| Nebila Abdulmelik | |
| Birth Date: | 1987 |
| Birth Place: | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia |
| Nationality: | Ethiopian |
| Alma Mater: | African Studies, UCLA |
| Occupation: | women's rights activist |
Nebila Abdulmelik is an Ethiopian feminist activist and prominent women's rights activist. She was well known for spearheading the campaign #JusticeforLiz which was launched in order to seek justice for a 16 year old Kenyan girl called Liz who was brutally raped in 2013.[1] Nebila has previously served as manager of media relations at FEMNET, an institution that advocates for women's growth in Africa.[2]
Nebila was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her father died when she was 13. As a young Muslim woman of Harari origin, she says she suffered from discrimination, which influenced her in becoming an activist.[3] She obtained a scholarship for higher studies in the United States, and graduated with an MA at the University of California, Los Angeles in African Studies.[4]
Nebila pursued her career as an activist advocating for women's rights. She has travelled to over 40 countries and has worked with several human rights organisations. She worked with Pan-African women's rights organisations including FEMNET as well as the African Union through the African Governance Architecture Secretariat.[5]
In 2013, she launched an online petition titled #JusticeforLiz following the gang rape of Liz and the petition garnered more than 2 million signatures demanding death sentence for the rapists.[6]
Two years later, in 2015, she specifically advocated for the creation of Sustainable Development Goal 5,[7] during the development of the Global Goals.
In August 2021, she was listed as one of the seven African women activists who deserve a Wikipedia article by the Global Citizen, an international organisation and advocacy organisation.[8]