Women We Love | Meaza Ashenafi, Lawyer and Women’s Rights Activist
Ethiopian lawyer and women’s rights activist Meaza Ashenafi is President (Chief Justice) of the Federal Supreme Court of Ethiopia and the first woman to hold this position. Ashenafi served as a Judge of the Federal Supreme Court of Ethiopia between 1989 and 1992. She was appointed by the Ethiopian Constitution Commission as a legal adviser in 1993.
Meaza Ashenafi has championed women’s rights and women’s empowerment in Ethiopia; she founded the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association to provide services to women unable to afford a legal defense. She created a word in Amharic to describe sexual harassment and sexual abuse. She reformed the way the Ethiopian judicial system treats sexual harassment cases.
Meaza Ashenafi currently serves as an adviser on gender and women’s rights in the Capacity Development Division of UNECA.
