Svitlana
Zalishchuk

Member of Parliament of Ukraine of the VIII convocation, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chair of the Subcommittee on Euro-Atlantic Cooperation and European Integration; public leader, journalist, and human rights campaigner. Member of DemAlliance Political Council.

2006 - 2011

Education

2006

Honours Master Degree in Journalism, National Taras Shevchenko University, Institute of Journalism

2008

Awarded John Smith Fellowship Programme (UK), including study of the functioning of the democratic institutions

2011

Awarded Draper Hills Summer Fellowship in Stanford (USA), focus on democracy and rule of law

2001 - 2014

Journalism experience

2001 - 2003

Editor-in-Chief of the National student Magazine ‘World of Communication’

2004 - 2005

International reporter at the ‘Fifth TV-Channel’, the only independent TV-Channel during Orange Revolution

2012

Anchor of live political TV-show on TVi TV-Channel: ‘From the other side’, devoted to parliamentary elections in Ukraine

2005 - 2009

Government experience

July - September 2005

Press-officer to the Deputy Prime Minister on European Integration in Ukraine

2005 - 2006

Spokesperson to the Chief of Staff of the President of Ukraine and Head of the Department of Information in the Main Information Service in the Administration of the President of Ukraine

2006 - 2009

Deputy Chief of Staff to the Advisor of the President on European and Euro- Atlantic integration

2009 - 2014

Human Rights Campaigning Experience

2009 - 2014

Co-founder and Executive Director of the Kyiv-based ‘Centre of United Actions’ NGO, focused on media and anticorruption reforms Co-Founder of New Citizen Public Campaign

2010 - 2014

Co-founder and member of the influential journalist movement Stop Censorship! campaigning against censorship

2011 - 2014

Co-founder and coordinator of CHESNO (Fair) movement uniting hundreds of NGOs across Ukraine with the aim to impose anticorruption and integrity processes upon the public sector

2013 - 2014

Prominent leader of the EuroMaidan events that led to the 2014 Revolution of Dignity. As Executive Director of ‘Centre UA’, coordinated the largest (in Ukrainian and regional history) and most influential Facebook page Euromaidan, which played a crucial role in the revolution

2014

Co-founder and member of the Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR) civic platform uniting more than 50 NGOs and several hundreds experts and activists for building and promotion of democratic reforms in Ukraine

2014 - present

Political experience

November 2014 - present

Member of Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) of Ukraine. Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chair of the Sub-Committee on European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Friendship group between Ukraine and United Kingdom

Since July 2014

Member of the Steering Committee of the World Movement for Democracy, founded by National Endowment for Democracy (Washington DC)

Since December 2014

Member of the Parliamentary Caucus ‘Equal Opportunities’ devoted to gender issues

2015

First MP in Ukraine, together with Serhiy Leshchenko, who publically joined the LGBT pride Co-founder and member of the Inter-faction Parliamentary Caucus ‘Eurooptimists’ and ‘Anticorruption Platform’ Co-founder of the Open Parliament platform in Ukraine as a part of the Open Government Partnership

2015 - 2017

Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE), Member of the Committee on Anti-discrimination and Equality, Substitute Member of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and Media Member of the joint Ukraine-EU Parliamentary Committee on Association Agreement between Ukraine and European Union

2009 - present

Lectures and Presentations

2009 – present

Expert lecturer and featured speaker

Lectures at the National Taras Shevchenko University, Institute of Journalism

Lectures internationally, including in the US (e.g., George Washington University), throughout Europe (e.g., Oxford, Berlin Freie University, Humboldt University, and Potsdam University, Vilnius, etc.)

Training of local and international NGOs in Ukraine on capacity and influence of the civil society on decision-making

Keynote speaker, moderator and speaker at various international and regional forums (including UN, CoE, EU Parliament, Munich Security Conference, etc.) devoted to foreign policy, security and democracy

2013 - 2018

Personal Honours

2013

Recognized as one of the emerging leaders of Ukraine by Washington based, US-Ukraine Foundation in Project ‘40 under 40 Ukrainians’

2016

Named as a ‘bravest’ women of the Munich Security Conference by German Bild Newspaper

2016

Anna Lindh Prize 2016 (after former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sweden), international award for human rights defenders: a woman or young person with ‘the courage to fight indifference, prejudice, oppression and injustices in order to promote a good life for all people in an environment marked by respect for human rights’ (previous winners include Amira Hass and Madeline Albright)

2015 - 2018

Recognized as one of the top-100 most influential women in Ukraine by Focus Magazine and Novoe Vriemia Magazine