Charlotte Abaka is the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights in Liberia, a post she has held since October 2002. Dr. Abaka was a Member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) from 1991-2002, and was Chair of CEDAW from 2000-2002. She was a Consultant and Advisor to the World Health Organization for its 1999 International Conference on Tobacco and Health in Kobe, Japan. For five years (1989-2002) she served as Chair of the National Women's Machinery organization in Ghana and eleven years (1978-1989) as a Member of National Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, Ghana. Dr. Abaka served as Chairperson of UN Expert Meeting on the Critical Area of Women's Health in Tunis in September-October 1998. She is a dental surgeon based in Ghana.
Philip Alston is Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, at New York University Law School. He is Chairman of the Board of the NY-based Center for Economic and Social Right and Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of International Law. He chaired the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 1991 to 1998 and prior to that was the Committee's Rapporteur from its inception in 1987 until 1990. He is currently Special Advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the Millennium Development Goals.
José Ayala-Lasso became the first UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on April 5, 1994. He resigned on March 15, 1997 following his appointment as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador. As Foreign Minister, Mr. Ayala-Lasso piloted the negotiations which led to the peace accords between Ecuador and Peru, signed on October 26, 1998. The treaty ended one of the longest border disputes in Latin America. He has served as his country's ambassador to Peru, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Holy See and France, and was Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations. He was Foreign Minister of Ecuador three times.
Theo van Boven is Professor of International Law at the University of Maastricht (Netherlands). He is also Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights on Torture. He served in earlier years as Director of Human Rights of the United Nations and has been a member of the UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Professor van Boven was the first Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Other functions include: Vice-President of the International Institute of Human Rights (Strasbourg) and member of the International Commission of Jurists (Geneva).
Andrew Clapham is Professor of Public International Law at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. He teaches international human rights law and public international law. He has been the Special Adviser on Corporate Responsibility to Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Before coming to the Institute in Geneva, he was the Representative of Amnesty International at the United Nations in New York. He is an academic associate member of Matrix Chambers in London. His publications include Human Rights in the Private Sphere (1993).
Larry Cox serves as Senior Program Officer for the Ford Foundation's Human Rights and International Cooperation unit, focused on international human rights issues and events. Prior to his role with the Ford Foundation, Mr. Cox was for five years Executive Director of the Rainforest Foundation, an international organization that works with indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon to protect their land and rights. With Amnesty International for fourteen years, he held a number of positions including Communications Director, Director of the Program against the Death Penalty and Deputy Director of Amnesty International USA. He also served for five years as Deputy Secretary General of AI's International Secretariat in London.
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr is the lead author of the Human Development Report 2002, "Deepening Democracy in a Fragmented World." She has been Director of this UNDP flagship publication since 1996 and has worked with Sir Richard Jolly, Amartya Sen and Mahbub ul Haq in leading the last eight annual reports covering diverse themes such as ‘Making New Technologies Work for Human Development (2001); Human Rights (2000); Globalization (1999) report "Making New Technologies Work for Human Development." She has written and spoken extensively on the human development approach to development, especially on technology and development, human rights, gender, and poverty. She is editor of the Journal of Human Development.
Emilio Garcia Mendez is Chair of Criminology University of Buenos Aires. From 1985-1990, Professor Garcia Mendez was a researcher in the field of Criminology and Juvenile Delinquency at UNSDRI in Rome. After three years as UNICEF project officer in Brazil (1990-1993), Professor Garcia Mendez was appointed as Regional Advisor on Child Rights for Latin American and the Caribbean at UNICEF (1993-1999). Professor Garcia Mendez has researched and written extensively on child rights with special reference to juvenile delinquency. His publications include: "Infancia, ley y Democracia en America Latina", "Derecho de la Infancia Adolescencia en America Latina", "Adolescents and Penal Responsibility", Ed. Ad-Hoc, Buenos Aires, 2001.
Roy Gutman has been a reporter for more than three decades, focusing on East-West relations, and is currently a Jennings Randolph Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and a Washington-based correspondent for Newsweek. From 1989 to 1994, he served as the Newsday European bureau chief, reporting on the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, the unification of Germany, and the violent disintegration of Tito's Yugoslavia. His reports on "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia-Herzegovina won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting (1993), the George Polk Award for foreign reporting, the Selden Ring Award for investigative reporting, the Hal Boyle award of the Overseas Press Club, the Heywood Broun Award of the Newspaper Guild, a special Human Rights in Media award of the International League for Human Rights, and other honors.
Louis Henkin is University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, Chair of the University's Center for the Study of Human Rights and Chair of the Human Rights Institute at Columbia Law School. Before his appointment as University Professor, Professor Henkin held chairs in Constitutional Law and, earlier, in International Law and Diplomacy. Professor Henkin served as law clerk to Judge Learned Hand and to Justice Felix Frankfurter, and was an officer of the United States Department of State before turning to academic life. Among various public and professional activities, he was the Chief Reporter of the Restatement of Foreign Relations Law of the United States (1979-87) and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of International Law (1978-84); from 1992 to 1994 he served as President of the American Society of International Law. Professor Henkin was a member of the Human Rights Committee, under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, from 1999-2002.
Harold Hongju Koh is Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law at Yale Law School, where he has taught since 1985. From 1998 to 2001, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Before coming to Yale, he practiced law at the Washington D.C. law firm of Covington and Burling and at the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. After receiving his law degree, Professor Koh served as law clerk to Judge Malcolm Wilkey of the D.C. Circuit, and Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Koh is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford and has been a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He is an Overseer of Harvard University and on the Visiting Committee of Harvard Law School, an Editor of the American Journal of International Law and a member of the American Law Institute.
Ian Martin is Vice President of the International Center for Transitional Justice. He has worked for the United Nations in various capacities, including as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the East Timor Popular Consultation, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, Special Adviser to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Chief of the UN Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda. He was Secretary General of Amnesty International 1986-92.
Gay McDougall* has been Executive Director of the Washington-based International Human Rights Law Group since September 1994. She has recently been awarded a coveted MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for her "innovative and highly effective" work on behalf of international human rights. In 1994, Gay McDougall served as a member of South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission that ran the first non-racial elections in that country. From 1997 to 2001 she served on the United Nations treaty body that overseas implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. She was the first American to be elected to the body of 18 international experts who oversee compliance by governments worldwide with the obligations established under the treaty.
Johanna Mendelson Forman is Senior Program Officer for Peace, Security and Human Rights at the United Nations Foundation. The United Nations Foundation is a private grant-making organization established through a gift of philanthropist, Ted Turner, to support the work of the United Nations. Before assuming that position, she served as a senior fellow at the Association of the United States Army's project on the Role of American Military Power in the 21st Century (RAMP) where she co-directed the project on Post-Conflict Reconstruction. She has held senior positions at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), where she managed the Agency's policy on post-conflict reconstruction, security, and governance. From 1997-1999 she served as Senior Social Scientist and Attorney at the World Bank's Post Conflict Unit. She also holds a faculty appointment at The American University's School of International Service in Washington, D.C. and at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and National Security Studies.
Vitit Muntarbhorn is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok) and is a Barrister (Middle Temple, London). He has helped the United Nations in various capacities. From 1990-4, he was Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, under the United Nations Human Rights Commission. He has been an Adviser/Consultant to a number of United Nations agencies, including OHCHR, UNESCO, UNDP and UNICEF. He chairs Thailand's National Sub-committee on the Rights of the Child which prepares the national report for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. He wrote Thailand's first report for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. He has published extensively. His latest book is: Dimensions of Human Rights in the Asia-Pacific Region (Bangkok: National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, 2002). He also helps various non-governmental organizations, such as FORUM-ASIA.
Bacre Waly Ndiaye* is Director of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, United Nations, New York Headquarters, a position he has held since 1998. He has been Special Rapporteur on summary executions at the United Nations since 1992, and a member of peacekeeping missions including the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Peru. In 1998, Mr. Ndiaye founded the Senegalese section of Amnesty International and was member of its international executive committee from 1985 to 1991. He was Founding Member of the Conference of French-speaking bar associations and of Union Interafricaine des Avocats. Mr. Ndiaye has been Secretary-General of the Senegalese Bar Association for over 10 years, the president of the Commission for the Reform of Legal Profession in Senegal and Commission of Ethical Legal Practice. He is a Member of the Board of Editors of the Yearbook on International Humanitarian Law (Aasser Institute) and of the International Council on Human Rights Policy.
Fionnuala Ni Aolain is Professor of Law at the University of Ulster (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and Distinguished Visitor at the University of Minnesota Law School (2002-04). She is a member of Ireland's Human Rights Commission, and a member of the Joint Committee of the Irish and Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissions as created by the Good Friday Agreement. She has previously been a faculty member at the Hebrew University Law School, Associate-in-Law at Columbia Law School, and Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School. She has published extensively in the areas of emergency powers, justice in transition, and conflict management.
Monica Pinto is Professor and Vice-Dean at the University of Buenos Aires Law School. She was a Visiting Professor at Columbia Law School during the Spring semester 2003. She has been Director of Studies at the Hague Academy of International Law (2000), and has taught at the University of Paris II (1997), University of Michigan School of Law (1988), Unitar Fellowship Programs (2001-2). Since 1997, Professor Pinto has been a member of the Executive Board of the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights. In 1993, she was appointed as an Independent Expert by the UN Secretary General on the Situation of Human Rights in Guatemala, a post she held until 1997. She has written numerous and articles and reports on both human rights and international law in various publications and legal periodicals. Her books include Human Rights, Selected Issues (1997), The Individual Petition System in the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (1993).
Mary Robinson is the Executive Director of the Ethical Globalization Initiative. She served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002 and as President of Ireland from 1990-1997. Before her election as President in 1990, Mrs. Robinson served as Senator, holding that office for 20 years. In 1969 she became the youngest Reid Professor of Constitutional Law at Trinity College, Dublin. She was called to the bar in 1967, becoming a Senior Counsel in 1980, and a member of the English Bar (Middle Temple) in 1973.
Mari Sandström was a journalist for major Swedish media (Swedish Broadcasting and Svenska Dagbladet) and other Nordic media before joining the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 1989. At UNHCR she held various positions, mainly in external relations: media relations, public awareness and resource mobilization. Three years ago she joined the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights to establish a resource mobilization function in the Office.
John Shattuck* is Chief Executive Officer of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. From 1993-1998, Mr. Shattuck served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In 1998 he was appointed as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Mr. Shattuck was head of the U.S. Delegation to the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights, which recommended to the U.N. General Assembly that it create the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Mr. Shattuck was at Harvard from 1984 to 1993, where he was Vice President for Government, Community and Public Affairs, also lecturing on civil liberties at the Harvard Law School and the Kennedy School of Government. From 1971-1984, Mr. Shattuck was Executive Director of the ACLU Washington office and national staff counsel. He is the author of Freedom on Fire: Human Rights Wars and America's Response, to be published by Harvard University Press in 2003, Rights of Privacy (National Textbook Company) and many articles on civil liberties, human rights, foreign policy, higher education and public service.
Elsa Stamatopoulou has worked in the human rights field at the UN for 21 years, including as Chief of the NY Office of the Center for Human Rights and as Deputy Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Currently on assignment from OHCHR as Acting Chief of the Secretariat of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Ms. Stamatopoulou has also worked as Senior Legal Advisor to the USG for Management. She has published and lectured extensively, including on women, indigenous peoples, minorities, victims, prevention of conflict and cultural rights. Founder of NGOs on children, on minorities and on indigenous peoples, she has received awards from various community organizations.
Rodolfo Stavenhagen, Research Professor of Social Sciences at El Colegio de Mexico, is Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights of Indigenous People of the United Nations Human Rights Commission and Vice-President of the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights. He has written extensively on indigenous peoples' rights, ethnic relations, agrarian issues and social development.
Sergio Vieira de Mello, a Brazilian national, has been United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights since September 2002. Prior to that, Mr. Vieira de Mello was a Special Representative to the Secretary-General and United Nations Transitional Administrator in East Timor (UNTAET) from late 1999 to May 2002. In his 33 year career with the United Nations, Mr. Vieira de Mello has served in numerous field and Headquarters postings including Sudan, Cyprus, Mozambique, Lebanon, the former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR) and as Special Representative to the Secretary-General ad interim in Kosovo in mid-1999. He has also served as Chef de Cabinet for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and as the UNHCR Special Envoy for Cambodia and Director of Repatriation with the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia from 1991 to 1993.
Oscar Vilhena Vieira is Professor of Constitutional Law and Human Rights at the Pontifical Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He is currently the Executive Director of Conectas Human Rights, coordinator of the Human Rights University Consortium (Catholic University of Sao Paulo, University of Sao Paulo and Columbia University) and coordinator of SUR - Human Rights University Network. He is a board member and a founder of the Pro Bono Institute; he was the Executive Director of ILANUD (United Nations Latin American Institute) and a researcher at the Center for the Study of Violence (University of Sao Paulo) and of the Brazilian Institute of Constitutional Law. He has been a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Human Rights of the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. He has published several books and articles on human rights, constitutional law and political theory. He is also a State Attorney of Sao Paulo, currently working in the consultancy sector.
