Ereshnee Naidu-Silverman is the Executive Director of ICSC. Since joining ICSC in 2007, she has led the expansion of the organization’s regional networks across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), extending its reach to human rights defenders and victims’ organizations in post-conflict contexts globally. Her leadership in advancing ICSC’s memory and memorialization work culminated in the founding, in 2014, of the Global Initiative for Justice, Truth and Reconciliation (GIJTR), a program she co-created to pioneer ICSC’s multidisciplinary, trauma-informed, and survivor-centered approach to transitional justice and peacebuilding.
For Ereshnee, ICSC is the only organization she knows that approaches human rights, social justice, and peacebuilding through the lens of memory, art, and public history, issues that have always resonated deeply with her. Through ICSC’s programs, she has witnessed survivors reclaim their voices and sense of self by breaking their silence, and seen divided communities begin to heal and rebuild trust through dialogue and participatory arts. At ICSC, she has come to know firsthand the power of connection, community, and human resilience.
Born and raised in South Africa, Ereshnee’s work bridges arts, culture, justice, and human rights. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and two Master of Arts degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand, the first in Dramatic Arts and the second in Forced Migration Studies, and earned her PhD in Sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Outside of work, Ereshnee cherishes time with her son and delights in gathering friends and family through food and shared meals.
