Fadia Najeeb Thabet

As a Child Protection Officer who reported on violations against children in conflict during the recent conflicts in southern Yemen, Fadia Najib Thabet faced death on a regular basis as she tried to protect the region’s children from Al Qaeda and Houthi militias. Through her courageous work, she dissuaded young boys from joining Al Qaeda, exposed its Yemeni branch “Ansar al Sharia” as a recruiter of child soldiers, and documented for the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) cases of mining, abduction, rape, and other human rights violations by various armed groups. Thabet took the view that children recruited by extremists and militants were not criminals, but instead, victims. She worked with parents, schools, communities, the children themselves, and eventually the UN to develop an action plan in southern Yemen to save children from the war. Thabet continues to work on behalf of dispossessed and uprooted children with the American Refugee Committee.