Mrinalini Rai
Found/Executive Director, Women4Biodiversity
Mrinalini is a passionate advocate for women’s rights and environmental justice. She specializes in policy, advocacy, and research that addresses the intersectionality of human rights, gender equality, and environmental governance. As an Indigenous woman, she advocates for the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, especially focusing on women and youth in various environment-related processes. She is dedicated to enhancing synergies and cooperation with the biodiversity-related Multilateral Environment Agreements. For several years she has focused on strengthening the integration of human rights and gender considerations into the decisions and outcomes of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD). To facilitate women’s rights organisations to access information, active participation, representation and inputs into the policy space of the UNCBD, she fostered the development of and strengthened the CBD Women’s Caucus, a platform for coordinating women’s collective voices to inform the CBD.