Blen Sahilu is an Ethiopian human rights lawyer and gender expert with over a decade of expertise in academia, movement building and strategic advocacy. She was most recently the senior adviser on gender equality and women’s empowerment to the President of Ethiopia. Before that she served in the high level Legal Advisory Council to the Attorney General for the revision of Laws as part of the National Legal Reform project. She has recently been selected by the Prime Minster of Ethiopia to serve as a member of the national peace and reconciliation commission of Ethiopia as part of a group of 42 notable Ethiopians to help the country with peaceful transition. She was previously a lecturer and Assistant Dean of the School of Law at Addis Ababa University.
Blen is a co-founder of The Yellow Movement – established in 2011 at the Addis Ababa University School of Law with the aim of promoting discussions on gender-based violence and empowering women. She is the founder and editor of Ekool Ethiopia, an initiative that brings together feminist voices to produce content on gender equality and social justice in local languages. Blen was trained at Addis Ababa University, University of Michigan School of Law, and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
