Zenia Chrysostomidis is currently Head of the International Department at the Norwegian Center for Human Rights.
Trained as a career diplomat, she has held several positions in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including working on human rights issues at country level. After joining the Ministry in 2007, she was involved in the facilitation of the peace process in Sri Lanka. As a Senior Adviser, her portfolio included the peace processes in Syria/Libya, facilitation for Track II-projects supported by Norway, and research projects on peace and reconciliation issues. She has also been engaged in peace and security-related issues in Central Africa, in connection to the Norwegian seat at the UN Security Council.
In 2017, she coordinated the Oslo Forum, an annual global gathering widely regarded as the leading international mediation forum for conflict mediators, high-level decision makers and key peace process actors. She was Minister Councellor and Deputy Head of Mission at the Norwegian Embassy in Kampala in 2018-2020. She has also been posted to the Norwegian Consulate General in New York and the Norwegian Embassy in Hanoi. She holds a MSc in Nationalism and Ethnicity from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where she focused on conflict resolution issues and wrote her dissertation on the Sri Lankan civil war.