Barbara Unmüßig is President of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and studied political sciences at Freie Universität Berlin.

In 2000, she co-founded the German Institute for Human Rights (Deutsches Institut für Menschenrechte, DIMR), a human rights organisation, and has been on its board of trustees since 2001. In 2009, Unmüßig was made deputy chairperson of the DIMR board of trustees. She has also, since 2003, been a member of the advisory board of the environmental yearbook (Jahrbuch Ökologie). Since 2009, she has been a juror for the Helene-Weber-Preis, an award for young female municipal politicians initiated by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

Barbara Unmüßig regularly contributes to the strategy and programme debate of the German Green party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in fields such as gender policy and global governance.

From 1996 to 2001, she chaired the supervisory board of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and was elected president of the foundation in May 2002. She is responsible for its strategy and programme development for Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and for the Gunda Werner Institute for Feminism and Gender Democracy. Her work focuses on issues of globalisation and international climate policy, national and international gender policy, and the promotion of democracy and conflict prevention. In December 2006, she was elected to a second term as president.