In the late 1980s, four strong, visionary women – an internationally acclaimed actress, a journalist, an expert in refugee women, and a humanitarian fundraiser – realized that the needs and rights of refugee women and children were being overlooked. Liv Ullmann, Catherine O’Neill, Susan Forbes Martin, and Susan Stark Alberti got to work, and in 1989 launched the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, known now as the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC).
Liv Ullmann is honorary chair of the Women’s Refugee Commission. She is a passionate advocate for the rights of women, children, and youth refugees worldwide. She was the first woman to serve as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Liv is an internationally renowned stage and film actress, who was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2022. She has also had a successful directing career in film and theater, and is the author of two books, Changing and Choices, which have been printed in more than 25 languages.
Catherine O’Neill used her passion to attract many prominent women from the media, academia, and the humanitarian community to the organization. She traveled to refugee settings around the world to listen to refugee women and children to learn firsthand about their needs. On Capitol Hill, at the United Nations, in the pages of major newspapers and on radio and TV, she encouraged decision-makers and humanitarian workers to change policies and practice to ensure that refugee women, children and young people got their due.
Susan Stark Alberti was a co-founder of the Women’s Refugee Committee and the organization’s first director of development. Prior to the organization’s founding, Susan worked in Khao-I-Dang Refugee Camp on the Thai-Cambodian border with the International Rescue Committee – first as a volunteer in the education department and then as deputy director of IRC’s extensive program in Thailand. Upon returning to the US, Susan joined IRC New York as director of institutional fundraising.
Susan Forbes Martin is the author of, among many other books, Refugee Women (first edition,1992) and the first UNHCR Guidelines on the Protection of Refugee Women, which raised awareness about the particular issues faced by women driven from their homes as a result of international conflict. She is the Donald G. Herzberg professor emerita of international migration at Georgetown University. She was previously the director of research and programs at the Refugee Policy Group, a Washington-based center for analysis of US and international refugee policy and programs.
