Milena Zajovic

Milena Zajovic holds an MA in Psychology and has 20 years of experience in advocacy, journalism, and communications.

She is the Head of Advocacy for the Border Violence Monitoring Network, a coalition of 14 NGOs monitoring human rights violations at the external borders of the European Union. Among the numerous publications she has written and co-edited, the most important are the two editions of the Black Book of Pushbacks, with over 3,000 pages of testimonies impacting more than 25,000 people on the move. The books were presented in the European Parliament in 2020 and 2022, and have been used extensively to advocate against harmful border policies.

Milena's activist background is in LGBTIQ+ issues - she was one of the organisers of the first Gay Pride in Croatia in 2002, and served for years as one of the leaders of the first Croatian LGBT organisation, Iskorak. Since 2015, she has led the Croatian advocacy and humanitarian NGO, Are You Syrious, and in 2020 she became one of the co-founders of a queer activist group, Ponosni Zagreb. She has won several awards for her activist efforts.

In addition to her human rights engagements, Milena works as the Editor of Culture in the Croatian daily newspaper Vecernji list, and serves as the curator of the Motovun Film Festival. She lives with her partner and dog in Zagreb, Croatia.