Professional Affiliation

Executive Director, Yazda

Expert Bio

Natia Navrouzov is Yazda’s Executive Director, a Yazidi-focused and global NGO established three weeks after the start of the ISIS genocidal campaign against the Yazidi community in Sinjar.  

She is a French-qualified lawyer specializing in international law, human rights, and transitional justice. As a member of the Yazidi community, Natia has been instrumental in Yazda's initiatives since joining in 2018. She holds various positions within the organization, including Project Manager and Interim Country Director. In 2021, she was appointed as Yazda’s first Legal Advocacy Director. Under her leadership, Yazda collected testimonies of ISIS survivors and documented evidence from crime sites, and collaborated with international and national bodies, including the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability Against Da’esh Crimes (UNITAD), national war crimes units, and the Office of Amal Clooney. Notably, her leadership played a key role in the conviction of several ISIS members in Germany, including for genocide against Yazidi victims. In 2019, Natia supported a group of Yazidi female advocates to establish the Yazidi Survivors Network (YSN) and campaigned with them for the passing of the Yazidi Survivors Law until its adoption in March 2021.

Before joining Yazda, Natia worked for a globally recognized law firm specializing in International Public Law and International Arbitration in Paris, as a Research Assistant at the London Court of Arbitration, and Assistant Lecturer at the Université of Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris. Admitted to the Paris Bar, Natia holds a dual bachelor's degree in German and French Law from the University of Cologne (Germany) and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France); she holds Master’s degrees in International Law from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and Columbia University (USA), where she graduated as a Human Rights Fellow and Fulbright scholar, and was awarded the Davis Polk Fellowship. Natia is also an Obama Foundation Leader.