Olha Aivazovska

Aivazovska initially studied Ukrainian philology/anthropology and journalism at the National Bohdan Khmelnytskyi University in Cherkasy. In 2016, she completed the Democracy and Human Rights Programme at the Center for democracy, development, and the rule of law (CDDRL) at Stanford University in California as part of a Draper Hills Summer Fellowship that she was selected for. From 2020 onwards, she studied law at the Graduate Institute of the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.[3]

Aivazovska has participated in many leadership training programmes, including at the Aspen Institute in Kyiv and the Ukrainian School of Political Studies. The Ukrainian School of Political Studies is a joint project of the Legislative Initiatives Laboratory and the Council of Europe. It was launched in 2005 on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's accession to the Council of Europe. The USPS aims to educate and network in hopes of creating a culture of public policy in Ukraine committed to the principles of fairness, trust and dialogue.[4]

Since 2001, Aivazovska has been involved in monitoring elections in Ukraine to ensure their validity. From 2000 to 2004, she was head of the regional public youth organisation "Young Enlightenment" in Cherkasy. In 2006, she became a member of the all-Ukrainian non-governmental organisation OPORA. Since 2007 she has been editor-in-chief of the all-Ukrainian daily newspaper "OPORA's Point" and in 2009 she ascended to the role of chairperson of OPORA's[5] board of directors. She remains in this position as of 2022. Aivazovska led the election monitoring with roughly 25,000 activists in Ukraine and also participated in election monitoring in more than 10 distinct European countries.[6] According to the Ukrainian magazine Fokus, Aivazovska was on the list of the 100 most powerful women in Ukraine from 2014 to 2020 due to her position in political and social[7] life.[8][9][10]

Since 2018 she has been a member of the board of the International Renaissance Foundation. As chair of the board, she coordinates the OPORA network's political programmes in 89 countries and 9 regional members in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa. The organisations form this global network through non-partisan, community-based election observation activities to ensure the integrity of electoral processes, strengthen the accountability and provide scrutiny toward governments and political parties, reduce the potential for politically motivated violence and strengthen people's right to participate in government.[11][12]

From 2020, Aivazovska is the head of the board at the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors.[13]

On December, 6-8, 2022, Olha Aivazovska opened the 15th annual meeting on the implementation of the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation (DoP) with a speech about how different Ukraine is from Russia and why Ukraine needs to be supported.[14]

In February 2023, Olha Aivazovska together with NGO OPORA presented a document on the strategy of what measures should be taken against Russia to prevent the aggression from happening again At the Munich Security Conference.[15]

From 2016 to 2018, Aivazovska aided in negotiations on the settlement of the military conflict in the Donbas as an expert on the Ukrainian side in the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Olha Aivazovska, together with other Ukrainian civil society leaders Daria Kaleniuk, Olena Halushka, Hanna Hopko as well as Katarzyna Pisarska Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego established the International Centre for Ukrainian Victory (ICUV).[16][17][18][19] Olga is one of the main authors of the Manifesto for Sustainable Peace.[20]

The International Centre for Ukrainian Victory (ICUV) aims to bolster international backing for Ukraine in resisting Russian aggression, and foster stronger relationships between Ukraine's civil society and the global community. It also provides support to Ukrainian activists and NGOs, while actively promoting a post-war reconstruction plan for Ukraine, encouraging its transformation and advocating for its aspirations to join the European Union and NATO. Olga has made advocacy visits to Africa, Europe, the US, and the UK, and participated in international conferences. Also, Olha Aivazovska was a speaker at the Warsaw Security Forum 2022.[21]

Aivazovska has also become one of the chief advocates for a special tribunal against Vladimir Putin and his associates. She is also leading a program that aims to document war crimes by the Russian military by speaking with refugees in Poland.[22][23]