Expertise: Intersection of Law, Human Rights & Impact Entrepreneurship 

Languages: Arabic, English, German 

Bio: Azal Al-Salafi graduated with an LLB (Hons.) in International Law from Girne American University of Cyprus and a MA major in Human Rights and Democratization at the Global Campus of Human Rights with a Focus on the MENA Region at Saint Joseph University of Beirut. 

Azal practiced corporate & commercial law at Khaled Alwazir Law Firm, earning a high level of responsibility and autonomy, firmly breaking the challenges of being the only female attorney at the firm and established herself as a key contact to the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, France and working closely on a variety of litigation, arbitration and dispute resolution cases. In 2015, she shifted and delved into the arena of human rights, entrepreneurship, and socioeconomic development fields with a focus on migration potential. In 2018, she founded Azal & Co., a hybrid legal & life social start-up that was granted the ChanzenNutzer award fund by JP Morgan Chase Foundation & Social Impact Lab Frankfurt for aiding migrants mainly women & children, fostering their wellbeing, accelerating their integration process and promoting their economic potential. Consequently, she worked as a coach with the Social Impact GmbH on a variety of impact projects, such as Start Hope @Home funded by GIZ, which qualified migrant entrepreneurs to build start-ups in their homelands.

In July 2019, Azal received the Right to Livelihood Foundation Award scholarship, enabling her to attend graduate school and focus her thesis on restorative justice as a child protection pathway within educational institutions in highly conflicted contexts such as Yemen. 

Azal is currently a Consultant and Research Fellow at Yemen Policy Center e.V. and continues her research on protection pathways, for Feminist Peacebuilders & Human Rights Defenders.

Consequently, she founded a Women Safety Net, an Arab feminist led Network that aims to aid, educate, protect and report all forms of abuse against women.

She also leads dialogues & discussions on the Yemen Discussion Board, a solution-oriented platform bringing together young Yemeni experts to tackle topics on Yemen. She continues to study and work with projects on protection pathways, safety nets, entrepreneurial scenes, and start-up ecosystems and their impact on human rights, communities, and nations.