About Soon-Young

Soon-Young Yoon, Ph.D. is a feminist leader, anthropologist, and advocate for women’s human rights with more than four decades of experience at the United Nations and in global civil society. She serves as the UN Representative for the International Alliance of Women and is co-director of the Cities for CEDAW History & Futures Project, promoting gender equality and local implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

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A former Chair of the Board of the Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO) and past Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women/New York, Soon-Young has helped shape global feminist agendas from the 1995 Beijing Women’s Conference to the Sustainable Development Goals. Her career includes roles with UNICEF and the World Health Organization, where she advanced women’s leadership and gender-responsive policy in health and development.

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Soon-Young is the author of Citizen of the World: Soon-Young and the UN, a reflection on her lifelong commitment to feminist multilateralism and grassroots activism. She holds an A.B. in French Literature and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan.