Ahmad Nadery

About

Ahmad Nadery is a senior fellow with the Wilson Center and an associate fellow at the Asser Institute Centre for International and European Law. In 2020 he was appointed as a member of the peace negotiation team for the Afghan peace process in Doha. He also served as chairman of the Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Service Commission of Afghanistan. Prior to joining the commission, he served as senior advisor to the Afghan president on strategic affairs and human rights. 

Nadery has served as director of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit. He was commissioner of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission from 2004 to 2011. He also served as director of Afghanistan’s programs on global rights.

He cofounded the Free and Fair Election Forum of Afghanistan (a domestic election observation body) and, in 2002, served as the spokesperson for the emergency loya jirga (grand assembly) that elected the head of the transitional government. Previously, in 2001, he represented Afghan youth activists at the UN peace talks for Afghanistan in Bonn-Germany.

He was a member of the former Global Agenda Council on Fragile States of the World Economic Forum. He also served as chief of mission for No Peace without Justice in Libya in 2012.

Nadery has taught constitutional law at the American University of Afghanistan and written extensively on politics, human rights, women’s rights, and democracy. He appears regularly in media outlets such as BBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Nadery was recognized as an “Asian Hero” by Time magazine in 2005 and named as Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2008. He was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award in 2004.

Nadery studied law and political sciences at Kabul University and earned his MA in International relations from George Washington University. He also studied leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He speaks English, Persian, Pashtu, Baluchi, and basic Dutch.