Selome Argaw

Selome joined the Center in 2012 as a consultant and became a full-time staff member in 2013. Prior to her current position, she worked in the Africa program where she built relationships and worked closely with partners in Rwanda and Tanzania to conceptualize and implement the Center’s research, litigation and advocacy work and file groundbreaking cases challenging legal restrictions on abortion and the expulsion of pregnant girls from schools. She also successfully spearheaded the Center’s advocacy work before the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, a regional human rights mechanism to advance adolescents’ SRHR. She has further supported the program’s capacity building work including with the judiciary.  

As Senior Global Advocacy Adviser, Selome works to implement robust advocacy strategies to advance SRHR through the UN General Assembly, the Commission on the Status of Women, and the Commission on Population Development. Working closely with Global Advocacy team members, program, development, and communications staff across the globe, Selome works to advance advocacy initiatives to draw greater attention to the status of SRHR globally, build the Center’s reputation and profile as a key technical adviser for UN headquarters processes, and leverage relevant UN processes to push for law and policy reform globally.

Selome has close to 15 years of experience working at the national, regional and international level on women’s rights issues. She holds an LLB in Law and MA in Gender Studies from Addis Ababa University. She also has an LLM in International Law and Justice from Fordham Law School.