Nebila Abdulmelik

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. Nebila has previously served as manager of media relations at FEMNET, an institution that advocates for women's growth in Africa.

Early life
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. 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.

Career
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.

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.

Two years later, in 2015, she specifically advocated for the creation of Sustainable Development Goal 5, 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.