Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff
{{Short description|Sierra Leonean lawyer and activist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff
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| known_for = women's movement that helped to restore democracy
| education = University of London and the University of Oxford
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| occupation = lawyer
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| nationality = Sierra Leonean
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Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff is a Sierra Leonean lawyer and activist. She was involved in the women's movement that helped to restore democracy to her country.
Life
Jusu-Sheriff was the daughter of Gladys and Salia Jusu-Sheriff.{{Cite web |title=Yasmin Sheriff |url=https://www.giraffe.org/yasmin-sheriff |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=www.giraffe.org |language=en}} Her four siblings were Salia (Jnr), Nalinie, Nadia and Sheku. She graduated at the University of London before she took her master's degree at the University of Oxford.{{fact|date=June 2024}}
She was an active campaigner in Sierra Leone, especially after 1991{{Cite web |title=Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff {{!}} Conciliation Resources |url=https://www.c-r.org/who-we-are/people/yasmin-jusu-sheriff |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=www.c-r.org}} when the Sierra Leone Civil War started.{{Cite book |last=Rubio-Marín |first=Ruth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nw-STBE9k7YC&dq=Isha+Dyfan&pg=PA253 |title=What Happened to the Women?: Gender and Reparations for Human Rights Violations |date=2006 |publisher=SSRC |isbn=978-0-9790772-0-3 |page=253|language=en}} She and fellow lawyer Isha Dyfan and Patricia Kabbah worked with groups like the Mano River Women's Peace Network to ensure that wider international community were aware of the abuses that were taking place in Sierra Leone. She and Isha Dyfan were both lawyers and they had both been members of the Sierra Leone Human Rights Society. They had a wide network of contacts.
In 1995, she and Zainab Bangura founded Women Organized for a Morally Enlightened Nation (W.O.M.E.N.), a non-partisan women's rights group in Sierra Leone.{{Cite book |last=Press |first=Robert |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/315/oa_monograph/book/66323 |title=Ripples of Hope: How Ordinary People Resist Repression Without Violence |date=2015 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-485-2515-7}}
She was the executive secretary of Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which was created{{Cite web |title=Our Interview of the Month with Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff |url=https://www.mewc.org/index.php/community/our-monthly-interview/8727-our-interview-of-the-month-with-yasmin-jusu-sheriff |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=www.mewc.org}} in 1999 under Bishop Joseph Christian Humper. The commission was modelled after the one seen in South Africa although this one was a poor relative. One million dollars had been set aside in 2002, but the cost then was put at nine million. The United Nations appealed for someone to find the missing cash.{{Cite news |date=2002-07-06 |title=Sierra Leone TRC to begin work |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2106390.stm |access-date=2024-06-11 |language=en-GB}}
Her father died in London in 2009 and he was buried in Sierra Leone after a state funeral.{{cite web |title=In Sierra Leone, State Funeral for Late Salia Jusu-Sheriff: Sierra Leone News |url=http://news.sl/drwebsite/exec/view.cgi?archive=1&num=14045 |website= |date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304001146/http://news.sl/drwebsite/exec/view.cgi?archive=1&num=14045 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |title=Final Funeral Arrangements for the Late Salia Jusu-Sheriff of Sierra Leone |url=http://news.sl/drwebsite/exec/view.cgi?archive=1&num=14062&printer=1 |date=Dec 26, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221337/http://news.sl/drwebsite/exec/view.cgi?archive=1&num=14062&printer=1 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |lang=en}} Her mother survived him and she became a trustee for refugee work in Islington.{{Cite web |date=2017-11-21 |title=Our Patron and Trustees |url=https://islingtoncentre.co.uk/trustees/ |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=Islington Centre for Refugees and Migrants |language=en}}
She is on the board of Femmes Africa Solidarité.