Joining RSN in November 2020, Benil Mostafa plays a leading role in RSN’s fundraising activities and relations with donors and partners in the fields of international human rights, humanitarian assistance, migration, refugees, asylum and international development. Benil comes with over six years of experience in grant-making, program development, network management, event planning, advocacy, research, monitoring and evaluation, and inter-agency coordination across North America, Europe, MENAT and Africa. Her academic and professional work was extensively on refugee rights, particularly focusing on how to achieve attitude and policy-practice change.
She supported the development and publication of human rights reports, research papers, and advocacy briefs, focusing on humanitarian contexts, and worked as a consultant for many organizations in various capacities, including prior experience with Human Rights Watch, FHI 360, Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies, and International Rescue Committee. Prior to joining RSN, Benil worked at Porticus, an international philanthropic foundation, as a Research Analyst, providing grant-making and technical support for three global portfolios. As part of her responsibilities, she led the cultivation, management, and coordination of external partnerships and networks.
As an INEE consultant, she’s developed, launched and implemented a communications strategy plan for the 2019 High-level Political Forum at the UN that highlighted how critical is to focus on crisis-affected children to achieve the SDGs. She has previously conducted “know your rights” workshops with refugees and asylum-seekers in New York. Since early 2017, she has been the regional co-representative for New York and co-chair of the Convention on the Rights of the Child Advocacy Working Group at Human Rights Educators USA (HRE USA). She spearheaded the CRC campaign in the US, and under her leadership, several municipalities in the US have endorsed the CRC and/or expressed interest in becoming a Child Friendly City/Community.
Benil received her M.A. in Human Rights with specialization in Forced Displacement and Children’s Rights from Columbia University in 2018, and a B.A. in International Criminal Justice from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2015 with two academic awards. She is a dual citizen of Turkey and the United States and is based in New York.