Daniela Chivu is a political scientist, businesswoman, and passionate defender of human rights, justice, and equality, with a focus on women’s and children’s rights. Born in Romania she immigrated to Canada in 1998. As a single mother, she obtained a degree in political science from Montreal’s Concordia University, majoring in Political Science – focusing on International Relations and International Security.
While passionate about promoting peace and understanding between nations and societies, as a student of Political Science. Daniela developed a deep understanding of the impact the relations between nations have on the promotion and advancement of human rights-particularly on equality between men and women, women peace and security, and on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls.
She served as president of the Political Sciences Student Association and Vice-President of Internal Affairs of the Model United Nations. Her dedication to promoting understanding between nations and societies was rewarded when she was selected to participate in the European International Model United Nations in The Hague.
Daniela also holds a Certificate in Business Administration (Queensland International Business Academy, Australia), a Certificate in Project Risk Management, and a Certificate in Airport Security. Daniela is fully trilingual in Romanian her mother tongue, English, and French. Additionally, she can work and communicate in Spanish and Italian, and she has a good understanding of Russian and Turkish languages, as she was raised in a multicultural and multifaith environment.
She has worked as a Field Operations Manager for the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a United Nations Specialized Agency giving her the opportunity to fully understand the UN processes and practices. This opportunity gave her the necessary skills to engage with high-level government representatives, and ICAO Council members, and participate in high-level Ministerial meetings and negotiations as part of the Technical Cooperation Bureau.
Daniela served as a Board member of the Montreal Council of Women from 2012 to 2013. Furthermore, she served as NCWC Convenor for Global Affairs, Immigration and Citizenship, Liaison-Women Peace and Security Canada, and NCWC’s representative to the UN CSW. She led the NCWC official delegation to the CSW since 2013 to date. In March 2019, she was also elected as a core group member one of Canada’s representatives to the Europe/North America Regional Caucus of Women UN NGO-CSW, serving to date. Since 2021, she has been the Chair of the Working Group on Geopolitics and Strategy Negotiations.
As a caucus core group member, she was instrumental in the establishment of Viena Café an informal virtual negotiation space between member states and civil society during the 66th session of the UN Commission on the Status Session. In March of 2023, Daniela initiated the first session Bringing UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) Home, in advance of CSW67 to address the importance of the Commission on women and girls rights, while promoting meaningful engagement between Canada’s all levels of governments.
As of June 2020, Daniela has been elected to serve as NCWC, Vice-President Justice while continuing to fulfill all the responsibilities listed above. As of March 2021, she has been the NCWC official delegate as part of Canada’s official delegation for CSW, in the newly established Rapid Response Task Force during the CSW negotiations.
Starting 19th September 2021, she is an active group member representing the voices of civil society, focused on the prevention of atrocities in Afghanistan and women and girls’ rights. This group has been established by the Association of Global Parliamentarians for Action and Montreal Institute for Human Rights and Genocide Studies composed of Parliamentarians, Academics, and Human Rights Advocates.
Daniela Chivu is happily married and has a daughter, and she lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
