Gulnara Shahinian is an international, independent expert on human rights, slavery and human trafficking. She has been elected to chair many expert groups at the UN General Assembly. In 2004 she was elected by the Council of Europe (COE) as the First Vice President of the Intergovernmental Commission to prepare the COE’s convention on action at the COE Convention. From 2008 -2015 she served as UN Human Rights Council UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She has been working in more than 40 countries, assessing the situation and presenting recommendations to Governments. She serves as a board member of many international organizations, has numerous publications and currently works as an international consultant with many agencies. For her work, she has received awards from many governments and international organizations, both for her antislavery and peace work. In Armenia, she is also the founder and chair of the NGO, “Democracy Today” that works in the area of gender equality and peace building. Since the conflict over Nagorno Kharabach, she has initiated many cross border meetings and joint projects of Armenian women and youth with their Azerbaijani counterparts. In 2011, together with her team, Gulnara established the “First International Young Women’s Peace Award” to continue the work of the famous writer and peace activist Anahit Bayandur. Through the years, young women from many parts of the world have become laureates of the award. She is the recipient of many awards from Governments (Brasil, Mauritania, USA) for her work and the Anita Augsburg Award for peace.