Elena Cornaro

Elena Cornaro is a policy advisor for gender equality and social inclusion with the Economic Law and Policy program. She works on integrating gender equality and social inclusion into sustainable policy frameworks and strategies.

Elena brings over 5 years of experience in gender, social inclusion, and human rights, including with the UN and Council of Europe. Before joining IISD, Elena worked as a program analyst for UN Women in Libya, where she managed programs to promote women’s active involvement in peacebuilding and decision-making spaces. In collaboration with Libyan civil society and national stakeholders, she also supported the development and implementation of UN strategies on gender, youth, and disability inclusion. At the Council of Europe, she coordinated projects and inter-governmental collaboration on economic and social rights across Europe. Elena began her career in the civil society sector, where she worked with women's rights activists from Afghanistan on EU foreign policy campaigns and with non-governmental organizations in the United Kingdom on socio-economic rights. She is committed to the importance of centering community-level perspectives in her policy work with IISD.

Elena holds a master's degree in human rights law with distinction from SOAS, University of London, where she focused on intersectional and postcolonial feminist critiques of international law. She also has a bachelor's degree in human, social, and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.

Originally from the Austrian Alps and based in London, Elena is fluent in English, German, and French and has basic knowledge of Arabic and Italian.