Marina Pisklakova-Parker

Marina Pisklakova-Parker is a leading advocate from Russia against domestic violence and human trafficking. She champions the proposed global Every Woman Treaty ( @WomanTreaty ) to eliminate violence against women and girls. She has been honored frequently on the world stage for her work.

Marina set up the first helpline for battered women in Russia in 1992 and worked alone during the first year. In 1993 ANNA, the Center for the Prevention of Violence, was founded based on the helpline.  Center ANNA is a founder and coordinator of a national network that unifies 150 organizations in Russia and the region.

Marina and Center ANNA actively work on building a civil society movement to end violence against women and raise awareness among the public and professional groups in Russia and other countries about the issue of violence against women as a violation of human rights.

Now based in the U.S.,  Marina is co-founder and Director of Strategic Partnerships of the proposed Every Woman Treaty to end violence against women and girls. War rape, and women’s vulnerability during war and after – including in Afghanistan and Ukraine – are issues she addresses in the framework of international women’s human rights.

She is on the Advisory Board for WAVE (Women Against Violence Europe)  network of European women’s NGOs. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch and the Global Council for Vital Voices Global Partnership.

Marina has helped develop violence prevention training programs for law enforcement, judges, and prosecutors, and has worked with legislators at the national and local levels on policy changes. Center ANNA was listed under Russia’s Foreign Agent law in 2016, three years after Marina headed a working group on drafting anti-domestic violence law in Russia.

She holds a PH.D. in Sociology and is an author and co-author of articles and books regarding violence against women, among them “Marriages in Russia” published in the U.S. and Russia (1999), “Between Scream and Silence” (2000) and “State of Fatherhood in Russia” (2016).

Marina was named one of eight most significant human rights activists by Human Rights Watch in 1997 for her work against domestic violence. She was named by Newsweek Magazine in 2011 as one of 150 Women who shake the world.

In 2013 Glamour magazine (Russia) named her a woman of the year in the best social project category. In 2020 Marina was named by the The Moscow Times among women to watch in 2021. In 2021 she received a Hillary Rodham Clinton Award from the Georgetown Institute for Women Peace and Security. She is featured in Speak Truth to Power, a book by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo  and in the documentary play SEVEN.