of the systems we challenged were deeply entrenched, but persistence matters.
Leadership is not about waiting for perfect conditions. It is about deciding to act despite imperfections.
And above all, remember this: Peace is not built by institutions alone. It is built by people willing to serve, listen, and transform systems for future generations.
Kyle Faneuff | Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights
