Biographies of Participants - European Commission
Transcript of Biographies of Participants - European Commission
Biographies of Participants
Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights
Media Pluralism and Democracy
26-27 November 2018
Justice
and Consumers
Justice
and Consumers
The biographies were sent by the participants.
The European Commission is not responsible for the content.
ACHEN Christopher H.
Chris Achen holds the Roger Williams Straus Chair of Social
Sciences at Princeton University. His primary research interests are public opinion, elections, and the realities of
democratic politics. He is the author or co-author of six
books, including Democracy for Realists (with Larry Bartels)
in 2016, which has received widespread discussion and several awards. He has also published many articles. He is a
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and
has received fellowships from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the National Science Foundation,
and Princeton's Center for the Study of Democratic Politics.
He was the founding president of the Political Methodology Society, and he received the first career achievement award from The Political Methodology Section of The
American Political Science Association in 2007. He has served on the top social
science board at the American National Science Foundation, and he was the chair of
the national Council for the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) from 2013-2015. He is also the recipient of awards from the
University of Michigan for lifetime achievement in training graduate students and
from Princeton University for graduate student mentoring.
AFANASJEVA Sonja
Sonja Afanasjeva is policy officer in the Secretariat of the Young European Federalists (JEF Europe). Working closely with
the Executive Board, she carries out advocacy work towards
the European institutions and civil society, in Brussels and beyond, in order to further promote the idea of a free, united
and democratic Europe. She is currently working on the topic
of rule of law and shrinking space for civil society across the
EU.
Justice
and Consumers
AIGRO Kristen
Kristen holds expertise on youth and political participation in
both elections but also in society more broadly. A long time human rights activist and youth leader within civil society she
has campaigned for lowering the voting age and youth
turnout both in her native Estonia and on European level. The
European Youth Forum fights for youth rights and represents tens of millions of young Europeans.
ALEMANNO Alberto
Alberto Alemanno is an academic, author and politic activist.
He is internationally known for his scholarly and public interest work on the democratization of the European Union,
the use of law to advance the public interest, in areas such
as risk regulation, public health, consumer rights and food policy as well as legal education reform. He has developed
the theory of citizen lobbying to rethink representative
democracy in the national and transnational space. Alberto
Alemanno is Jean Monnet Professor in EU Law at HEC Paris since 2009, and also Global Clinical Professor of Law at New
York University School of Law and permanent Visiting
Professor at the University of Tokyo, School of Public Policy and at the College of Europe.
Justice
and Consumers
ALLEN Steven
Steven Allen is Co-Executive Director of the Validity
Foundation, which is an international non-governmental organisation which uses legal strategies to promote and
protect the human rights of persons with mental disabilities
worldwide. Mr. Allen leads Validity’s campaigns and advocacy
initiatives, representing the organisation before international organisations including the United Nations (where Validity
holds special consultative status at ECOSOC), Council of
Europe (where Validity holds participatory status) and at the European Union. Mr. Allen has directed and contributed to a number of large-scale
international projects. Recent examples include directing a major project on access
to justice for children with mental disabilities in ten EU member states (2013-14);
supervising the development of a human rights monitoring methodology focused on residential childcare institutions with Europe-wide applicability (2014-16); and
serving on the scientific committee of a project on access to justice for persons
with intellectual disabilities (2013-16). Mr. Allen holds an LLB (Hons.) from the University of London and is also pursuing postgraduate comparative research on
the legal systems which restrict or deny legal agency to vulnerable sections of
society.
ANAGNOSTOU Dia
Dia Anagnostou is Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics,
Department of Public Administration, in Panteion University of Social Sciences, and Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic
Foundation of European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) in
Athens (from September 2004 until present). She has held research positions at Princeton University (1999-2000), and
the European University Institute in Florence (2000-2001 as
Jean Monnet Fellow; January-February 2009 as Fernand
Braudel Fellow; and 2010-2012 as Marie Curie Research Fellow). Anagnostou is an expert on comparative politics,
minorities and migrant integration, as well as on human
rights and European governance institutions. She has extensive experience as coordinator or partner in several research projects funded by the European
Commission Framework Programs (6th, 7th, and H2020). She is the editor and co-
author of three books, and her articles have appeared in several book chapters and journals such as European Journal of International Law, Religion and Politics,
Journal of Law and Society, West European Politics, Southeast European Politics,
International Journal of Human Rights, Canadian Journal of Law and Society, and
European Public Law, among others.
Justice
and Consumers
APPLEBAUM Anne
Anne Applebaum is a columnist for the Washington Post and
a prize-winning historian with a particular expertise in the history of communist and post-communist Europe. She is
also a Professor of Practice at the London School of
Economics, where she runs ARENA, a research project on
disinformation and 21st century propaganda. She is the author of several books, including Red Famine: Stalin’s War
on Ukraine; Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe;
and Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. Both Gulag and Iron Curtain were nominated for
the National Book Award. Anne is a former member of the
Washington Post editorial board, a former deputy editor of
the Spectator magazine, and a former Warsaw correspondent of The Economist. She has lectured at many universities, including Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Oxford,
Cambridge, Zurich and Humboldt. She writes regularly for the New York Review of
Books, Foreign Affairs and many other publications.
ÅSHEDEN Ann-Marie
Journalist, author and book publisher. My journalistic
experience is mainly from the biggest daily morning newspaper Dagens Nyheter and a business magazine. My
books focus on media, media logic and propaganda. The
starting point of my writings today is my caring for the media’s very important role in a democratic society; I have
expressed this in several opinion articles lately.
Justice
and Consumers
ASTOLA Ms
Since 1 February 2016, Ms Astola is Director-General for
Justice and Consumers at the European Commission. The DG deals with civil justice, including contract and company law,
criminal justice, fundamental rights, including data protection
and free movement, equality and consumer law and policy.
Before joining the Commission, Ms Astola was Permanent
Secretary of the Finnish Ministry of Justice, with overall
responsibility for both international and domestic law matters, including courts and prisons. Prior to that, she
headed units responsible for civil law and European law at
the Department of Legislation of the Ministry and has also
worked for the Finnish Ministry of Finance and the Finnish Foreign Trade Association.
BALFOUR Rosa
Dr. Rosa Balfour is a Senior Fellow at the German Marshall
Fund of the US (PhD in International Relations and MSc in
European Studies London School of Economics, MA in History, Cambridge University). She has researched and
published widely on European politics and foreign policy, and
on the role of human rights and democracy in international relations. Current work focuses on the nexus between domestic politics and foreign
policy, especially between Europe’s democracy and its global role.
Rosa is also a member of the Steering Committee of WIIS-Brussels (Women In
International Security), an Associate Fellow at LSE Ideas, and a Senior Adviser to
the European Policy Centre. In September 2018 she was awarded a non-resident
fellowship on Europe’s Futures at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.
Among her publications are What are think tanks for? Policy research in the age of
anti-expertise, published by LSE Ideas in December 2017, http://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/research/updates/think-tanks, Europe’s Trouble-
makers. The populist challenge to foreign policy,
(http://www.epc.eu/documents/uploads/pub_6377_europe_s_troublemakers.pdf), a volume published Ashgate in 2015 (co-edited with Caterina Carta and Kristi
Raik), The European External Action Service and National Foreign Ministries.
Convergence or Divergence?, Human Rights and Democracy in EU Foreign Policy.
The cases of Ukraine and Egypt published by Routledge in 2012, paperback in 2014.
Justice
and Consumers
BARNARD Catherine
Catherine Barnard MA (Cantab), LLM (EUI), PhD (Cantab) is
Professor in European Union Law and Employment Law at the University of Cambridge, and senior tutor and fellow of
Trinity College. She specialises in EU law and employment
law. She is author of EU Employment Law (Oxford, OUP,
2012, 5th ed.), The Substantive Law of the EU: The Four Freedoms, (Oxford, OUP, 2016, 5th ed), and (with Peers ed),
European Union Law (Oxford, OUP, 2014). She advised the
government on the Balance of Competence Review and has done a lot of work with the EU institutions.
Currently, Catherine is a Senior Fellow in the ESRC’s UK in a
Changing Europe project where she is working with Dr Amy Ludlow on a project entitled: ‘“Honeypot Britain?” The Lived experience of working as an EU migrant in
the UK’. She is looking particularly at the question of migrant workers’ access to
benefits in the UK. Prior to the referendum much of her time was spent talking in town-halls across the UK, explaining in a non-partisan way what the EU was about,
as well as doing media work offering similar explainers. She has also been active
working with FullFact, a non-partisan, fact checking charity, fact checking claims about the EU.
BAUBÖCK Rainer
Rainer Bauböck is part time professor in the Global
Governance Programme of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. He is
corresponding member Austrian Academy of Sciences and
the chairs the Academy’s Commission on Migration and Integration Research.
In 2018/19 he is senior visiting fellow at the Lichtenberg Kolleg of the University of
Göttingen. From 2007 to 2018 he held the chair in social and political theory at the Department of Political and Social Sciences of EUI. His research interests are in
normative political theory and comparative research on democratic citizenship,
European integration, migration, nationalism and minority rights. Together with Jo Shaw (University of Edinburgh) and Maarten Vink (University of Maastricht), he
coordinates GLOBALCIT, an online observatory on citizenship and voting rights. His
most recent book is Democratic Inclusion. Rainer Bauböck in Dialogue, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2017.
Justice
and Consumers
BAYANI Rachel
Rachel Bayani is Representative of the Baha'i International
Community’s Regional Office in Brussels, having joined the office in 2013. Since 2004, Ms. Bayani has worked as a
justice and home affairs counselor for the Permanent
Representation of Luxembourg to the European Union,
dealing mainly with asylum and migration issues. Prior to that, she served in Bosnia-Herzegovina with the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees and with the peacekeeping
mission there. Ms. Bayani has also served with the EU’s police mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina and with the UN good offices mission in
Cyprus, dealing with legal affairs. A citizen of Luxembourg, Ms. Bayani holds a law
degree from the University of Sorbonne in Paris and a Master’s in international law
from Cambridge University.
BELLANOVA Rocco
Rocco Bellanova is post-doctoral researcher at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He holds a double PhD in Political &
Social Sciences and in Law, which has been awarded in 2014
by the Université Saint-Louis-Bruxelles and the Vrije
Universiteit Brussel. Between 2013 and 2016 he has worked at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). His research
mainly focuses on European data-driven security practices
and the role played by data protection in their governance. He is part of the research team of the European Research
Council-funded project FOLLOW: Following the Money from
Transactions to Trial (www.projectfollow.org, grant number: CoG – 682317, led by Prof. Dr. Marieke de Goede, UvA). His
work sits at the intersection of politics, law and science & technology studies.
Justice
and Consumers
BELLIN Alexandra
Alexandra is currently doing a Master´s degree in International
Relations at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Before joining the EU Office of International IDEA for her end-of-studies
internship, she had previous experience in the European
Institution´s environment. Indeed, she joined for six month as
an intern the Political, Press and Information Service of the EU Delegation in Mauritius, and then the European Centre for
Electoral Support in Brussels as a Junior Project Officer for a
period of six month as well. Alexandra´s main fields of interests are regarding the EU Development policies,
specifically about elections, gender, environment and
democracy building.
BEUS Helena
Helena Beus is Head of Government Office for Cooperation
with NGOs. She graduated Faculty of Philosophy -
Pedagogical Sciences in Zagreb and previously has been working as a Head of Department for Youth in the City of
Zagreb Office for Education, Culture and Sport. Her
responsibilities included: - activities related to the development, monitoring and implementation of youth
programs, encouragement of activities and monitoring of
activities from the City Youth Program, preparation of expert backgrounds for the establishment and opening of
youth/information centers, youth clubs and other forms of
youth activities, analysis and expert materials from the scope of the Department -
participation as a member of the working bodies of the Mayor and the parent committees at the City Assembly of the City of Zagreb - Participation in
Commissions/Commission for Direct Granting of Funds to Associations and Other
Civil Society Organizations, Commission for Public Call for One-Time Financial Support to Associations - participation in the drafting of strategic documents, the
Youth City Program of the City of Zagreb from 2015 to 2018, urban policies and
coordination at the drafting of the Competition at the level of city administrative bodies, and drafts of national strategic documents - correspondence and
coordination with representatives of civil society organizations as well as with other
state administration bodies - registration and participation in EU tenders as project
leader as Head of Department for Youth of the City of Zagreb.
Justice
and Consumers
BISERKO Sonja
BA in Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of
Belgrade, 1970; Diplomatic Course
1995 Chairperson of the Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights in Serbia. (Among the founders of the European
Movement in Yugoslavia /1991/, the Center for Anti-war Action /1991/, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in
Serbia /1994/ and the Forum for International Relations
/1996/. Worked on a variety of civil and human rights programs /Helsinki Watch, Lawyers Committee for Human
Rights, UN Center for Human Rights, Mazowiecki's mission
and the Tribunal in The Hague/. Participated in a number of
international conferences focused on regional crises and conflicts /Verona Forum, Search for Common Ground, Washington, D.C., etc./. Organized the first opposition
meeting in the former Yugoslavia /Geneva. 1991/.
BISHOP Julie
Julie Bishop is Director of the UK Law Centres Network (LCN),
a post that she has held for 10 years.
The Law Centres Network is the national membership body for Law Centres. A Law Centre is an independent not-for-
profit law practice. Law Centres want everyone to have equal
access to justice. They target their services at the poorest and most disadvantaged people in their communities. Law
Centres use their legal skills to tackle the root causes of poverty and disadvantage.
Prior to LCN, Julie was Director of the National Association of Community Legal Centres in Australia for over 5 years and worked in the legal aid sector in Australia
at community level for almost 20 years.
Julie’s professional training is in IT. It was as an IT consultant that Julie first worked in legal aid. Before IT, Julie studied and taught Philosophy at the University
of Sydney.
Julie is a Board member of 3 Charities, was a Commissioner on the Bach
Commission on Access to Justice, has sat on other Committees of Inquiry, and
provides evidence to parliamentary committees.
Justice
and Consumers
BOULANGER Marie-Hélène
European Commission
Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers Head of Unit – Union Citizenship rights and free movement
Marie-Hélène Boulanger started her career working 6 years in
the field of data protection with Professor Poullet at the University of Namur. She then joined the Belgian Data
Protection Authority where she spent more than 5 years, for
2 years of which she was the secretary of this authority. She subsequently joined Directorate-General Internal Market of
the European Commission as a national expert with the data
protection unit. Following that, she transferred to the unit responsible for large
scale IT systems of the Directorate General of the European Commission in charge of Justice and Home affairs, where she has been responsible for the legal team of
the unit and also specialised in the policy aspects of the Schengen Information
System. Between September 2009 and June 2014, she was heading the data protection unit in charge among others of the reform of EU data protection law.
Since July 2014, she is the head of the unit in charge of citizenship rights and free
movement. Between October 2016 and Easter 2017, she was acting Director of the Equality and Union citizenship Directorate.
BOZKURT Emine
Emine Bozkurt is Chair of the Board of Advisers at International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral
Assistance). In her daily life she works as director human
rights policy at Amnesty International in the Netherlands. From 2004 till 2014 she represented the Netherlands as a
Member of the European Parliament, where she worked on
migration and asylum policies and civil rights, including
women’s rights in Turkey, partly in view of its EU candidate membership. A passionate advocate of human rights, she was appointed chairperson of the cross
party Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup of the European Parliament. She
managed right before the World Cup in 2006 to get an influential resolution against racism in football voted by the European Parliament. Together with FC Barcelona,
UNESCO, local authorities and young people, Bozkurt organized a project about
youth and the fight against racism. In 2014 she was appointed by His Majesty the King of the Netherlands Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Justice
and Consumers
BRICMAN Alina
Alina Bricman is the elected president of the European Union
of Jewish Students (EUJS) since August 2017. She studied Political Science in the National School of Political and
Administrative Studies in Bucharest and at the Central
European University in Budapest. She grew up in Bucharest,
where she attended the Lauder-Reut Educational Complex and was one of the youth coordinators of the Bucharest
Jewish community. She worked for the public relations
department of the Representation of the European Commission in Romania and for the Median Research Centre,
a Romanian civil society NGO focused on civil engagement and combating
xenophobia. Before taking over her current role, Alina volunteered and then served
as EUJS Program Officer in the 2015-2017 period.
BROGI Elda
Elda Brogi is the Scientific Coordinator of the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the European
University Institute (EUI) in Florence and EUI Research
Fellow. She also teaches Communication Law at the
University of Florence.
She holds a degree in Law (University of Florence), a Ph.D. in
Public Law and Constitutional Law (University La Sapienza, Rome) and she is an Italian qualified lawyer.
She has recently served as a member of two expert committees at the Council of Europe: the Committee of experts on media pluralism and transparency of media
ownership (MSI-MED) in 2016-2017 and the Committee of experts on protection of
journalism and safety of journalists (MSI-JO) in 2014-2015.
At the CMPF she coordinates and supervises the implementation of the Media
Pluralism Monitor (http://cmpf.eui.eu/media-pluralism-monitor/).
Justice
and Consumers
BROOME Julie
Julie Broome is Director of Ariadne, a network of European
funders supporting social change and human rights. From 2009 to 2016, she worked at the Sigrid Rausing Trust, where
she held a number of posts, including Head of Human Rights,
before becoming Director of Programmes in 2014. Before
joining the Trust she was Programme Director at the CEELI Institute in Prague, where she was responsible for conducting
rule of law-related trainings for judges and lawyers from
countries undergoing transition. Previously, she was a Programme Manager for Central and Eastern Europe with the American Bar
Association’s Rule of Law Initiative, and a Programme Associate at the Henry M
Jackson Foundation in Seattle.
BUISSERET Philip
Philip Buisseret is the Secretary General of the Council of Bars and Law Societies in Europe, the CCBE. After obtaining
his law degree Philip started his career in the financial sector.
He moved to the advocacy and lobbying world and has
managed since 20 years representative organisations, at national as at European level, both professional
organisations – notaries and lawyers - as industry
organisations – in the alcohol sector as well as in packaging and construction materials. He is heading the CCBE
secretariat for more than 3 years now.
Justice
and Consumers
BUQUICCHIO Gianni
He was awarded in Doctor of Law cum laude at Bari
University in 1968 where he lectured in international public law until 1971.
He joined the Council of Europe in 1971. During his
professional career (1971-2009), he was responsible for a number of intergovernmental committees dealing with
administrative law, international law, free movement of
persons, data protection, etc. He contributed to the harmonisation of European law by preparing a large number of international treaties and recommendations. He
was also responsible for the Conferences of European Ministers of Justice and for
the Legal Advisor and Treaty Office of the Council of Europe.
He contributed to the successful establishment (1990) and the development of the
European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) by
ensuring the conception and follow-up of projects concerning constitutional reforms and the setting up of democratic institutions within Europe and beyond.
At the end of 2009, he retired from the Council of Europe and was elected President of the Venice Commission.
CALDARELLI Guido
Guido Caldarelli is Full Professor in Theoretical Physics. He got his degree in the University of Rome Sapienza and the
PhD in SISSA Trieste. After postdoc in university of
Manchester and TCM Group at Cavendish Laboratory in University of Cambridge he came back to Italy in 1998.
Expert of Complex Networks he published 3 books on the
topic with Oxford University Press, coordinated three
European Projects and wrote about 200 papers on the application of statistical physics to real-world cases as
financial and social networks. He is presently working with
the Commission on a preliminary observatory on fake news. More information and papers are available at:
http://www.guidocaldarelli.com
Justice
and Consumers
CALDERARO Andrea
Dr. Andrea Calderaro is the director of the Centre for Internet
and Global Politics, and a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Cardiff University. He holds his PhD in Political Sciences
from the European University Institute. His work centres on
Internet and International politics, with a particular focus on
internet governance, cybersecurity, cyber capacity building, telecom reforms, and the role of the EU in the global internet
policy debate. His publications are clustered around these
issues, including the co-authored forthcoming book “Cybersecurity Policy and Governance in the European Union” (Routledge).
Dr. Calderaro serves as consultant for the European Commission, EU Parliament,
Italian Parliament, UK House of Lords, UK Cabinet, German Government, UNESCO, and the OECD. In particular, he has served as Member of the Scientific Board of the
Global Internet Policy Observatory (GIPO) for the EC/DGCNect, as Board Member of
UNESCO’s “Internet Universality Indicators” Program, and as Member of the Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council (CSISAC) at OECD. As a member of
“EU Cyber Capacity Building Task Force” (DG DevCo/EUISS) Dr. Calderaro has
contributed to design the "Operational Guidance for the EU’s international cooperation on cyber capacity building " (2018), setting the EU strategy for
developing governance models of cyber strategies. Email:
[email protected] Twitter: @AndreaCalderaro
CARRERA Sergio
Dr. Sergio Carrera is Senior Research Fellow and Head of
Justice and Home Affairs Programme at CEPS. He is also Part-Time Professor at the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) in
the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence (Italy).
Carrera is involved in the coordination of the EUCITZEN
(European Citizenship) network of academic experts of the European Commission (DG Justice).
Carrera is Visiting Professor at the Paris School of
International Affairs (PSIA) at Sciences Po (France), Associate Professor/Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of
Law in Maastricht University (The Netherlands), and
Honorary Industry Professor at the School of Law in Queen Mary University of London (UK).
His main research interests are on EU justice and home affairs (JHA) law and Area
of Freedom, Security and Justice policy, with particular focus on migration, asylum,
citizenship and Schengen policies. His areas of expertise also cover EU criminal justice law and police cooperation, and their impact on data protection/privacy and
the rights of the defence.
Justice
and Consumers
CARUANA Katia
Katia Caruana is engaged in the Malta Public Service and
currently serving duties as Director (Justice) of the Department of Justice within the Ministry for Justice, Culture
and Local Government of Malta, since 2015. She previously
served for 13 years at the Office of the Chief Justice and
President of the Court of Appeal of Malta as Private Secretary, administering the Chief Justice’s Secretariat. She
started her career in the Public Service at the Office of the
Attorney General of the Republic. She has served, or serving, duties as Chairperson and as Member on various
Government appointed Boards and Committees, whether ad hoc, or otherwise
accordingly, and on Intra and Inter-Ministerial Task Forces set up for specific
purposes. She graduated with a Bachelor with Honours in Communications Studies and
Psychology from the University of Malta (UoM) in 2002, having previously delved
into law for one year. She continued post graduate academic and professional training in Gestalt Psychotherapy and qualified as Gestalt Psychotherapist in 2012.
She obtained a Master Degree in Gestalt Psychotherapy in 2016.
While exploring other avenues, she had explored photography, which she took as a pastime and had produced some work for which she received a few awards and
honours.
Her main interest nowadays is the justice sector in a multi-disciplinary approach
context.
CHAMPEAUX Camille
Camille Champeaux a étudié la science-politique, à Paris et
aux Etats-Unis et travaille depuis bientôt 7 ans au CRID
(Centre de Recherche et d’Information pour le
Développement). Dans ce cadre, elle a beaucoup travaillé sur la question des migrations internationales et se penche
depuis plus récemment sur tout ce qui touche aux questions
de criminalisation des mouvements sociaux, notamment via le collectif On Ne Se Taira Pas qui dénonce la pratique des
poursuites-baillons.
Justice
and Consumers
CHARLIER Patrick
Work for Unia since 2001 (Center for Equal Opportunities and
Opposition to racism which became in 2014 the Interfederal Equal Opportunities Center).
Director since 1 February 2016 (member of direction with Els
Keytsman) after several positions in the organization
(coordinator, law advisor, …) Lawyer and Director at the Human Rights League – Belgium
FR (Ligue des droits de l'Homme 1992-2001).
Mandates
Member of the Management board of the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA
2010-2015)
Alternate member at the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI 2007-2017)
Member of the Management Board of Equinet since 2015
Lawyer – (UCL Louvain-la-Neuve 1991)
DE BUIS Ciairín
Ciairín de Buis is the CEO of Women for Election, a non-
partisan independent organisation that inspires and equips women to succeed in political life. Women for Election wants
to see a gender balanced political system and provides
training and support for women interested in taking the next step in political life. Women for Election will be training 1,000
women in advance of the Local and European elections next year.
Ciairín is a board member of Sonas (Freedom from Domestic Violence) and was
previously a member of the Parole Board. Having joined Women for Election earlier this year, Ciairín previously headed up Start Strong, a children’s rights advocacy
organisation focused on children’s early years and has a wide range of advocacy
and policy experience.
Justice
and Consumers
CLARKE Pat
Pat Clarke is the Vice President of the European Disability
Forum and President of European Down Syndrome Association. He is retired as Chief Executive of Down
Syndrome Ireland and Past- President of Down Syndrome
International.
His son, David, aged 37 has Down syndrome. Pat is immediate past Chair of the Disability Federation of
Ireland and has served on the boards of the Children Rights
Alliance Ireland and on the governing body of the International Disability Alliance. He was a member of the
Council of Europe Committee which investigated the
involvement of persons with disabilities in political and public
life. He has worked with the International Foundation on Electoral Systems (IFES) and the OSCE/ODIHR on issues relation to the inclusion of
persons with disabilities in political life and the monitoring of this participation.
His involvement with the European Disability Forum, the International Disability Alliance and the Disability Federation of Ireland gives him a pan disability
perspective on all the issues.
He has been a long-time advocate for the full inclusion of people with Down syndrome in particular and all people with disabilities in general in society at every
level.
COICA Alexandru
Alexandru Coica possess a 12 years working in non-profit
sector, donor institutions, public policies (including advocacy
and external relations), social campaigns at national, European and global levels. Recently he spend 1,5 years in
Asia working for a global organization and now is back to
Europe where he works as Eastern Partnership Coordinator
for European Association for Local Democracy. Alexandru’s career in CSO sector started by his active
engagement in youth organisations. For about six years he
was focused on lowering voting age to 16 years, promotion of Youth Right and advocated for the need of a Convention on
Youth Rights.
Currently, Mr. Coica focuses his work on strengthening local democracy, local
development and promotion of community engagement in seven countries from
Caucasus and Eastern Europe.
Overall, Alexandru Coica has positive working experience in multi-cultural
environments and multi-national teams gained while being an expat, but also
during different missions in approximately 50 countries (mostly Europe, Middle East, Asia and USA). For more details, on Mr. Coica’s expertise, please visit
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandru-coica/
Justice
and Consumers
COLLINS Dr Evelyn
Dr Evelyn Collins CBE has been Chief Executive of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland since March 2000.
Evelyn is a law graduate of Sheffield University, and has
Masters’ degrees from University of Toronto (Criminology)
and Queen’s University Belfast (Human Rights and Discrimination Law). In July 2014, the University of Ulster
awarded Evelyn the honorary degree of Doctor of Law (LLD)
for her contribution to the promotion of equality and good relations.
Evelyn is currently Chair of the Board of Equinet, the
European Network of Equality Bodies and a member of the European Commission’s Advisory Committee on Equal
Opportunities between Women and Men.
CONSTANTINESCU Ms.
Ms. Constantinescu is a Romanian legal expert actively
working for a more favourable environment for civil society
organizations for over 20 years. She started as a lawyer and since 2011 served as Head of Development and Advocacy for
Civil Society Development Foundation. She managed grant-
making programmes involving more than 250 NGOs and has been engaged in major advocacy campaigns for improving
the legislation. She led or was part of some dozens of
working groups on legislative changes affecting the third sector, either as legal writer, researcher, spokesperson or
advocate for change at Romanian and international level.
Since 2018, Ms. Constantinescu is member of Expert Council on NGO Law, Council
of Europe.
Justice
and Consumers
CRNJANSKI Vukosava
Vukosava Crnjanski is a founder and director of the NGO
CRTA whose work focuses on the establishment of innovative and practical mechanisms and tools for citizen engagement in
advocacy for an open, accountable and democratic
government in Serbia.Vukosava has broad experience in
supporting democracy through public education about accountability and empowering civic engagement in decision
making. She acquired extensive knowledge, understanding
and expertise in fostering democratization through successful leadership and management of CRTA’s advocacy initiatives focused on:
independent civic election observation of parliamentary, presidential and
local elections in Serbia,
fact-checking, accountability journalism, media monitoring and disclosure of fake news and misinformation in media and digital sphere,
parliamentary oversight and advocacy for institutional accountability and
openness. Vukosava received the international recognition for innovation, commitment and
contribution to democracy through the W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award,
awarded by the National Democratic Institute in 2013, and in the capacity of CRTA’s Director OSCE Democracy Defender Award for 2018.
CURRAN Noel
Noel took up the role of Director General of the EBU in September 2017.
Noel is the former DG, Managing Director of Television and
Editor of Current Affairs of RTÉ, Ireland's national television and radio broadcaster. As Director General he successfully
led RTÉ during one of of the most financially challenging and
competitive periods in media history.
A strong and long-time advocate of public service media, Curran is also an award winning investigative journalist and
Producer. As an Editor and Producer, Noel's programming
won numerous awards for journalism in Ireland and internationally.
He was also Executive Producer on a range of live television
events, including the Eurovision Song Contest in 1997, general election coverage, live entertainment series and factual programming.
Noel attended Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied European Broadcasting
Policy and graduated from Dublin City University In Communication Studies,
specialising in national and international broadcasting policy and writing a thesis on the role of Public Service Broadcasting.
He is currently Adjunct Professor of Journalism at Dublin City University.
Noel is married to the singer and former Eurovision Song Contest winner Eimear Quinn and they have two daughters.
Justice
and Consumers
CZEŚNIK Mikołaj
Professor Mikołaj Cześnik is a sociologist and political
scientist. He works at the SWPS University, Warsaw. He serves as Director of the Institute of Social Sciences, and
Associate Dean for Academic Development (at the Faculty of
Arts and Social Sciences). He is also a member of the Board
of the Stefan Batory Foundation. His research interests include voting and political behaviour, public opinion,
elections, democracy and democratic transitions. He is a
member of the Polish National Election Study team. At the SWPS University he teaches political science, with the focus
on elections, voting behaviour and democracy. He regularly
appears in the media as a commentator of the political life in
Poland.
DADAK Agnieszka
Agnieszka Dadak, author and international projects manager
(PMP Certificate by Project Management Institute). Over 10
years of experience at multi – partner, international projects
co-financed from external funds (Norwegian Financial Mechanism; “Life Long Learning” Programme; EQUAL CI;
Europe for Citizens; Rights, Equality, Citizenship; Erasmus+)
in the fields of: building clusters, educational mobility, vocational development & re-training of mature workers,
culture field initiatives supporting, empowering democracy.
Author of several methodologies in HR management. 12 years of experience at designing curricula, organizing and
leading trainings & workshops – workshop trainer
recommended by Association of Psychological Help
„Integracja” (recommendation no. 31). Has been working as vocational advisor and coach. Since 2002 cooperates with the 3rd sector
organizations as a trainer, project coordinator, language teacher and adviser.
Master of Psychology (The Jagiellonian University); has graduated from post – diploma studies „European Project Management” (The University of Economics in
Katowice); has also graduated from post – diploma studies in Stockholm
(“Socialpedagogiskt ungdomsarbete”, Tollare folkhögskola) in the frame of The Swedish Institute scholarship – Visby Programme. 2011-2015: one of the founders
and Board member of Baltic Network for Adult Learning. Founder and President of
the Board of The Foundation of Alternative Educational Initiatives.
Justice
and Consumers
MARIĆ Darija
Darija Marić is a Government Advisor in Department of
Strategic Planning, Programming and Informing of the Government Office for Cooperation with NGOs in Zagreb,
Croatia with a degree in sociology and a previous long
experience of working in NGO sector. Currently she is
primarily working on creation, implementation and evaluation of National Strategy for the Creation of An Enabling Environment for the Civil
Society Development and activities regarding Open Government Partnership (OGP)
since the Government Office is a Contact Point of OGP in Croatia. She is a member of numerous expert working groups for drafting laws and policies as well as a
member of evaluation committees for programs and projects financed from national
public sources and EU funds. Sha also has experience of being a short-term expert
in the Twinning Light Project which experts from the Government Office for Cooperation with NGO's are implementing with the General Secretariat of the
Government in Macedonia.
DASTOLI Pier Virgilio
1. Professional Career
Journalist (1972) and Lawyer (1973)
Personal Assistant of Altiero Spinelli in the Italian
Parliament (1977-1979) and in the EP (1977-1986) Special Advisor of the Italian Government in the Dooge
Committee (1984-1985)
Head of the EC Representation in Italy (2003-2009) Special Advisor of the Italian Conference of Presidents of
Regions for the European Affairs (2010)
Jean Monnet Professor in History of European Integration in the Italian Universities (1990-2003)
Professor of renown in International Law - University for Foreign Students
“Dante Alighieri” (2016-2019)
President of the Master in European Politics - International University Uninettuno in Rome (2009-2019)
Senior Fellow of the School of Economic Policy- LUISS in Rome (2015-….)
2. Principal voluntary activities
General Secretary of the IEM (1995-2002)
President of the Italian Council of European Movement (2010-2021) Member of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development and of the EU
Steering
Group “Ambition 2030”
Member of the Spinelli Group Steering Committee
Justice
and Consumers
DCUNHA Christian
Christian is the Head of the Private Office of the European Data Protection Supervisor. He has led work on strengthening the links between the enforcement of
privacy, competition and consumer as well as being responsible for EDPS opinions
on a range of issues, including digital ethics and EU data protection reform. Whilst
at the European Commission, Christian drafted and negotiated the EU’s first internal security strategy and evaluated and reviewed of the data retention
directive. Previously, Christian was an advisor on senior judicial appointments in
England and served for several years as private secretary several UK cabinet ministers.
DE GROOT Gerard René
Gerard René de Groot (25 August 1951 Stadskanaal (Onstwedde), Netherlands) is emeritus Professor of
comparative law and private international law at Maastricht
University (1988-2017) and Professor of private law of the University of Aruba (West Indies) (since 2007). He was
visiting Professor in Tokyo (Japan) and Liège (Belgium). He is
inter alia Co-director Maastricht Centre for Citizenship,
Migration and Development (MACIMIDE) (since 2014); Founding member of Dutch Association for the Study of Islamic law (RIMO) (since
1982); Board Member (1984) and Chair of the Dutch Association of Comparative Law
(since 2014) and Board member (1982) and since 2001 chairperson of the Dutch-German Lawyers Association. He is Member of the Committee of Experts of the
Council of Europe monitoring the implementation of the European Charter for the
protection of regional and minority languages (since 2016). He also acted as Consultant of the Council of Europe and the UNHCR in the field of nationality law
and statelessness. He published more than 500 articles and books, inter alia in the
field of international family law, comparative law, citizenship law and on the
relationship between law and language.
Justice
and Consumers
DENES Balazs
Balazs Denes is a Hungarian lawyer and a human rights
activist. In 1997 he joined the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), the country’s leading civil liberties watchdog
organization, and after holding various positions he served as
its Executive Director from 2004 to 2012. From 2013 till
2016 he worked as the Director of the European Civil Liberties Project at the Open Society Foundations. From early
2017, he serves as the first Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Union for
Europe, a new European human rights watchdog organization. He focuses on civil liberties, human rights, communication and new forms of civic advocacy and
activism. Denes received his law degree in 1998 from ELTE University Budapest
and he is a 2003-2004 Columbia University/PILnet Fellow.
DI LILLO Francesco
Francesco Di Lillo opened the European Union Office of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brussels,
Belgium, on September 1, 2013. Prior to this assignment, he
worked at the Church’s European headquarters as Assistant
Area Director of Public Affairs. Before taking up these positions he gained some international experience in public
affairs and public information in Cyprus with the Italian
Embassy, the United Nations Development Program, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. With
UNHCR, Francesco monitored evacuation operations of civilians through the Port of
Larnaca, Cyprus, during the Israeli-Lebanese conflict of 2006. He graduated cum laude with a dissertation on the proactive use of media as tools for conflict
resolution and peacebuilding. Francesco is married and is the father of four
children.
Justice
and Consumers
DIVJAK Tina
Tina is the head of advocacy at CNVOS. She has been
working on different issues of NGO development from 2003. She has been focusing on enabling environment for NGOs –
legislation, public funding, public participation in policy-
making, transparency and accountability of NGOs. She has
authored or co-authored several analyses, studies and manuals in Slovenia and abroad (Western Balkan and Eastern
Partnership countries). She has worked as an expert for Council of Europe,
Regional Cooperation Council, TACSO, different ministries, etc. In 2018, she authored the study, commissioned by EESC, “The future evolution of civil society in
the European Union by 2030”.
DOGHI Dan Pavel
Dan Pavel Doghi was involved in human rights and civil
society work since 1996, through Roma NGOs in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, Romania, among them some that he
contributed to their establishment and development.
He helped developing and coordinating a Roma National Network of Roma organization while working in the Soros
Foundation spin-off Resource Center for Roma Communities
(2000-2003). Later on he was an Advocacy Fellow in the training and
education programme of the Public Interest Law Initiative, a Budapest-based
programme of Columbia University, where he worked on the issue of segregation in education of Roma children.
He then joined the OSCE as an officer in the ODIHR’s Contact Point for Roma and
Sinti Issues (CPRSI), during the period of 2004-2011.
After that, he was the Higher Education Program Manager of Roma Education Fund
(REF) in Budapest (2012-2017), managing the largest tertiary education scholarship program for Roma in the region, in 16 countries in Central and South-
Eastern Europe. While at REF, Dan was also the National Director of REF Romania's
Office, during 2013-2015.
During 2009-2016, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the European
Roma Rights Centre (ERRC).
Since March 2018, he re-joined the OSCE, as Chief of the CPRSI, Senior Adviser on
Roma and Sinti Issues.
Dan studied social sciences at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj Napoca, and
completed a postgraduate course in International Diplomacy at Malta University.
Justice
and Consumers
DOLAN Carl
Carl has worked at Transparency International EU since 2011
and became its director in 2013. He has previously worked in UK Research Councils, the European Commission and the
European Foundation Centre. He holds degrees in economics
and philosophy from University College Dublin (1991-97) and
studied and taught political philosophy at the University of Bristol (1999-2002).
DOMBOS Tamás
Tamás Dombos is an economist, sociologist and
anthropologist. He graduated from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration (now Corvinus
University of Budapest) in 2003 with an MA in International
Relations and Economics. Tamás received an MA in Sociology and Social Anthropology in 2004 from the Central European
University and is currently a PhD candidate in the same
department. Between 2001 and 2011 he worked as a researcher at the Center for Policy Studies at the Central
European University, conducting research on equal opportunity policies. From
2015-2017 he was a lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University teaching a course on
sexual minorities. He has been working for Háttér Society since 2007, first as a volunteer, then as a paid staff member coordinating several research, training and
advocacy projects. He is currently project coordinator at Háttér Society and the
Hungarian LGBT Alliance, hate crime training expert at the Faculty of Law Enforcement at the National University of Public Service, and researcher at the
Faculty of Law at the Eötvös Loránd University. Since 2012 Tamás has served on
the board of the national umbrella organization, the Hungarian LGBT Alliance, and since 2013 he has been a board member at Háttér Society.
Justice
and Consumers
DRATWA Jim
Jim Dratwa’s research and publications address the
interconnections between knowledge, values and action. He has served in several positions of great responsibility in that
regard at the European Commission, as member of BEPA (the
Bureau of European Policy Advisers to the President of the
European Commission), at the EPSC (the European Political Strategy Centre), in the Directorate-General for Education
and Culture and in the Directorate-General for Research and
Innovation. He heads the team tasked with Ethics in Science and New Technologies at the European Commission, he is the
Secretary-General of the EC International Dialogue on
Bioethics and the EC representative in the international organisations dealing with
the ethical implications of science and new technologies. Jim holds degrees in physics, philosophy, politics and the life sciences. He received the Fulbright Scholar
Award, was Harvard Boas Fellow, Ramón y Cajal Scholar, and was pre- and post-
doctoral Fellow at Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and with the
program on Science, Technology, and Society. He has taught at the Ecole des
Mines de Paris, Harvard University, and the universities of Brussels, where he is currently based. He is Invited Professor and Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson
Center, Washington, D.C.
DZSINICH Dr. Gergely (Greg)
Dr. Dzsinich is a lawyer and strategy professional in the fields
of cyber, privacy and intellectual property rights. He serves
as a board member of CyAN (Paris) and in this capacity, he is CyAN’s associated partner representative to EUROPOL’s
Cybercrime Directorate EC3 (The Hague). In 2018 he was
selected to be a high-level expert group member of the
European Commission (Brussels) regarding fake news/online misinformation. He has advised the Council of Europe regarding multiple countries. Greg holds an LL.M.
in info-communication law, he is a Certified Information Privacy Professional for
Europe and is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, IAPP (Portsmouth, USA), furthermore, the Budapest Bar Association. Greg is a
regularly invited multi-lingual presenter and university lecturer in cyber, privacy
and anti-counterfeiting.
Justice
and Consumers
ENWEREUZOR Udo C.
Udo C. Enwereuzor is a Senior Adviser on Migration,
Minorities and Rights of Citizenship at COSPE [Cooperation for the Development of Emerging Countries], an Italian NGO
engaged in the promotion and protection of human rights and
international cooperation.
With an academic background in the natural sciences, he has been engaged in research, consultancy and professional
training on equality and organisational change since 1991.
From 1998 to 2001, he served as an expert on the Commission for Integration Policies in the Department for
Social Affairs, Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italy. He
served also on the management board of the ENAR - European Network Against
Racism, from its foundation in 1998 until the end of 2002. From 2001 to the end of 2014, he served as coordinator of the National Focal Point
(NFP) for Italy of the RAXEN and FRANET networks, set up by the European
Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) and European Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). He is one of the founding members of the Italia chapter
of SOS Mediterranee, a European humanitarian organisation that works to save
lives of migrants in distress at sea through search and rescue operations (SAR) in the Central Mediterranean, with the ship Aquarius.
LUPIAÑEZ-VILLANUEVA Francisco
Francisco Lupiañez-Villanueva is Professor at Open University
of Catalonia and Open Evidence Director. His research field is
concerned with the social, economic, cultural and policy issues associated with information and communication
technologies, specially focussing on Innovative Technologies,
Networked Citizens, eGovernment, eHealth, eInclusion and elearning. Since 2001, he has applied social science methods
and techniques to a wide range of topics related to the
Information Society. From 2001 to 2003, he was assistant
coordinator of a multidisciplinary team of computer scientists, pedagogues, designers and authors to developing elearning
projects. He worked as a researcher under the supervision of
Prof. Castells. From 2010 till 2012 he was a Scientific and Project Officer at Information Society Unit -European Commission, DG Since 2013 as co-founder and
Director of Open Evidence he has designed questionnaire and performed
sophisticated multivariate statistic analysis on the data of the many multi-country surveys, laboratory experiments, and online experiments for several DGs. His most
recent studies are Study on the benefits and drawbacks of remote voting solutions
to support the preparation of a best practice guide for the use of digital tools to
facilitate the exercise of EU citizens' political rights, Study on the impact of the internet and social media on youth participation and youth work, Media Literacy
and Online Empowerment issues raised by Algorithm-Driven Media Services,
Behavioural Study on the Transparency of Online Platforms.
Justice
and Consumers
FRANK Nicola
Nicola Frank joined the European Broadcasting Union in
1998. In January 2009 she became Head of Public Affairs, and managing director of the EBU Brussels office.
She started her career in the European Commission in 1990
where she was responsible for an information and communication programme towards the Mediterranean and
the Near and Middle East. In 1996 she joined Media and
Entertainment International, the international federation of media and entertainment trade unions, as Deputy General
Secretary.
Nicola Frank was born in 1963. She took an M.A. in Islamic Studies, Modern History and French Literature. During her studies she worked as a radio free-lance
journalist.
FRUTOS Cristina
Cristina Frutos is the Head of European Operations at the Elections Business Unit in Indra.
She has more than 20 years of experience in the delivery of IT
solutions for National Electoral Agencies in three continents. Cristina has been project director of a number of high profile
elections processes delivered by Indra internationally, and has
been very successful in providing innovative solutions for elections, for instance in the UK and Norway.
She led the development of the portfolio of products and
services that the Elections Department at Indra currently offers to the market.
In her current role as Head of European Operations, Cristina is providing creative leadership to the team developing the new portfolio of services to strength elections
resilience. Her responsibilities involve an in-depth knowledge of the electoral
ecosystem and a trustful liaison with a variety of Government agencies, groups, institutions and other stakeholders involved.
Cristina Frutos has a BSc (Honors) in Physics (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid) and
a master’s degree on eBusiness (Instituto de Empresa, Madrid)
Justice
and Consumers
GALJUS Orhan
Vice President of the European Roma Union.
Director of the Radio PATRIN Network, active in establishing Romani media outlets. Head of the of international Roma
organisation and of the “Ian F. Hancock” Centre - Eurasian
Roma Academic Network. Member of the Roma Delegation to
India 2018. Kosovo-Indian Chamber of Commerce board member.
Worked for Partners for Democratic Change, Open Society Institute, INALCO University. He is interpreter from Romani to other languages.
Key voice of the Roma on the international scene. Main actor of the Romani
emancipation. Member of the Dutch Roma Working Group.
Chair, Roma journalists Task Force Group EBU-Eurovision. Received “Phralipe” award (Italy), THANKS award from Roma World Congress and
award Premio de Cultura Gitana 8 de Abril.
Them Romano(Italy) prized Orhan as overall winner of the competition Amico Rom for his documentary film “Broken Silence”.
On November 5th (The World Day of Romani Language) 2018, Orhan received Life
Prize for the contribution to the Romani language. Orhan writes poetry, and makes seed initiative on bio matters and social business
equality initiatives.
GERRITS Pepijn
Executive Director of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee.
Pepijn Gerrits joined the Netherlands Helsinki Committee
(NHC) in January 2016. He has extensive international background in democratic governance, democracy assistance
and development assistance around the globe. He has worked
for international NGOs, international organisations and in
consultancy and advisory roles. Before joining the NHC, Mr. Gerrits was the Director of
Programmes at the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty
Democracy (NIMD) between 2011 and 2015, overseeing NIMD’s programmatic development and implementation worldwide. Prior to that he held different other
functions at NIMD, including Regional Director for Europe, Asia & Latin America. From
2003 till 2005 he was responsible for the Democratic Governance Unit of the UNDP Country Office in the Dominican Republic.
Mr. Gerrits started his career as an Institutional Development Advisor for DHV
Consultants, a Dutch Consultants and Advisory firm. He holds a Masters degree from
Utrecht University in Cultural Anthropology and Latin America Studies.
Justice
and Consumers
GIANNAKAKI Maria
Maria Giannakaki, born and raised in Piraeus, studied Classical
Philology and Political Science at the University of Athens. She continued with her postgraduate studies in Paris (DEA in
History of Art, University of Sorbonne, and DEUG in Cultural
Management, Paris IX-Dauphine) and holds a Masters II
degree in Human Rights from the Robert Schumann University in Strasbourg. In 2000, she was admitted to the National
School of Public Administration, Department of
Communication Advisers and Attachés and started her career in public administration. Served at the Permanent Delegation of Greece to the Council of
Europe and the European Parliament between 2004 and 2009, with responsibilities
for press, communication and culture. From 2002 to 2012, she represented Greece
in dozens of European Union and Council of Europe committees, with a focus freedom of speech, human rights and audiovisual media.
Ms Giannakaki was elected MP in 2012. She has been a member of PACE and of its
Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination, as well as General Rapporteur on combating racism and intolerance.
In December 2016, she was appointed Secretary General for Transparency and
Human Rights of the Hellenic Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights.
GILMORE Ms. Kate
Kate Gilmore was appointed United Nations Deputy High
Commissioner for Human Rights on 1st December 2015. She brings to the position diverse and longstanding experience in
strategic leadership and human rights advocacy with the
United Nations, government and non-government organizations. Prior to joining OHCHR, Ms. Gilmore was
Assistant Secretary General and Deputy Executive Director for
Programmes with the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA). Previously she was National Director of Amnesty International Australia and then Executive Deputy Secretary
General of Amnesty International. Ms. Gilmore started her
career as a social worker and government policy officer in Australia. She helped establish Australia’s first Centre Against Sexual Assault at
Melbourne’s Royal Women’s Hospital and her work over a number of years focused
on prevention of violence against women. In Australia, she was granted honorary appointments to provincial and national public policy and law reform processes,
including membership of the country’s first National Committee on Violence Against
Women. Ms. Gilmore holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New
England and postgraduate degrees in Social Work from the University of Melbourne and Community Development from RMIT. Download print-quality photo.
Justice
and Consumers
GONNELLA Patrizio
Patrizio Gonnella is from 2005 president of Antigone. Antigone
is an association founded in 1991 with its national seat in Rome and branches in most Italian regions, which performs a
monitoring and information activity in the penitentiary field,
elaborates data and carries on research. From 2014 is also
President of the newly founded Italian Coalition for Civil Rights and Liberties (CILD), a second level organization gathering 35
associations with the aim of strengthening the activities of
advocacy and strategic litigation along the whole spectrum of human rights in Italy. He started his career as prison governor. He is professor of
Sociology of law at University Rome Three. He is member of Npm Observatory and
he was appointed expert of European Commettee for the Prevention of Torture. Since
1998 he has been regularly writing articles about prisons, human rights and justice for various newspapers. Since 2014 he has been keeping the blog “Civil liberties” for
the news website Espresso.repubblica.it. From 2010 to the present he has been
authoring and regularly intervening in the national radio program Jailhouse Rock on music and prisons. He wrote many books on human rights, criminal justice and prison
issues.
GRABBE Heather
Heather Grabbe is director of the Open Society European Policy
Institute in Brussels. From 2004 to 2009 she was senior
advisor to then European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn, responsible in his cabinet for the Balkans and Turkey.
Before joining the commission, she was deputy director of the
Centre for European Reform, the London-based think tank, where she published widely on EU enlargement and other European issues. Her
writing has appeared in the Financial Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal,
and The Guardian, among others. Her academic career includes teaching at the
London School of Economics, and research at Oxford and Birmingham universities, the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House, London), and the
European University Institute (Florence). Her publications include Defending EU
Values in Poland and Hungary (with Stefan Lehne, 2017, Carnegie Europe), The Closing of the European Mind – and How to Re-Open It, Can the EU Survive Populism?
and The EU's Transformative Power: Europeanisation through Conditionality in
Central and Eastern Europe (2006, Palgrave).
Justice
and Consumers
GYLFASON Thorvaldur
Thorvaldur Gylfason is Professor of Economics at the
University of Iceland and Research Fellow at CESifo (Center for Economic Studies) at the University of Munich. A Princeton
Ph.D., he has worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
in Washington, D.C., taught at Princeton, edited the European
Economic Review, consulted for international organizations, and published some 200 scholarly articles and 20 books as well
as 900 newspaper articles plus some 100 songs for voice,
piano, and other instruments as well as mixed choir. He was one of 25 representatives in Iceland‘s Constitutional Council in
session from 1 April to 29 July 2011, elected by the nation and
appointed by parliament to revise Iceland’s constitution.
HAJJI Khalid
President of Brussels Forum of Wisdom and World Peace Dr. Hajji´s Ph.D. is in Anglo–American studies. Paris-
Sorbonne: 1994
Dr. Hajji speaks Arabic, French, English, German. His fields
of interest and research: « Renewal of Islamic Discours »; « Muslims in Europe »; « Art and Religion »; « Geo-politics and
Geo-poetics ». He has supervised many researches on these
themes. Thinker and Writer. He has published dozens of Articles in
various magazines, newspapers and scholarly journals. Co-
Editor of Almunaataf (Quarterly scientific Arabic Magazine). Among his Books:
o Khalid Hajji. Lawrence d´Arabie ou l´Arabie de Lawrence: geographie,
politique, poetique, sagesse. (Paris: L´Harmattan, 2001)
o Khalid Hajji. Min maddaiiq al–Hadatha ila Fadai al–Ibdaa al–Islami wa al–
Arabi. (From the Narrowness of Modernity towards a New Space of Islamo–
Arabic Creativity) Arabic. (Beirut, Casablanca: Arab Cultural Institution, 2005)
o Khalid Hajji. Abderrahman wa al–Bahr (Abderrahman and the Sea). Novel in Arabic. (Beirut, Casablanca: Arab Cultural Institution, 2010). Translated
in German.
o Khalid Hajji, Islam-Occident: décloisonons nos cultures (Paris: CERF, 2018)
Justice
and Consumers
HALVORSEN Audun
Work experience:
2017: State Secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide. Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
2013–2017: Political Adviser to Minister of Defence Ine Eriksen
Søreide. Norwegian Ministry of Defence.
2008–2013: Political Adviser on defence policy and foreign affairs for the Conservative Party Parliamentary Group.
2007–2008: Political Adviser on defence policy, scrutiny and constitutional affairs for
the Conservative Party Parliamentary Group. 2004–2007: Research assistant at the University of Oslo, Department of Political
Science.
Education: Mr. Halvorsen holds a Cand Mag. Degree in Political Science, Public Law
and Private Law from the University of Oslo. Participant at the Norwegian Defence University College Information Course, 2011.
Political background Mr. Halvorsen has held various party and elected positions
for The Conservative Party (Høyre) in Oslo. Military service: Norwegian Army, Østfold Regiment, 1997–1998.
Personal: Born 1978. Married, two children.
HEID Katherine
Cabinet member in charge of Culture, Youth and Social Affairs
After an initial post as an intercultural consultant for a research project in the Apuseni-mountains of Romania, Mrs Heid began
her career at the Franco-German Youth Office in Paris.
She then worked for the German Youth Ministry’s Department for International Youth Policy, for IJAB, the International Youth
Service of the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as for the
Council of Europe. At the Council of Europe's Youth
Directorate, Mrs Heid was responsible for “all different – all equal” campaign activities, in addition to organising
conferences and workshops on refugees, diversity issues and
inter-religious dialogue. She then spent six years as co-director of RESEO, the European Network for Opera
and Dance Education. Formerly an elected member of Culture Action Europe’s
Executive Committee, Katherine joined Culture Action Europe's team in 2015 as Head of political development and then became Acting Secretary General. In 2018, she
joined the European Economic and Social Committee as Member of Cabinet.
A German and British national, Mrs Heid holds a graduate degree in psychology and
political sciences, specialising in intercultural and neuropsychology. She is a former professional dancer and her passion for culture and for re-thinking communities has
driven her career in the arts, intercultural exchange, youth and European politics.
Justice
and Consumers
HELFFERICH Barbara
Barbara Helfferich has more than 25 years of experience in
European policy making. She worked in the non-governmental sector as well as in the European Commission.
As Secretary General of the European Women’s Lobby she
successfully helped to establish one of the biggest and most
influential European NGOs in Brussels. In 1999, she joined the cabinet of the European Social Affairs Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou, a
post she held for five years until she was appointed European spokesperson for the
environment (2004-2010). She left the European Commission to become an independent consultant. Barbara set up GEBB in 2018 with Paula Franklin, to
address the clear need to measure and implement gender equality actions in
organisations. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in
New York as well as a Master’s degree in journalism and international affairs.
HEMELAAR Irene
Irene Hemelaar is self employed and a jack-of-all-trades. She speaks, sings, performs, writes, organizes small and big
events. As a human rights advocate she strives for
fundamental, equal rights for all and more specifically LGBTI
people and women. She is a networking expert and connects civil society with politics, trade and industry in order to reach
these goals.
In 2015, she was the Dutch Women's Representative to the
UN. At the General Assembly she delivered a speech on
gender equality for all women, thus including LBTI people. She was with Pride Amsterdam for 8 years until October
2016, the last 2,5 years as director LGBTI Emancipation.
In november 2016 the municipality of Amsterdam honored Irene with the Frans Banninck Cocq-penning for the excellent achievements she accomplished for the
city.
She works as a trainer / advisor for trade union FNV (Diversity & Inclusion, local
social domain). For the city of Amsterdam, she explored the correlation between
LGBTI and loneliness and LGBTI and informal caregiving.
She is president at Doetank PEER, founder of and board member at
OndersteBoven, Advisory Committee member of the Global Feminist LBQ Women*s
Conference 2019 and board of control Chair at GALE.
www.irenehemelaar.nl
Justice
and Consumers
HERRICK Liam
Liam Herrick was appointed to Executive Director of the Irish
Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) in November 2016. Prior to his appointment, he worked as Advisor to President Michael
D. Higgins for almost three years. Liam was Executive
Director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) between 2007
and 2014. He has also worked as the first head of legislation and policy at the former Irish Human Rights Commission and
with the Law Reform Commission and the Department of
Foreign Affairs. He is a former member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), a former Board member of the Children’s
Rights Alliance and the Minister for Justice and Equality’s Strategic Review Group
on Penal Policy (2012-2014). Liam graduated from University College Cork with a
BCL and LLM and from University College Dublin with a Diploma in Human Rights Law.
HOEFMANS Alexander
Alexander Hoefmans holds a law degree from Ghent
University and postgraduate degrees in international relations and conflict management, and in Eastern European and
Russian studies. In 2004 he joined the Belgian Ministry of
Justice as a Human Rights Advisor. In that position he was national liaison officer to the European Commission against
Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe as well as to
the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union. He was also Co-Agent of the Belgian government to the
European Court of Human Rights. From 2012 to mid-2013 he
was an advisor to the Belgian Minister of Justice, followed by
a secondment to DG JUST of the European Commission until end 2014. Currently he is head of the Unit Data Protection and Equal Opportunities
at the Belgian Ministry of Justice. He is also affiliated to the Free University of
Brussels (VUB) as a member of the Research Group on Fundamental Rights.
Justice
and Consumers
HOORENS Stijn
Stijn Hoorens is a researcher at RAND and director of RAND
Europe's office in Brussels. Stijn has been with RAND for more than 15 years and has worked across different offices in
Europe, the US and the Middle East. Stijn has extensive
experience in designing and leading policy studies for a range
of international governments and public sector organisations. His research interests are broad, but much of his work has
revolved around new media and technologies, illicit markets
and skills and employment. He is currently leading a study on the challenges associated with algorithm-driven platforms and media services. Stijn is a regular
peer reviewer for academic journals, and has published widely himself. Prior to
joining RAND, Hoorens held research positions at Delft University of Technology
and at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). He received his M.Sc. and B.Sc. in systems engineering, policy analysis, and
management from Delft University of Technology.
HÖRST Corinna
Corinna Hörst is senior fellow and deputy director of GMF’s
Brussels office. She supports the executive director in all aspects of strategic planning, operations, personnel,
management, and communication. In this capacity, she plays
a central role in program planning, networking, and relationship building with the EU institutions, NATO and
stakeholders from governments, media, business, as well as
nongovernmental and think tank communities. She monitors and frequently comments on transatlantic relations and
European affairs and is engaged in various women leadership
development and diversity activities. She is also president of
the Brussels chapter of Women in International Security (WIIS) and co-founder of The Brussels Binder, an online database of female policy experts. Her recent book
“Women Leading The Way in Brussels,” co-authored with Claudia de Castro
Caldeirinha (John Harper Publishing, 2017).
Justice
and Consumers
HUBERT Agnes
Agnes Hubert is an experienced policy maker and a
recognised author on EU gender equality policy and Social innovation in the EU. She is currently associate researcher
with PRESAGE (Programme de Recherches et
d’Enseignements des Savoirs sur le Genre) Science Po/OFCE
Paris , visiting professor at the College of Europe in Bruges , founding member and president of the first European feminist
think tank, Gender5plus.eu and associate member of the
international and European commission of the Haut Conseil de l’Egalité.
Economist by training she was a journalist before joining the
European Commission where she held senior advising functions dealing with gender
equality and social innovation, contributing to raise these issues at the highest levels in European institutions.
She has written books (L’Europe et les femmes, identités en mouvement 1998 ;
democracy and information society in Europe 1997 and two major policy documents on Social innovation for the European Commission : “Empowering
people, driving change: Social innovation in the European Union” 2010 and “Social
innovation a decade of changes” 2014, and a number of peer reviewed academic articles and contributions in the fields of her expertise.
HULIN Adeline
Adeline HULIN works for the UNESCO Communication and
Information Sector as a Project Officer based in the UNESCO
Liaison Office in Brussels. Before, she works for the Office of
the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media in
Vienna. Her educational background includes a PhD in
Political Science from the University Paris II Panthéon Assas,
a Master Degree in Journalism from the University Paris
Dauphine and a BA in Political Science from the Bordeaux
Institut d'Etudes Politiques. She recently authored a RSC
Working Paper for the European University Institute,
Statutory media self-regulation: beneficial or detrimental for media freedom and
wrote the monograph Autorégulation des médias en Europe: impact, perspectives
et limites.
Justice
and Consumers
IVANOV Ivan
Ivan Ivanov is the Executive Director of the European Roma
Information Office since 2005. Previously he worked as an
Attorney for the European Roma Rights Centre in Budapest.
He was involved for five years in research and building a
legal strategy of ground-breaking civil rights cases filed in
the European Court of Human Rights and the domestic
courts of several countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
For two years he was a legal adviser for the Human Rights Project in Sofia,
Bulgaria, where he spearheaded the development of a number of strategic
litigation cases and key advocacy initiatives. Ivan holds degrees in medicine and
law. He was a visiting scholar at the Law School of Columbia University in New
York, where he specialised in international human rights and anti-discrimination
law. He published on issues related to discrimination and access to education and
healthcare.
JAHIER Luca
Luca Jahier has been elected President of the European
Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on 18 April 2018 for
a period of two and a half years, until October 2020. He has
been a member of the Committee since 2002.
Within the EESC, he has worked extensively on the
European Union's social and cohesion policies, as well as on
international matters, first as vice-president of the
Committee's Section for Employment, Social Affairs and
Citizenship and then as president of the ACP-EU Follow-up Committee and
president of the Permanent group on Immigration and Integration. In October
2011, he was elected president of Group III of the EESC, and was re-elected in
January 2013 and in October 2015. In this capacity, he has been a member of the
EESC's Bureau. Over the course of three terms in office as president, Group III
carried out nine studies, and held 42 conferences in 17 EU countries attended by
thousands of people and countless meetings with European civil society
organisations. Before becoming a member of the Committee, Jahier was active in
the field of international cooperation and development and acted as a founding
member of the Italian Third Sector Forum. He served as President of FOCSIV, the
Italian Federation of non-Governmental Organization for the International
Voluntary Service, and he is the founding member of the Italian Third Sector. Luca
has previously worked with the CISV and other Italian and European NGOs that
are active in the field of international cooperation. He is also the former President
of the National Council of ACLI (2008-2012), a Christian association of Italian
workers. He is a former journalist and an international political analyst, and he
has numerous years of experience in social advancement development
programmes in developing countries, mainly in Africa.
Justice
and Consumers
JEFFERS Sam
Sam is the co-founder of Who Targets Me? software to help
voters understand how political campaigns are chasing their vote using Facebook advertising. Over 10,000 people have
installed Who Targets Me in more than 50 countries and ten
languages. The project has tracked political advertising in 10
election campaigns to date, and is currently monitoring the Brazilian and US midterm election campaigns. Who Targets
Me has been covered extensively in the media, including the
BBC and New York Times. Before founding Who Targets Me in 2017, Sam spent 7 years at Blue State Digital (the agency
that helped elect President Obama in 2008 and 2012) as UK
Managing Director, then Executive Creative and Strategy Director. Sam led client
engagements with Unilever, Mazda, Google, Lloyds, The Labour Party, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tate Gallery, British Museum, Manchester City Football Club and
many more. He holds a First-Class degree in International Relations from LSE and a
Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
JELINEK Dr. Andrea
Professional Activities:
Since 5/2018 Chair of the European Data Protection Board (Additional to the Austrian DPA)
Since 2/2018 Chair WP 29 (Additional to the Austrian
DPA) Since 1/2014 Head of the European Data Protection
Authority
1/2011 – 12/2013 Head of the Regional Police Department of the 3rd district in Vienna
10/2010 – 6/2011 temporarily entrusted with the
management of the Foreign Police Office of the Federal Police
Department in Vienna 12/2003 – 10/2010 Head of PK 03 of the Regional Police
Department Vienna
1/1993 – 11/2013 Legal officer and from 1998 Head of Unit in the legal and legislative department of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (special fields:
ECHR, constitutional law, security police law, foreign national law and asylum
law) 11/1991 – 12/1992 Legal officer at the General Secretariat of the Austrian
Rectors' Conference
1988 – 10/1991 Trainee Lawyer/Associate
1983-1987 Central services and consultant in the Fund for the Promotion of Scientific Research FWF, various activities in the private sector such as public
relations, sales management
1979-1984 Tuition in English, French, Latin and German during law studies
Personal record: Born 1961, studied law in Vienna, degree 1985, many additional
educations in different fields (eg leadership trainer, coach and so on)
Justice
and Consumers
JERÓNIMO Patrícia
Patrícia Jerónimo is Associate Professor at the Law School of
the University of Minho, in Braga, Portugal. She is currently Director of the Research Centre for Justice and Governance
(JusGov), as well as Director of Studies of the Master
Programme in Human Rights, at the University of Minho. She
holds a Doctorate in Law from the European University Institute, in Florence, Italy. Her main topics of research in
the field of fundamental rights are citizenship, migration, and
minority rights.
JOUROVÁ Ms Věra
Ms Věra Jourová is currently European Commissioner for
Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality. In 2014, before coming to the European Commission, Ms Jourová held the
position of Minister for Regional Development in the Czech
Republic. Previous to this, from 2006 to 2013, she worked in her own company as an international consultant on European
Union funding, and also was involved in consultancy
activities in the Western Balkans relating to the European
Union Accession. In 2003 Ms. Jourová was appointed Deputy Minister for Regional Development, a position which she held
for three years. Previously she worked as Head of the
Department of Regional Development in the Vysočina Region, from 2001, and before that as Secretary and
Spokesperson of the Třebič Municipal Office, from 1995 to 2001. Ms Jourová holds
a Degree in Law (Mgr.) from the Charles University, Prague and a Master's degree (Mgr.) in the Theory of Culture from the Charles University, Prague.
Justice
and Consumers
JOVANOVIC Zeljko
Zeljko Jovanovic is director of the Open Society Roma
Initiatives Office, which supports the voices and leadership of Roma in making their power felt in the policy-making arena.
Jovanovic comes from a family of Roma ethnic background
which, through a belief in hard work, self-determination and
education, moved from multigenerational extreme poverty to the middle class in Serbia. Before joining the Open Society
Foundations in 2006, he worked for the Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe on elections and public policy and for Catholic Relief Services on civil society development. He also has established and led a local Roma organization
and community radio; volunteered for Roma political parties and protested for
democracy during the Milosevic regime in Serbia; trained and mentored non-profit
managers, advocates, and leaders internationally. Jovanovic has degrees in law from the University of Belgrade and in public policy from the University of Oxford.
He also completed the Executive Education Program on Strategic Management at
the Harvard University. He is a member of the Aspen Institute network.
JURA Cristian
Education and academic qualifications
2000 – 2003, PhD, Law Faculty, Bucharest University
Professional activities 1st of January 2018 – member of European Commission
against Racism and Intolerance – ECRI of the Council of
Europe in respect of Romania April 2011 – to date, Professor of Public International Law,
Christian University „Dimitrie Cantemir”, Bucharest
2015 – Member of the Radicalization Awareness Network RAN an initiative financed by EU
April 2010 – appointed by the Romanian Parliament for a 5 years mandate,
mandate renewed on 2015, State Secretary, Member of the Steering Board,
National Council for Combating Discrimination November 2003 – January 2005, State Secretary, Department for Interethnic
Relations, Government of Romania
August 2002 – November 2003, President, State Secretary, National Council for Combating Discrimination
Publications
More than 20 books on Public International Law, Human Rights, Combating Discrimination, Sports Law and more than 40 scientific articles published in
Romania or abroad.
Awards
1st of March 2018 – Special prize awarded by Legal Science Society for the project Legal Days
17th of December 2004 – Special prize awarded by Jurists Union of Romania and
”Titu Maiorescu” Society for the book International Terrorism; 19th of December 2003 – prize Vespasian V. Pella awarded by Jurists Union of
Romania for the book The Role of Nongovernmental organizations at International
Level
Justice
and Consumers
KÄSPER Kari
Kari Käsper founded the Estonian Human Rights Centre, an
independent human rights advocacy NGO which he is currently leading as Executive Director. He holds Bachelor
and Master degrees in law from Tallinn University of
Technology. His doctoral studies in public administration at
the Nurkse School of Tallinn University of Technology relate to how new technologies change society, and particularly the
impact techno-economic paradigm shifts have on human
rights protection. Mr Käsper has over ten years of experience in human rights: he has been the editor of the independent
report “Human Rights in Estonia” since 2009. He has also
worked as an expert for the European Commission and
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Since 2014 he has been advising multinational ICT companies as a member of the Human Rights Stakeholder
Advisory Group of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI). He belongs to the
Estonian Association of Lawyers, and has been elected multiple times to the Supervisory Council by the members of the association. In 2017 he was appointed
by the Estonian Minister of the Interior as one of the NGO representatives to the
Supervisory Board of the Estonian National Foundation of Civil Society.
KANEV Dr. Krassimir
Dr. Krassimir Kanev graduated in 1982 from Sofia University.
Specialized at Columbia University in 1996-97. Taught courses in sociology, sociology of law, critical social theory,
environmental studies and international human rights in a
number of colleges and universities in Bulgaria and abroad. Started human rights work in 1988. Since 1994 – Director of
the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee. In the period 1998-2007 –
member of the Executive Committee of the International
Helsinki Federation on Human Rights. In the period 2005 - 2011 – member of the Board of Trustees of the UN Voluntary Fund for victims of
Torture. In the period 2007-2010 – member of the Board of Trustees of the
European Roma Rights Center. Since 2006 – member of the Board of the Association for the Prevention of Torture. Since 2007 – member of the Board of
Trustees of Public Interest Law Network. Since 2015 – member of the Management
Board of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. Has published four books and dozens of articles on a number of human rights topics. Helped individuals and human
rights NGOs in bringing cases to the European Court of Human Rights and UN
bodies.
Justice
and Consumers
KANKO Assita
Born in Burkina Faso, Assita Kanko later immigrated to
Belgium and was elected town councillor in Ixelles from 2012 tot 2018, one of the largest districts of Brussels, serves as a
member of the Board of Directors of the Belgian
Development Agency ENABEL and contributes as a columnist
for flemish newspaper De Standaard. In her work, she argues forcefully for women’s empowerment. Her first book “Parce
que tu es une fille, histoire d’une vie excisée” (Because you
are a girl, story of a circumcised life) is a story of her personal and intellectual journey to freedom as a woman
after undergoing FGM at age 5. In 2015, she published “La
deuxième moitié, plaidoyer pour un nouveau féminisme”
(The second half, advocacy for a new feminism) about the position of women worldwide. In 2018 Assita founded Polin, the political incubator, a cross party
initiative to strenghten the position of women in politics. Kanko’s latest book
"Leading ladies"published in september 2018 to help women take their seats at the tables that matter. Assita is fluent in French, Dutch and English. As a consultant
she helps implement SDG's in organizations. Her goal is to empower women and
end Female Genital Mutilation.
KAVRAKOVA Ms. Assya
Ms. Assya Kavrakova is the Director of the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS) - http://www.ecas.org/ - an
international non-profit organization, based in Brussels, with
a pan-European membership and 28 years of experience in EU citizens’ rights enforcement and civic participation in the
EU decision-making process. She is also a member of the
Stakeholder group of the REFIT Platform for Better
Regulation. Before joining ECAS, Ms. Kavrakova served as the Director of
European Policies Program at the Open Society Institute
(OSI-S) in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she was also leading the analytical and research activity of the European Policies Initiative. She personally authored the paper: “The
Unfinished Business of the Fifth Enlargement Countries”. Assya Kavrakova has a
master’s degree in Law and another Master’s degree in European Studies. She has worked as a Public Policies and Outreach Director at the Democracy Network
Program (DemNet) of the USAID. She was also the Executive Director of the
Bulgarian branch of Transparency International. Assya Kavrakova is a German
Marshall Memorial Fellow.
Justice
and Consumers
KAZATCHKINE Natacha
Open Society European Policy Institute
Natacha Kazatchkine is head of the EU internal policy team for the Open Society European Policy Institute, where she
oversees policy development and EU advocacy. She is
responsible for developing analysis and advocacy strategies
on EU policies to protect and promote human rights and the rule of law within Europe. She joined the Open Society
European Policy Institute in April 2015.
Before joining the Open Society Foundations, Kazatchkine was senior executive officer at the European Office of Amnesty International in
Brussels, responsible for advocacy on EU internal human rights policy, justice,
nondiscrimination, and security. From September 2013, she coordinated the
Human Rights and Democracy Network’s working group on the EU’s internal human rights policy. She also worked for the European Parliament, drafting its 2012 report
on the CIA rendition and secret detention programs in Europe.
Kazatchkine holds an MA in European law and criminal policy from Paris Sorbonne University and has held academic posts as a lecturer and researcher. She also
worked as a legal adviser for asylum seekers in the United Kingdom and as
program coordinator on prison reform in Africa at Penal Reform International.
KING Sir Julian
Sir Julian King was appointed Commissioner for Security Union on the 19th September 2016.
He joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 1985. He has held various positions, including: UK Ambassador to
France (2016); Director General Economic & Consular
(2014); DG of the Northern Ireland Office London and Belfast
(2011); UK Ambassador to Ireland (2009); EU Commission Chef de Cabinet to Commissioner for Trade (2008); UK
Representative on EU Political and Security Committee,
(2004).
Sir Julian is a graduate of Oxford University. He was awarded the KCVO in 2014;
CVO in 2011 and CMG in 2006.
Justice
and Consumers
KLANDORF Kai
Kai Klandorf is an executive director of Network of Estonian Non-profit Organizations (NENO). NENO is one of Estonia’s
largest umbrella organization that focuses on advocacy. Kai
is mission driven professional with a diverse background. She
is an experienced project manager with a demonstrated history of working in civil society. Skilled in Nonprofit
Organizations, Critical Thinking, and Business Process
Improvement. Strong program and project management professional with work experience from both governmental
institution and civil society organization and a Master's Degree from Tartu
University.
KOCH Tanit
Tanit Koch is a journalist, member of the Transatlantic
Commission on Election Integrity and a much sought-after speaker and commentator on current affairs.
Until March 2018 Tanit Koch was editor in chief of the largest
German newspaper BILD. Previously she held several
positions within Axel Springer SE, among others as deputy editor BILD, bureau chief of BILD HAMBURG and senior editor
within the editorial board of WELT Group. She started her
career with a journalistic training at the politics/business desk of BILD and the Axel Springer Journalism School in 2005.
Tanit Koch holds degrees in law and political science. She is an Atlantik Brücke Young Leader, former scholar of Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, alumna of the British
German Forum and the Stanford Executive Program. She serves on the board of
the foundation Deutschlandstiftung Integration.
Justice
and Consumers
KRISTENSEN Thomas Myrup
As Managing Director for EU Affairs and Head of Facebook's
Brussels office, Thomas Myrup Kristensen is responsible for Facebook's representation towards the European Institutions.
Before returning to Brussels, Thomas spent the last few
years representing Facebook in a number of member states
as well as countries outside the EU as Director Public Policy, Nordics, Central & Eastern Europe and Russia. Before coming
to Facebook in 2011, Thomas spent several years in Brussels
working for Microsoft and before that he was a special adviser in the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
Thomas' career in tech stems from a life-long passion for how tech can both
improve human interactions and shape society. A bit of a techie himself, he also
owns a growing collection of outdated gadgets.
KUKLIŠ Ľuboš
Ľuboš Kukliš studied at Law Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava, where he also obtained PhD in Administrative law.
Since 2006 he is a chief executive at the Council for
Broadcasting and Retransmission of Slovakia.
He is the Council’s representative in European Regulators
Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA), where he
serves as a Chair and also leads ERGA’s Subgroup on the Internal and External Plurality.
In 2016-2017 he chaired ERGA Subgroup on Protection of Minors that examined systems for protection of minors in EU media environment.
In the field of media and administrative law he is also active in lecturing and writing
- most recently Electronic Media Regulation (Wolters Kluwer, 2015), Slovak Broadcasting Act – A Commentary (Wolters Kluwer, 2016).
Justice
and Consumers
LADMANOVÁ Monika
Monika Ladmanová is an Advisor and Member of the Cabinet
of the EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality on the issues of gender equality, antidiscrimination
and minorities and corporate responsibility.
Monika studied Law at the Charles University in Prague and
at the Columbia University in New York. She has extensive experience in non-profit sector and private sector, having
worked for the Soros Foundation in Prague for 11 years and
for IBM for more than 6 years. In addition, Monika founded several non-governmental, non-
partisan initiatives on human rights and gender equality.
LAMBERTZ Karl-Heinz
Karl-Heinz Lambertz was elected as President of the
European Committee of the Regions (CoR) in July 2017 after serving a two and a half year term as First Vice-President. He
is also a member of the Belgian Senate representing the
German-Speaking Community.
Born on 4 June 1952 in Schoppen, Karl-Heinz's interest in politics came early in his career having served as President of
the German-speaking Youth Council (1975-1980). After a
number of functions linked to his academic background in law, he became Member of Parliament of the German-
speaking Community in 1981.
Between 1990 and 1999 he held numerous Ministerial posts in the German-speaking Community Government before being elected its Minister-
President (1999-2014). He was then President of Parliament until 2016 before
taking post as Senator. Karl-Heinz has been a CoR member since 2001 and was
President of the CoR's PES Group (2011- 2015). Since 2000, he has been a Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe
in which he is currently Vice-President.
Justice
and Consumers
LANGBAKK Virginija
Virginija Langbakk is currently the Director of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) in Vilnius, Lithuania.
EIGE is a regulatory agency of the European Union. It
supports the EU and its Member States in promoting gender
equality, fighting discrimination based on sex and raising awareness about gender issues. Previously, Ms Langbakk
worked as Deputy Director at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs
of Sweden. In her capacity as a gender expert, she has been involved in bringing the gender perspective into the public
sector at local, regional and national levels in numerous
countries worldwide. At the helm of the European Institute
for Gender Equality since 2009, she is responsible for the management of both the administrative and operational structures. Her leading role includes developing and
implementing the Institute's strategic programmes of activities and budgets. She
aims at positioning the Institute as the most important knowledge centre for gender equality in the EU.
LEINEN Jo
Jo LEINEN has been a Member of the European Parliament
(S&D) since 1999. He is well known for his environmental and foreign affairs activities, as well as for his support for a
Federal Europe. He is chair of the Delegation for relations
with the People's Republic of China, S&D-spokesperson in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO), and member of
the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food
Safety (ENVI). Mr Leinen is honorary president of both, the European Movement International (EMI) and the Union of
European Federalist (UEF). The former minister for the
Environment of Saarland recently co-authored the book "A
World Parliament: Governance and Democracy in the 21st Century". He holds law degrees from Bonn University and the College of Europe.
Justice
and Consumers
LEMPART
Leader of the Polish Women’s Strike, Poland She is a women’s rights and democracy activist. She started
and has been the leader of the national support committee of
the Polish Women’s Strike, a coalition of women that on 3
October 2016 – known as Black Monday – organized and led the “black protests” in over 150 cities in Poland that stopped
Polish parliament from introducing a total abortion. She took
active part in summer 2017 protests for judiciary independence in Poland, along with other PWS members, and
is a participant of anti-fascist nonviolent street blockades. Her main aim is
mainstreaming women’s rights as unconditional, core value in modern, democratic society; not something to be “discussed later” - idea described as
#PolandForEveryone initiative. Since 2012 she runs a small construction company
(family business) and lives in Wrocław - southwest Poland with her partner Natalia
and two dogs Bajka and Fraszka. Motto: People don’t need to be lead the way, they need to be supported when they
walk their own. That’s how we will all get there.
LENDIĆ KASALO Vesna
Vesna Lendić Kasalo is a legal expert with extensive
experience in civil society and civil service. As the Deputy
Head of the Croatian Government Office for Cooperation with
NGOs, where she is employed since 2008, she is responsible for coordination activities in creating and proposing new
strategic, legislative and institutional framework for the non-
profit sector activities in the Republic of Croatia. She is a member of numerous expert working groups for drafting
laws and policies. She is editor of the annual reports and
several publications in the field of financing programs and projects of NGOs from
public sources, and in consultation with the interested public in law-drafting procedures. She is an experienced trainer of civil servants in these areas.
Justice
and Consumers
LETERME Yves
Yves Leterme, a Belgian national, is the Secretary-General of
the Stockholm-based intergovernmental organization International IDEA.
Prior to International IDEA, Leterme served as Prime Minister
of Belgium (2007 to 2011) and then as Deputy Secretary
General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris (2011 to 2014).
Before serving as Prime Minister, Leterme held a variety of
political posts in Belgium. After starting his career as an Alderman in his home town of
Ypres, he became a Member of Parliament in the Chamber of
Representatives, Group Chairman and leader of the opposition, Secretary-General
and Chairman of the CD&V party, Minister-President and Minister for Agriculture of the Flemish Regional Government, Federal Senator, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister
of the Budget and Mobility, and Minister of Foreign Affairs. During Leterme’s tenure
as Prime Minister, Belgium held the Presidency of the European Union. Leterme has also worked, inter alia, as a deputy auditor at the Belgian Court of Audit and as an
administrator at the European Parliament.
Leterme, who was born on 6 October 1960, has degrees in Law and in Political Sciences from the University of Ghent.
LUK Ngo Chun
Ngo Chun Luk is Researcher in the Justice and Home Affairs
unit at CEPS. He obtained his PhD in Law at Maastricht University in December 2017, with a focus on diaspora,
citizenship rights and quasi-citizenship. At CEPS, his research
focuses on European citizenship, migration, asylum and fundamental rights.
He is currently actively involved in the research activities of
the Network of Academic Experts on Citizenship Rights (EU-
CITZEN). The EU-CITZEN Network’s research activities in 2018 focus specifically on democratic and political
participation in the EU, in particular the electoral participation
of Union citizens. Prior to joining CEPS, he was involved in the development of the MACIMIDE Global Expatriate Dual
Citizenship dataset and the Involuntary Loss of European Citizenship (ILEC)
project.
Justice
and Consumers
MAASSEN Paul
Paul Maassen started working with the Open Government
Partnership in June 2012. He is currently the Chief, Country
Support (CCS). The CCS leads on the implementation of the strategy for OGPs engagement with and strategic support of
all OGP stakeholders at the national and local level. His team
with staff in over 10 locations supports global efforts of open government champions, primarily of government and civil
society, in using Open Government Partnership to further
their objectives on transparency, accountability and participation. Before assuming this role Paul was responsible
for overseeing the OGP support to civil society across the
globe. Paul has a long track record in the role technology and
media can play in changing people's lives and the societies they live in. Prior to joining OGP Paul worked as Head of
Finance and Partnerships for WWF International' Global Climate & Energy Initiative,
working primarily with WWF offices in emerging economies to strengthen the design and sustainability of their programs. Before joining WWF Paul worked for 7
years with Dutch development organisation Hivos, as program manager for the
global ICT & Media program. This is where he learned the ropes of being a funder and got a deep understanding of the complexities of realizing change in developing
and repressive countries. Paul strongly believes in the potential of individuals to
make a difference if they set their mind to it and get the tools – including
technology – to realize their potential. He was also involved in the establishment of the East African citizen agency initiative Twaweza. Paul attained private sector
experience with Dutch telecom company KPN. He holds an MSC in industrial
engineering and management. Paul is based in Brussels. Paul can be reached at [email protected]
MAJÓ Adam
Adam Majó Director of the Office for Civil and Political
Rights (Catalan Government)
Born in Manresa (Catalonia) in 1968 Degree in Germanistik from the University of Barcelona (UB).
International Trade Postgraduate by UAB and Master's
Degree in Construction and Representation of Cultural Identities by the UB.
Since 2016, he has been Commissioned for the historic
center of the city of Manresa. He was a councilor in the same consistory between 2008 and 2015. He has developed his professional career in the
public and private sectors, where he has worked as an interpreter, translator and
teacher. Father of two, Plays Rugby since 1996 and is a founder member of
Manresa Rugby Club.
Justice
and Consumers
MARKERT Thomas
Thomas Markert is a German lawyer born in 1955 who studied at the University of Tübingen, the College of Europe in Bruges and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts, USA. He obtained a Doctorate of Law of Tübingen University in 1989. Following his work as a practising lawyer he
joined the Council of Europe in 1989 and has worked for the Venice Commission as from 1992. He was appointed Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the Venice Commission in 2002. Extensive experience in South Eastern Europe, inter alia as legal adviser of EU Special Envoy Petritsch at the Rambouillet Conference and of EU Special Representative Léotard at the negotiations of the Ohrid
Framework Agreement; took part in the drafting of the Constitutional Framework for Kosovo, the Comprehensive
Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement prepared by UN Special Representative Ahtisaari and the Constitution of Kosovo, the Constitution of Albania, the Constitutional Charter of Serbia and Montenegro, proposals to amend the Dayton Constitution in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the special law on the referendum on independence in Montenegro.
In Eastern Europe involved in the preparation of Venice Commission opinions on the Ukrainian Constitution and attempts to revise it, on the constitutional referendum in Belarus proposed by President Lukachenko, constitutional reforms in Moldova, Georgia and the Constitution of the Chechen Republic. Took part in various efforts to settle the conflicts in Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He was involved in preparing Venice Commission opinions on Turkey and took more recently part in a number of conferences
and visits on constitutional issues in the Southern Mediterranean. He was appointed Secretary of the Venice Commission on 1 March 2010.
MAYCOCK Joanna
Joanna Maycock has been Secretary General of the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) since 2014. EWL represents the diversity
of the women’s movement across Europe bringing an independent feminist voice and real women’s voices into the EU political arena. Founded in 1990, the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) is the largest alliance of over 2,000 women’s non-governmental associations in the EU coming together to campaign for their common vision of a Feminist Europe. A lifelong feminist, Joanna
has 20 years’ experience in leadership positions in Civil Society. She led ActionAid International’s work in Europe and was the first
(and only) woman President of CONCORD, the European Confederation of Development NGOs. Prior to that she worked for the International Organisation for Migration focusing on rights of migrant women and women victims of trafficking. Since joining the EWL, Joanna has been leading work with the membership to define a dynamic new strategic
vision for the women’s movement in Europe, to strengthen its joint vision and work towards a feminist Europe. Joanna is a leading figure in women’s networks discussing women in leadership and feminist leadership in Brussels and was named one of the most influential women in Brussels by Politico newspaper in 2016, which described her as “A powerhouse on the Brussels NGO and political scene, (she) is in the vanguard of Brussels
feminists, with an open line to leaders across the city. According to one of her peers, “She exercises influence and change even within structures where she does not have the hard power she has within the European Women’s Lobby.” In 2018, Joanna was recently named one of Apolitical’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy.
Justice
and Consumers
MCCOURT Kersty
Kersty McCourt is a senior advocacy advisor with the Open
Society Justice Initiative based in Brussels where she leads on a range of advocacy work related to access to justice, civic
space, and counter-terrorism, and is part of the managing-
troika of the Brussels-based Human Rights and Democracy Network. Previously, Kersty led the Justice Initiative’s
advocacy on the Global Campaign for Pretrial Justice.
Prior to joining Open Society, Kersty worked with the Danish Institute for Human Rights. From 2008 to 2009, she was
program manager in Copenhagen, Denmark, and from 2005 was the institute's head of mission in Rwanda managing a post-genocide justice
program. Kersty qualified as a lawyer in the United Kingdom and worked for a
number of NGOs in The Gambia, Kenya, and Namibia. She holds a BSc (Hons) in biological sciences from Durham University, United Kingdom, a post graduate
diploma in law from the College of Law, United Kingdom, and a European MA in
human rights and democratization. She is a member of the Law Society of England
and Wales.
MCGONAGLE Tarlach
Tarlach McGonagle (Ph.D., University of Amsterdam) is a senior researcher/lecturer at the Institute for Information
Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam and co-chair of
the Working Group on human rights in the digital age within
the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research. He specialises in, and has published widely on, a broad range of
topics relating to international and European human rights
law, in particular freedom of expression and minority rights; media law and policy; media pluralism; journalism; digital media; online
disinformation, and “hate speech”. He regularly does expert work for the Council of
Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. He is a member of the Council of Europe’s Committee of experts on quality journalism in
the digital age. He was previously Rapporteur of the Council of Europe’s
Committees of experts on protection of journalism and safety of journalists (2014-
15) and on media pluralism and transparency of media ownership (2016-17).
Justice
and Consumers
MENAPACE Andrea
He is the founder and current executive director of and vice-president of the Civil Liberties Union for Europe. He
previously worked for the Transparency & Accountability
Initiative in London and was a researcher for Italy in the Open Government Partnership. Always active in the field of
human rights, he began his career as a humanitarian worker
before becoming a consultant and researcher for
governments as well as non-governmental and international organizations. He is also founder and president of Diritto Di
Sapere (Right To Know), the first Italian organization working
on the right of access to information. He graduated in law from the University of Trento.
MENDES Joana
Joana Mendes is Professor of Comparative Administrative Law
since 2016, where she teaches courses in Comparative Administrative Law and EU Law. She graduated in law and
obtained a master’s degree in public law (2002) at the
University of Coimbra (Portugal). She has a doctor degree from the European University Institute (Italy), awarded in
2009. Before joining the University of Luxembourg, she
worked at the University of Amsterdam (2009-2016), where she was Associate Professor at the Department of
International and EU Law, senior researcher at the
Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance and
PhD Dean. She has been a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Yale Law School (2014). She has also taught as a guest lecturer
at the University of Coimbra, the European University Institute, the LUISS Carlo
Guidi School of Government (summer school), and the Legal and Judicial Training Centre of Macao. She is member of the Steering Committee of ReNEUAL (Research
Network of European Administrative Law) and of the editorial board of the Journal
of European Integration. Her recent research focuses on administrative discretion in the EU (Individual research grant (VENI), awarded by The Netherlands
Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), between 2013 and 2016); on
international regulatory cooperation, in particular in the framework of mega-
regional agreements; and on the allocation of authority in EU and international law (in collaboration with dr. Ingo Venzke). Her publications include Participation in EU
Rulemaking. A Rights-based Approach (OUP, 2011) and articles published in the
Common Market Law Review, the European Law Journal, and the International
Journal of Constitutional Law.
Justice
and Consumers
MERCADÉ Christel
Christel Mercadé is a lawyer specialised in the protection of EU fundamental rights. She works for the European
Commission’s Unit of fundamental rights policies within the
Directorate General for Justice. She is in charge of
mainstreaming fundamental rights, such as freedom of expression, within the work of the Commission, including the
drafting of policy-related legal instruments in the area of
whistleblowing. Her area of work focuses also on the enforcement of EU law combating racism and xenophobia,
with a particular focus on the fight against hate speech
online. Before joining the Commission she served as an external legal consultant for the Commission (2014), as Human Rights lawyer before the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights at the Peruvian NGO APRODEH (2011-2012) and as
labour lawyer at the Spanish Lawfirm Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves, Pereira (2008-
2011). Her educational background includes a degree in Economics (2006) and a degree in Law (2009) at the University Pompeu Fabra (Spain) and University of
Leicester (UK) and a Master of European Law (LL M) at the College of Europe,
Bruges (2012). She is a member of the Barcelona Bar association.
METTLER Ann
Ann METTLER is a Director-General at the European Commission where she heads the European Political Strategy
Centre (EPSC), the in-house think tank which reports directly
to President Juncker. In this capacity, Ann also serves as
Chair of the European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS), an inter-institutional project aimed at strengthening
the EU's foresight capacity and anticipatory governance. The
EPSC was awarded 'Best New Think Tank 2016' by the Global
Go To Think Tank Index.
Prior to assuming this position in December 2014, Ann was
for eleven years Executive Director of the Lisbon Council, a
Brussels-based think tank she co-founded in 2003. From
2000-2003, she worked at the World Economic Forum, where she last served as
Director for Europe.
Ann holds Masters Degrees in political science and European law and economics,
and graduated with distinction from the University of New Mexico, USA, and the
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University in Bonn, Germany. She also completed the executive education course 'Innovative Technology Leader' at the Graduate
School of Business at Stanford University, USA.
Justice
and Consumers
MIHALACHE Ms
Ms Mihalache has 15 years of professional experience
working with IOs, national and local governments, equality bodies, judicial institutions and CSOs on social inclusion,
fundamental rights and Roma in particular. She developed
and managed regional programmes, grants and activities on
policy and legislative developments regarding access to justice, education, children’s rights, trafficking in persons,
domestic violence, social protection, anti-discrimination,
housing rights and empowerment of Roma women. She developed and implemented non-discrimination training of
lawyers, judiciary, prison staff, journalists, police, equality bodies. She was both a
programme and project manager at the Council of Europe developing and
managing a joint programme with the European Commission, DG JUST on the Access of Roma and Traveller Women to Justice in Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, Italy
and Romania (“JUSTROM Programme”) and coordinated activities on non-
discrimination, Roma women, youth and children as well as contributing to the intergovernmental work of the Ad-Hoc Committee of Experts on Roma and
Traveller Issues. Previously, Ms Mihalache was the Deputy Director of the European
Roma Rights Centre and a Senior Programme Manager at the Open Society Foundations on Roma issues.
MONS Barend
Barend Mons (born 1957, The Hague) is a molecular biologist and biosemantics specialist. He is known for innovations in
scholarly collaboration, especially nanopublications and the
FAIR data initiative. Since 2012 he is a Professor in Bio-Semantics at the Department of Human Genetics at the
Leiden University Medical Centre and he is also affiliated with
the Erasmus Medical Centre, University of Rotterdam, both in
The Netherlands. In 2015 Mons was appointed chair of the High Level Expert Group on the European Open Science
Cloud. Since 2017 Barend is heading the International
Support and Coordination office of the GO FAIR initiative, aimed at the creation of the Internet for Social Machines.
Justice
and Consumers
MOOZOVA Irena
Ms Irena Moozova is a Director at the European Commission
for Equality and Union Citizenship in its department for Justice (DG JUST). She is a Czech national and joined the
Commission in 2006 as Head of EU Representation in Prague.
Between May 2010 and April 2017 she was heading the Unit
in charge of supporting the Commission Representations, in the Directorate-General for Communication (DG COMM).
From 1991 till 2006 she had been working at the Ministry for
Foreign Affairs of the Czech and Slovak/Czech Republic in various management positions, such as Head of the
Department of Internal Administration (1993-1995), Deputy
Director of the Department of the Human Rights (1999-2000)
and as a team coordinator at the NATO Summit (2002). She had served as Czech Deputy Ambassador in Madrid (1995-1998), Deputy Ambassador of the Czech
Republic to the OSCE in Vienna (2000-2004) and the Permanent Representative of
the Czech Republic to the UNESCO in Paris (2004-2006). Ms Moozova graduated at the Prague Charles University Faculty of Law and has
completed postgraduate studies at Diplomatic Academy in Madrid. She is married
and has two daughters.
MÓRA Veronika
Veronika Móra has been working with Ökotárs - Hungarian Environmental Partnership Foundation since 1997 and holds
the position of the director since 2007. Earlier, she was the
national consultant for the Dutch Foundation Milieukontakt Oosteuropa, but also worked for the eco-counselling office of
Ecoservice Foundation.
With HEPF and earlier, she’s been working on a variety of
issues related to ecological consumption, gene technologies and public participation. Since 2003 she’s been leading
HEPF’s Civil Partner program aiming to improve the legal-
fiscal environment of civil society, but she also gained experience in managing and overseeing grant programs of
various sizes, not least the Hungarian NGO Fund under the EEA/Norwegian
Financial Mechanism. Besides her full time occupation she also has voluntary positions in a number of
NGOs, among them the chairmanship of the Hungarian Donors Forum, which works
on developing the (corporate) philantropic culture in the country.
She is a biologist (MSc) by education, but also has a MA degree in organisational psychology, and most recently gained a diploma in environmental law.
Justice
and Consumers
DIAZ Moreno
Jose Antonio Moreno Diaz is an attorney at law specialising
in criminal law and international law, focussing on migration and asylum and human rights. He is equally the confederal
legal advisor of the Spanish trade union "Comisiones
Obreras" with matters pertaining to immigration. In this
capacity he is a member of the tripartite immigration work commission of the Spanish Ministry of Labor and Immigration
and a member of the European Economic and Social
Committee (EESC). He was a founder and former president of the Spanish NGO "S.O.S Racismo España".
MORIJN John
John is an Emile Noël Global Fellow 2018-19 at New York
University Law School’s Jean Monnet Center, where he
studies what to learn from and do about sustained levels of
support for populist politicians across the EU. He is a Dutch civil servant (now on leave of absence) and was the head of
unit of the Ministry of the Interior at the Dutch Permanent
Representation to the EU (2015-2018) and a senior human rights law adviser at the same Ministry. Since 2010 he has
also held a part-time appointment as an assistant professor
in European human rights law at the University of Groningen (Netherlands). John studied Dutch law (Erasmus University,
Rotterdam, Netherlands), EU law (College of Europe, Bruges,
Belgium) and holds a PhD in international law from the
European University Institute (Florence, Italy).
Justice
and Consumers
MOSER Dr. Josef
Dr. Josef Moser was born on 6 October 1955 in Lienz, East
Tyrol, and was appointed Minister of Justice on 18 December 2017. Due to the reorganisation of the ministry's
responsibilities, Josef Moser is Federal Minister of
Constitutional Affairs, Reforms, Deregulation and Justice,
since 8 January 2018. The well-known expert on administrative law was president of the Austrian Court of
Audit and Secretary General of the International Organization
of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) from 2004 to 2016. Moser gained reputation for his numerous reform proposals.
Moser, who holds a doctorate in law, was employed in
various positions within the public administration. There he
took over management functions within the financial administration of Carinthia and at the Austrian parliament. Josef Moser is married,
with one daughter and lives in Vienna.
MSZULEKA
Advocacy officer at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights
(Warsaw, Poland), one of the Europe's leading human rights
NGOs. Since 2009, I have been one of the leading HFHR's lawyers and researchers, often partnering with, among
others, the European Agency for Fundamental Rights on
major research projects. My research and advocacy focu ses on issues of the independence of the judiciary, threats to
the rule of law and democratic backsliding. I'm a member of
the Warsaw Bar Association.
Justice
and Consumers
NAJMOWICZ Alexandrina
Alexandrina NAJMOWICZ has been working for over ten years in the third sector and not-for-profit organisations in France
and Europe wise. She is currently Director of the European
Civic Forum, a transnational network of over 100 associations
across Europe, working to protect civic space, enable civic participation and build civil dialogue for more equality,
solidarity and democracy in Europe. In this capacity, she
leads different campaigns and initiatives aiming to strengthen the capacity and the role of civil society organisations to
stand and act for these values, defend citizens’ rights and
become influential in the decision making process. She represents the European Civic Forum in different stakeholders’ groups within the
European Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee or the
Council of Europe’s OING Conference.
NEFFE Alice
Alice Neffe serves as legal counsel for ADF International in
Belgium, advocating for religious freedom at the European Union. Prior to joining ADF International, Neffe worked in
academic research in Helsinki, Finland. She was the
coordinator of the Finnish Center of Chinese Law and Chinese Legal Culture, where she developed research and academic
cooperation on Chinese law internationally. She also gained
experience in human rights when she worked as research
assistant at the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights, and as a legal assistant with Parisian law firms. Neffe earned
her Master degree in International and Comparative Law from the University of
Helsinki. She also obtained a Master’s degree in International Law from Panthéon-
Sorbonne University (Paris 1).
Justice
and Consumers
NEUNTEUFL Franz
Franz Neunteufl is an agriculturalist by education and has worked many years as a project manager and consultant in
several African countries on behalf of Austrian development
cooperation. From 2003 to 2011 he held the position of
Executive Director of Médecins sans frontières (MSF) in
Austria.
In 2011, he became the Director of IGO, an interest group of
currently over 50 national and international nonprofit-
organizations in Austria. In that quality, Franz Neunteufl has been the driving force, since 2015, of the creation of an alliance of currently 18 Austrian umbrella
organizations and networks, covering a wide range of public benefit activities and
social services, in order to improve the exchange among them and to strengthen
third sector representation in Austria.
NEVEN Marilyn
Marilyn Neven is Programme Manager in the Office of International IDEA to the European Union. The International
Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
(International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization with a mandate to advance democratic processes worldwide.
Marilyn’s main role is to reinforce International IDEA’s
relations with the European institutions and Belgium, and to
enhance the Institute’s profile and visibility at these levels, as well as with democracy actors in Brussels. She also
contributes to increasing the EU focus on democratic
governance, including in the implementation of the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At
programmatic level, Marilyn focuses on gender equality and women’s
empowerment, democracy and youth participation, the implementation of the Agenda 2030 SDGs and on democracy in the EU. Marilyn has been special adviser
to the Secretary-General of the Institute in 2015. Her previous work experience
includes advisory positions to several Belgian Ministers during the period of 2008-
2014, including to the Prime Minister (2010-2011). She worked at the European
Parliament and the European Commission during the period 2004-2008.
Justice
and Consumers
NIEDERMÜLLER Péter
Mr. Niedermüller earned his PhD at the University of Debrecen in Hungary. He is the author, and co-author of
several papers and volumes on the field of cultural
anthropology. Mr. Niedermüller previously worked as
university professor, teaching ethnology and cultural anthropology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Mr. Péter
Niedermüller is currently Member of the European
Parliament, Treasurer and Vice-President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialist and Democrats. He is a full member of
the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
(LIBE), where he is engaged in issues of human rights, fundamental rights, rule of law and migration. He is also a member of the
Delegation for relations with Israel, and the Special Committee on Terrorism.
NOVOSEL Ivan
Ivan Novosel is a Director of Programs at Human Rights
House Zagreb, Croatia where he coordinates research,
monitoring and advocacy activates aimed to uphold and promote human rights standards and norms in Croatia, with
a special focus on freedom of expression, freedom of
assembly, freedom of association and protection of human
rights defenders.
He is a member of Ombudsperson's Human Rights Council,
and Government's Advisory Council on Civil Society
Development.
Ivan holds an MA in Human Rights from the Central European University, Legal
Studies Department, Hungary, and an MA in Political Science from the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Political Science, Croatia. He was awarded Open Society Justice
Initiative Fellowship in 2012/14.
Ivan's main fields of interests are human rights, rule of law, democratic institutions,
national minorities and LGBTIQ issues.
Justice
and Consumers
NYS Herman
Herman Nys is emeritus professor in medical law (KU Leuven), editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Health
Law and editor of the International Encyclopaedia of Medical
Law. He has been member of the European Group on Ethics
(2010-2016) and is first vice chair of the European Group on Ethics (2017-2019). He is co-founder (2008) and director
(2008-2017) of the European Association of Health Law. He
is president of the Institute for Care Research and
Consultancy-Lucas of KU Leuven.
O'BRIEN Ciara
Ciara O'Brien has been the chair of COHOM (Council Working
Party on Human Rights) based in the European External
Action Service since 2015. A serving Irish diplomat, she
previously worked for many years in Irish development policy focussing on both humanitarian aid and human rights policy
and programming. She chaired the CODEV (development
cooperation) working party during the Irish Presidency in 2013 and worked extensively on the 2030 Agenda
negotiations in Brussels and New York. She has had
previous postings in Paris, Brussels and Geneva.
Justice
and Consumers
O’CONNEL Noelle
Noelle was appointed Executive Director of European Movement Ireland in April 2011. European Movement
Ireland is Ireland’s longest established NFP promoting and
developing connections between Ireland and Europe through
a range of communications, advocacy, education and training projects and programmes. www.europeanmovement.ie Prior
to leading European Movement Ireland, Noelle provided
business development training, education and public affairs consultancy to a wide variety of both private and public
sector clients. She held management consultancy positions in Accenture; headed
up the Training, Education and Development function of the Construction Industry
Federation of Ireland, and was formerly a Director on the Board of Skillnets.
Noelle also has significant experience in the co-operative and third-level sectors
and holds an MSc in International & European Politics from the University of
Edinburgh, a BA Hons in European Studies and Languages from University College
Cork, Ireland. She is a Fellow of the Irish Institute of Training and Development, a member of the CIPD and the Institute of Directors of Ireland, and is also a member
of the Board of Alliance Française.
O'FLAHERTY Michael
Michael O'Flaherty is Director of the EU Agency for
Fundamental Rights. Previously, he was Established Professor
of Human Rights Law and Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland Galway,
and served as Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland
Human Rights Commission. From 2004-2012, he was a member of the United National Human Rights Committee,
latterly as a Vice-Chairperson. He is currently adjunct
Professor of Law at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Michael O'Flaherty has held a number of senior
posts at the United Nations, including the establishment of
the UN human rights field missions in Bosnia and
Herzegovina and Sierra Leone. Prof. O'Flaherty came to NUI Galway from the University of Nottingham where he was Professor of Applied
Human Rights and Co-director of the Human Rights Law Centre. His publications
include volumes on the law and practice of human rights field operations, the
professionalization of human rights field work and on human rights diplomacy.
Justice
and Consumers
O'REILLY Emily
Emily O'Reilly was elected as the European Ombudsman in 2013. She is an author and former journalist and broadcaster
who became Ireland's first female Ombudsman in 2003 and
in 2007 she was also appointed Commissioner for
Environmental Information and Freedom of Information Commissioner. As former political editor, broadcaster and
author, her career attracted significant domestic and
international recognition including a Harvard University Fellowship in 1988 and multiple national awards. She has
written three critically acclaimed books on Irish politics and
media and is a current member of the International Advisory Board of Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Ms
O'Reilly is a graduate of University College Dublin with a
Degree in European Languages and Literature (1979) and holds a Graduate
Diploma in Education from Trinity College Dublin (1980). She was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate in Laws by the National University in Ireland in 2008 for her
work in promoting human rights throughout her career as a journalist and through
her work as Ombudsman. In 2014 she was conferred a second time with an Honorary Doctorate of Law from University College Dublin in Ireland. In the course
of her journalistic career, she won two awards: Journalist of the Year and Woman
Journalist of the Year.
O’MAHONY Jean
Jean O’Mahony is the Head of Strategic Engagement with the
Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC). IHREC is Ireland’s national human rights institution and
national equality body. As Head of Strategic Engagement,
her areas of responsibility include external communications, public affairs, stakeholder engagement, and the
implementation of Ireland’s Public Sector Human Rights and
Equality Duty. Jean has previously served as a Special Adviser to the Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland)
and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade between 2011 and
2014, and as a public policy specialist in one of Ireland’s largest financial
institutions.
Justice
and Consumers
ÓMARSDÓTTIR Silja Bára
Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir is an Associate Professor at the
Faculty of Political Science at the University of Iceland. Her research mainly focuses on Icelandic society and politics,
Iceland’s foreign and security policy and feminist
international relations. She holds degrees in BA, MA and PhD degrees international relations from Lewis & Clark College,
the University of Southern California, and University College
Cork, as well as post-graduate certificates in methodology of social sciences and university teaching from the University of
Iceland. She is engaged in numerous research projects on
feminist foreign policy, peace studies, resilience and societal
security. Dr. Ómarsdóttir has served on the boards of the Icelandic Feminist Association, The Icelandic Women’s Rights Association, the
UNIFEM National Committee in Iceland, and the Icelandic Gender Equality Council.
She was a delegate on Iceland’s Constitutional Council in 2011, where she chaired the committee addressing human rights and natural resources. Currently, she
serves on the board of the Institute of International Affairs at the University of
Iceland and the board of advisors of Höfði – Reykjavik Peace Centre, as well as the
Icelandic Committee of the Red Cross. She is a member of the Icelandic chapter of the Nordic Women Mediator Network.
OOSTERWOUD Ruurd
Ruurd Oosterwoud (1989) is the founder of DROG, an organisation that researches how to combat fake news and
disinformation. DROG uses a playful approach to their
campaigns, which turns out to be an effective way to achieve awareness. For one of their campaigns DROG developed the
serious game 'Bad News', in which players are challenged to
develop and spread fake news. Together with the University
of Cambridge, DROG researches the effectiveness of this unconventional approach, based on inoculation theory. Ruurd
has an MA in Russian and Eurasian Studies. He was the first student to specialise in
Russian disinformation at Leiden University (2015). Still in University he set up recommendations for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs on fake news, based on
his research.
Justice
and Consumers
OSTLING Alina
Alina Ostling holds a PhD title in Political Sciences from the European University Institute. Alina has a long experience as
both researcher and practitioner providing analytical support
to the European Commission, to international organisations
(UNDP, UNICEF, OSCE/ODIHR), and to civil society organisations (Transparency International, Open Government
Partnership) in the areas of political participation, media,
technology and equality.
PANEK Simon
Simon Panek is the co-founder and executive director of
People in Need, a humanitarian organization based in Czech
Republic. People in Need provides humanitarian aid and solidarity for human rights and civil society, principally in
authoritarian or conflict-ridden states and zones, including
Chechnya, the Balkans, Belarus, Ukraine, and Cuba. Panek's
activism goes back to 1989, when as a student activist in the Velvet Revolution he was a leader of several anti-regime
occupation strikes. Panek served as a foreign policy specialist
on the Balkans and Human Rights issues in the presidential administration of Vaclav Havel. Simon is a member of the
European Council on Foreign Relations (www.ecfr.eu), and a
founding member of the Board of the European Partnership
for Democracy (www.eupd.eu.). From 2004 to 2010, Simon was the Chairman of a Board of Czech NGOs development platform FoRS, (www.fors.cz). From 2011 to
2013, Simon served as the Supervisory Council President of Alliance 2015,
European NGO network (www.alliance2015.org). Since last year, Simon has been the Chairman of the Board of a new institution working in former Soviet Union
countries called the Prague Civil Society Centre (www.praguecivilsociety.org).
Pánek is a recipient of the 2002 Czech State Medal of Merit and the 2003 European
of the Year Award.
Justice
and Consumers
PARADIS Evelyne
Evelyne Paradis is the Executive Director of ILGA-Europe. She is responsible for providing overall leadership, strategic
direction and management of the organisation. Evelyne
joined ILGA-Europe in 2005. Before becoming ILGA-Europe's
Executive Director, she held the position of Policy Director, coordinating the organisation's advocacy work with the
European Union, the Council of Europe and the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Among other things, she led ILGA-Europe's campaign and lobbying work on the
new proposed EU anti-discrimination directive. Prior to
joining ILGA-Europe, Evelyne worked with the UN High Commission for Human Rights, the Council of Europe and
human rights NGOs in Canada. She worked as a research assistant to the UN
Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and Special Representative for human
rights defenders, as well as a member of the preparatory team of the World Conference Against Racism. She also led human rights education projects for an
international NGO based in Canada for over two years. Originally from Canada,
Evelyne holds post-graduate degrees in history, political science and European studies from Canadian and French universities. She completed a Master's thesis on
racial discrimination and citizenship in Europe.
PARCU Pier Luigi
Pier Luigi Parcu is part-time Professor at the European
University Institute (EUI) from 2010. He is currently Area
Director of the FSR Communications & Media, Director of the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom and Director
of the Florence Competition Programme in Law and
Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). His research in
the area of industrial organization and law and economics
focuses on the interaction between regulation and antitrust in shaping firms’ behaviour. As regards research in the media
and Internet areas, Professor Parcu’s interests focus on the
effects of ownership concentration and internal governance of
the media enterprise on pluralism and freedom of expression and on the influence of offline business models on new economic developments related to online
platforms, smart cities and artificial intelligence.
Justice
and Consumers
PARDAVI Márta
Márta Pardavi is co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, a leading human rights non-governmental
organisation based in Budapest, Hungary. A lawyer by
training, she leads the organisation's work in the field of
refugee protection and protecting civic space. She now also serves on the board of PILnet Hungary Foundation and of
Verzio International Human Rights Documentary Film
Festival; previous to that, she was a member of the board, and later vice-chair, of the European Council on Refugees
and Exiles in 2003-2011.
PARENT
Since 2002 Ms. is Secretary General of AGE Platform Europe,
a network of 120 organisations representing 40 million
seniors across Europe, in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and participatory
status to the Council of Europe. AGE aims to promote older
persons’ rights at EU and UN level and voice the interests of the 190 million inhabitants aged 50+ living in the EU. Ms.
Parent represents AGE in the High Level Group on Pensions
and sits in the Euro Retail Payment Board of the European Central Bank in which she is leading an informal group on
accessibility of retail payments. She also chairs the Financial
Services Users’ Group set up by the European Commission, and the Advisory Board
of Assisted Ambient Living Joint Programme. She is a member of the Expert Group of the EU-UNECE Active Ageing Index project, and of the Advisory Board of the
New Pact for Europe. In 2016, Mrs. Parent was elected Secretary General of the
European Covenant on Demographic Change, a large network bringing together subnational public authorities, non-for-profit and profit actors who wish to join
forces to promote age-friendly environments to support active and healthy ageing
in cooperation with WHO.
Justice
and Consumers
PAST Liisa
Liisa Past is an Estonian cyber security and strategic
communication expert participatin
g in the Next Generation Leaders program at the McCain
Institute. Former Chief Research Officer at the cybersecurity
branch of the Estonian Information System Authority, she is
a cyber defense and strategic communication professional whose work has focused information security, and the social
and political impact of technology, including risk and
vulnerability management. In particular, Liisa designs, leads and carries out analysis related to cyber security, including
threat and impact assessment. Liisa Past led a pan-European
initiative to provide guidelines for cyber security of election technology. Recently, her comprehensive risk assessment of technology used in
elections in Estonia was the basis of inter-agency cooperation on election security.
Liisa’s previous assignments include Head of Communications for the NATO
Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. Liisa has contributed to a number of non-profit causes, particularly in the areas of democratic education and human
rights. Liisa Past holds a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in Political
Science and a MA (cum laude) in Media Research from Tartu University. She has taught courses in rhetoric, public relations and communication strategy, media and
minorities and political culture at a number of universities and spent research time
at the University of Oslo. As a Next Generation Leader at the McCain Institute for international Leadership, Past seeks to bolster long-term cyber defense planning in
Estonia by developing multi-scenario strategic planning approaches, defining
performance indicators, and advancing situational awareness tools.
PAULOVIČA Inita
Inita Pauloviča has more than twenty years of increasing
responsibilities in development related jobs within the Government of Latvia (Ministry of Welfare, Ministry of
Culture and State Chancellery) and international institutions
(UNDP) with the focus on setting up new institutional
strucures, processes and policies at a national level. Inita has a substantive experience in policy analysis, development,
monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning. Currenly her
responsibilities include issues related to implementation of the Public Administration Reform in Latvia and development
and of the Civil society consultation process.
Justice
and Consumers
PAZDERSKI Filip
A lawyer and sociologist after studies at University of Warsaw, he has also graduated from European Master’s
Degree Program in Human Rights and Democratization
(E.MA) in Venice. Currently he is finalising his dissertation as
a PhD candidate at the Institute of Sociology and Philosophy of the Polish Academy of Science. Since 2010 Policy analyst
and project manager in the Society and Democracy Program
of the Institute of Public Affairs in Poland. He is working on civic engagement, public participation, quality of democracy
and social enterprises development, being an author of
numerous expert opinions and publications on these subjects. He has conducted several surveys on civic education and youth public engagement
in Poland and coordinated civic monitoring of the election campaign financing
transparency during 2014 local elections in Poland. Since 2003 he is active in civil
society building, as well as promotion of human rights and democratic standards while cooperating with several different NGOs in Poland and abroad. One of the co-
founders and since 2009 a president of the Association for the Podlasie Land
DRUMLA. Co-author of the Long-term policy on volunteering development in Poland
prepared within Polish Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.
PECH Laurent
Laurent Pech is Professor of European Law and Head of the
Law and Politics Department at Middlesex University London.
Laurent is also a Visiting Professor of Law at Bordeaux
University. Professor Pech specialises in EU Public Law and has lectured in a variety of subjects including EU
Constitutional Law, EU Internal Market Law and EU
Fundamental Rights Law. Professor Pech is currently a member of the editorial board of the Hague Journal on the
Rule of Law and a member of the H2020-funded RECONNECT
project: www.reconnect-europe.eu. His most recent scholarly publication focusing on the rule of law was co-authored with Professor Kim Scheppele and is entitled
“Illiberalism Within: Rule of Law Backsliding in the EU” (2017) 19 Cambridge
Yearbook of European Legal Studies 3. Professor Pech was also the lead author of a
research report commissioned by the European Parliament on the establishment of an EU mechanism on Democracy, the Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights (PE
579.328, April 2016). He also regularly publishes on legal blogs such as the
Verfassungblog: verfassungsblog.de/author/laurent-pech/
Justice
and Consumers
PEDRESCHI Dino
Dino Pedreschi is a professor of computer science at the University of Pisa, and a pioneering scientist in data science.
He co-leads the Pisa KDD Lab - Knowledge Discovery and
Data Mining Laboratory http://kdd.isti.cnr.it, a joint research
initiative of the University of Pisa and the Information Science and Technology Institute of the Italian National
Research Council. His research focus is on big data analytics
and mining, machine learning and AI, and their impact on society: human mobility and sustainable cities, social
network analysis, complex social and economic systems, data
ethics and privacy-preserving data analytics, . He is a founder of the Business Informatics MSc program at Univ.
Pisa, a course targeted at the education of interdisciplinary
data scientists, and of SoBigData.eu, the European H2020
Research Infrastructure "Big Data Analytics and Social Mining Ecosystem" http://www.sobigdata.eu. He is the director of the interdisciplinary Data Science
PhD program at Scuola Normale Superiore I Pisa, jointly with CNR, Univ. Pisa,
Scuola Sant’Anna and Scuola IMT Lucca. Dino has been a visiting scientist at Barabasi Lab (Center for Complex Network Research) of Northeastern University,
Boston, and earlier at the University of Texas at Austin, at CWI Amsterdam and at
UCLA. In 2009, Dino received a Google Research Award for his research on privacy-
preserving data mining.
PILLAY Róisín
Róisín Pillay is Director of the Europe and Central Asia Regional Programme at the International Commission of
Jurists, where she is responsible for the ICJ’s work to
advance the legal protection of human rights across the region. She has worked extensively on national
implementation of international human rights law, on judicial
independence and the rule of law, on protection of human rights in migration, and on human rights in counter-
terrorism, and has overseen the ICJ’s programme of third
party interventions at the European Court of Human Rights,
as well as advocacy on human rights mechanisms and standards of the Council of Europe and European Union. Róisín previously worked for the Irish Law Reform
Commission, for JUSTICE, the British section of the ICJ, and as an advisor to the
UK Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, before joining the ICJ in 2006. She studied law at Trinity College Dublin and at the University of Cambridge
and qualified as a barrister in Ireland.
Justice
and Consumers
PIRC MUSAR Nataša, PhD.
After graduating from the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia in 1992, she passed the national bar
examination in 1997. From 1989 until 1996 she was
employed at the Slovenian national television station as a
journalist and news presenter for the main news programme. From 1996 she worked for five years as a news presenter on
“24 ur”, the primary information programme of the largest
commercial television broadcaster in Slovenia, POP TV. In 2003 she became the Director of the Training and
Communications Centre of the Supreme Court. From 2004
until 2014 Nataša has held the office of Information Commissioner. In 2009, Nataša Pirc Musar was elected Vice President of the
Europol Joint Supervisory Body, and in 2013 President of the JSB Europol. In 2013
she was a member of the Ad hoc EU USA group of experts with the mandate to
discuss the “Snowden” affair with USA. Nataša has her owm law firm since Janury 1, 2015. In November 2015 she successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis at Vienna
University titled How to strike the right balance between access to public
information and personal data protection – using a public interest test.
POULLET Yves
After having obtained a master in philosophy and a doctorate in legal studies, Yves Poullet has created in 1979 and has
been director of CRIDS (UNamur Research Center Computer
Law and society) since its creation in 1979 until August 31,
2010, he conducted various researches in the field of Internet law notably in the context of European research
projects. He conducted different studies on Internet
Governance (notably in link with IGF) and developed publications (more than 300 hundred) on privacy issues,
individual and public freedom, legal aspects of IPR and electronic commerce.
Moreover, he was full professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Namur (UNamur) where I teaches different lessons like Comparative Law, Roman law,
Commercial Law and Internet law. He has also be part time professor at the
University of Liège. He has conducted as promotor or member of the jury) more
than twenty-five doctoral researches, in different countries (Canada, Norway, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, UK and the Netherlands). He has been nominated as
expert in different Belgian and t international organizations (notably, UNESCO,
European Commission, Council of Europe) and chaired a lot of European and international associations in the field of his research. He is since 2009 member of
the Belgian Royal Academy, he has been rector of the University of Namur from
2010 till 2017. He is now professor emeritus of the Faculty of law (Unamur),
associate professor at the UC Lille. He is co-chairing the Namur Digital Institute (NADI which joins together more than 150 researchers from different disciplines
(Computer Sciences, management, sociology, ethics, Law) working together on
digital world..
Justice
and Consumers
PRADHAN Sanjay
Sanjay Pradhan joined the Open Government Partnership in May 2016 as Chief Executive Officer. In that capacity, Sanjay
has led the support to the 75 countries, growing local
governments and thousands of civil society organizations to
make governments more open, participatory and less corrupt. He has led OGP’s policy dialogue with Heads of
States, senior ministers and civil society organizations across
the partnership, and served as OGP’s global spokesperson. Bringing a wealth of open government and innovation
experience to the role, he previously served in three senior
positions at the World Bank: as the Vice President for Leadership, Learning and Innovation, the Vice President of
the World Bank Institute, and the Director for Governance. While at the World
Bank, Mr. Pradhan tirelessly promoted open development. He led the World Bank’s
Governance and Anticorruption Strategy, launched the Global Partnership for Social Accountability, incubated ICT-mediated citizen feedback to improve governance,
initiated Open Contracting with Partners, and rolled out a flagship Collaborative
Leadership for Development program to help government and civil society leaders undertake collaborative actions. During his tenure at the World Bank, Sanjay
gained extensive experience working in Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia.
Mr. Pradhan is a global spokesperson and distinguished speaker on open governance and anticorruption issues, appearing in major world forums including
the TED Global Conference, the UN General Assembly, the European Parliament,
the BBC World Debate, South by Southwest (SXSW), London Anti-Corruption
Summit, IACC, and OGP Global Summits in Europe, Asia and the Americas. He has published widely, and was a principal author of the 1997 World Development
Report, The State in a Changing World. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy and a
Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.
RAVO Linda
Linda Ravo is a legal expert specialised in EU human rights law. Linda works as a legal and policy officer in Directorate
General Justice in the European Commission as part of the
"Fundamental Rights Policy" unit. She is responsible for
issues related to the civil society space in the EU, access to justice and the implementation of EU policies and legislation
on countering racism and xenophobia. She also is in charge
of the mainstreaming of fundamental rights in a number of policy areas, including migration, internal security and
counter-terrorism. Before joining the Commission, Linda has
worked as a legal research assistant in the European Institutions Office of Amnesty International in Brussels and at the European Union
Agency for Fundamental Rights in Vienna, after having practiced as a lawyer in
Italy for some years. She obtained a Ph.D. in EU law at the University of Trieste,
Italy and has been focussing her academic research, lecturing and publications on EU human rights related issues, in particular in the field of access to justice, non-
discrimination and asylum.
Justice
and Consumers
REIDY Dr Theresa
Dr Theresa Reidy is a political scientist in the Department of Government at University College Cork. Her research
interests lie in the areas of party politics, political institutions
and electoral behaviour and her recent work has been
published in Electoral Studies, Parliamentary Affairs and Politics. She is currently leading a comparative project on
voter facilitation and engagement practices and working on
the most recent general election in Ireland. She has given expert evidence to parliamentary committees, the
Constitutional Convention of Ireland and the Citizens’
Assembly of Ireland is also a regular contributor to national
and international radio and tv, and the print media.
ROBLEDO Priscilla, LL.M.
Formerly an intellectual property lawyer, she joined the non-profit sector in 2015, working on various topics:
environment, migrants and refugees, anti-corruption and
transparency, civic engagement, digital democracy. She is an advocacy campaigner for civil and human rights, and
manager, supervising Riparte il futuro's strategic projects
and operations. Earlier in 2018 she has been awarded the IVLP scholarship from the US Department of State. She is
currently responsible for the management and coordination
of www.yourvotematters.eu , a multilingual platform for
citizens and CSOs involvement during the 2019 EU Elections co-financed by the EU Commission. The project (also called YouVoteEU) is being
implemented by a Consortium of 5 European NGOs.
Justice
and Consumers
ROGER Christine
Since July 2015, Christine ROGER is Director General for Justice and Home Affairs for the Council of the European
Union (Secretariat General), after having served two years as
Director for Home Affairs in the Council. From 2009 to 2013,
she was Director for Communication for the Council of the European Union and the European Council. Before joining the
Council in 2009, Christine ROGER was France's Ambassador
to the European Union's Political and Security Committee, responsible for Foreign Policy, Security and Defense issues.
She was previously Head of European Commissioner Michel
Barnier's private office when he was responsible for Regional Policy and Institutional Affairs (1999-2004) and Adviser to the President of the
European Commission Jacques Santer (1996-1999). Christine ROGER is a graduate
from the French business school Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) and
from the Ecole nationale d'Administration (ENA).
ROIRANT Jean-Marc
Originally a teacher, Jean-Marc ROIRANT has served for almost 25 years (1993-2017) as Secretary General of the
Ligue de l’Enseignement. Wishing to promote associative
engagement and activism at regional and international levels, he held several political functions within different networks of
organisations. Jean-Marc founded the European Civic Forum
in 2005, together with dozens of NGOs from all over Europe.
He now holds a position within the European Economic and Social Committee, where he is a member of the group III. He
was also appointed Chair of Civil Society Europe, the
European coordination body for civil society networks and an independent voice promoting a space for structured civil dialogue and citizen’s participation at all
levels.
Justice
and Consumers
ROMERO Carmen
Carmen Romero was appointed NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy in October 2016. She
joined NATO in May 2004 as Deputy Spokesperson and Head
of Press and Media, a position she held for 12 years. She has
also been Acting NATO Spokesperson, including during the Russia-Georgia war in August 2008. Prior to this, Carmen
had a long career as the Foreign Affairs Correspondent for
EFE News Agency based at the United Nations in Geneva, Moscow and Paris, covering events such as the revolution in
Romania, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the war in Chechnya, the
crisis in Kosovo, and the NATO campaign in the former Yugoslavia. From 2001 to 2004 she was the Defence and
Foreign Affairs Correspondent for EFE News Agency to the
European Union and NATO. During that period she was also special envoy to Iraq
and Afghanistan. Carmen has a Master’s degree in Journalism and Information Science from the Universidad Complutense de Ciencias de la Informacion de
Madrid. In 1996, she received an award for Young Journalists by the International
Press Association in Madrid for her coverage of the war in Chechenia.
EICHHORN Ron
Ron is an Austrian citizen, speaking German and English fluently, with some basic French and Spanish language skills.
He resides in Berlin, where he is the abbot of a Buddhist
center. Ron is a practicing Buddhist for more than 30 years.
He has been studying all major Mahayana Buddhist texts and Sutras for many years, as well as the main texts of the „Pali
Canon“. Ron was elected president of the EBU in 2017. He
also chaired the pan-European EBU Conference events „Buddhism in Action“ in Berlin, and „Wisdom and Compassion
in European societies“ in Malaga in April 2018. Ron is also a
professional film director, working mostly in Europe, but also
in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. In his spare time, he likes to sail on the sea and play the Ukulele. About the EBU: The European Buddhist
Union is the international umbrella association of Buddhist organizations and
National Buddhist Unions in Europe. It represents roughly 5 million Buddhist across Europe. The EBU envisions a fellowship of European Buddhists bringing Buddhist
ideas and principles into European society.
Justice
and Consumers
RURKA Anna
Anna Rurka is President of the Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe. The Conference of INGOs is a political and
collective Council of Europe body representing the INGOs
enjoying participatory status with the Council of Europe. Its
role is to affirm the political role of civil society at the Council of Europe, strengthen the freedom of association and
associated rights in the Member States and reinforcing NGO
participation in decision-making processes. With a view to achieving its objectives, the Conference of INGOs work
together with the other bodies of the Council of Europe and governmental and
intergovernmental institutions. https://www.coe.int/en/web/ingo/home
Anna Rurka, is a Senior Lecturer at the University Paris Nanterre (France), Vice
President of European Committee for Home-based Priority Action for the Child and
the Family (EUROCEF, INGO with participatory status with the Council of Europe).
RUTYNOWSKA
Advocacy officer at the Polish Society of Antidiscrimination
Law. Final-year law student at the Faculty of Law and
Administration at the University of Warsaw. Graduate of the British Law Center Diploma in English and European Law at
the Warsaw University in cooperation with University of
Cambridge. Scholarship recipient of the Humanity in Action
Foundation - John Lewis Fellowship 2017 in Atlanta, focusing on the problem of restorative justice. Graduate of the OSCE
LIVE Training on Preventing and countering violent
extremism and radicalism, after which she created her own workshops focused on human rights education for minors
placed in state-run institutions. Volunteer lecturer at "Constitutional Week", a
Zbigniew Hołda Society conducted project. She completed the workshops "Innocence Project - Preventing wrongful convictions" at the University of Warsaw
(in cooperation with Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights). She published on the
topic of legal aspects of discrimination in Rzeczpospolita journal and ngo.pl. Co-
author of the FIDH/PSAL latest report on the situation of the civil society in Poland “All downhill from here: the rapid degradation of the rule of law in Poland: what it
means for women’s sexual and reproductive rights, and LGBT+ persons’ rights”.
Justice
and Consumers
SARTOR Giovanni
Giovanni Sartor is full professor in legal informatics at the University of Bologna. He also is part-time professor in Legal
informatics and Legal Theory at the European University
Institute of Florence. After graduating cum laude at the
University of Bologna, he obtained a PhD at the European University Institute (Florence). He was researcher at the
Italian National Council of Research (ITTIG, Florence), held
the chair in Jurisprudence at Queen's University of Belfast, and was Marie-Curie professor at the European University of
Florence. He has been President of the International
Association for Artificial Intelligence and Law and is co-director of the Artificial Intelligence and law journal. He has published widely in ICT
law (data protection, ICT and human rights, intermediary liability, the regulation of
AI, etc.), legal theory (logic, argumentation, legal concepts), computational logic
(defeasible reasoning, modal, deontic, and action logic), artificial intelligence (formal argumentation, knowledge representation, multiagents systems),
legislative technique, legal philosophy, law and technology.
SCHAAKE Marietje
Marietje Schaake has been serving as Member of European
Parliament for D66/ALDE political group since 2009. She is Coordinator on the International Trade committee, where she
is the ALDE spokesperson on transatlantic trade and digital
trade. Schaake also serves on the committee on Foreign
Affairs and the subcommittee on Human Rights. She is the Vice-President of the US Delegation and serves on the Iran
Delegation and the Delegation for the Arab peninsula.
Furthermore, Schaake is the founder of the European Parliament Intergroup on the Digital Agenda for Europe. In
2017 she was Chief of the European Union Election
Observation Mission in Kenya. Since 2014, Schaake is a
‘Young Global Leader’ with the World Economic Forum and she was recently appointed as co-chair of the WEF Global Future Council on Agile
Governance. Schaake is a Member of the Transatlantic Commission on Election
Integrity, the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace and chair of the CEPS Taskforce on Software Vulnerability Disclosure in Europe. Furthermore, she is
a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and an advisor to the
Center for Human Technology.
Justice
and Consumers
SCHNEIDER Hildegard
Hildegard Schneider studied Law, Political Sciences and Art History in Freiburg (Breisgau, Germany), London, Paris and
Münster (Germany). She holds a professorship in European
Law at the universities of Maastricht (The Netherlands) and
Hasselt (Belgium) and a Jean Monnet Chair in European Migration Law. Between September 2011 and December
2017, she served as Dean of the Faculty of Law, Maastricht
University (UM). During that period she was a member of the management team of Maastricht University and a member of
the education board of the faculty of law in Hasselt
(Belgium). As Dean of the law faculty at the UM she was actively involved in the setting up of the multidisciplinary research centres: ITEM -
Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross-border and cooperation Mobility,
MACIMIDE - the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development,
CERiM Centre for European Research in Maastricht and the Maastricht Centre of Art and Culture, Conservation and Heritage (MACCH). During the last three decades,
she has been working specifically in the area of European Internal Market Law and
European Migration Law concentrating on the free movement of persons (including the mobility of professionals and students), the concept of European citizenship,
the recognition of diplomas. She conducted various studies concerning the position
of Third Country Nationals (family members of EU citizens, legal migration, high-skilled and circular migration, asylum). Furthermore, she has developed a keen
research interest in the emerging area of art & law and the protection of cultural
property. For her research efforts, she received the research award of the Faculty
of Law in 2001. Furthermore, she received the prize of the University of Maastricht
for outstanding educational achievements in 1997.
SERGEJEFF Katja
Katja Sergejeff is a young professional, with experience in
international development and social affairs.
She holds a degree in Public Policy and Political Studies from
the University of Helsinki, and in International Development
at the Antwerp University Institute of Development Policy, including a focus on political economy analysis, civil society
and the promotion of civil and political rights. Katja has also
been doing field work on qualitative data collection in Tanzania and is currently writing an article based on that
research.
Justice
and Consumers
ŠIMONOVIĆ EINWALTER mr. sc. Tena, MJur (Oxon)
Chair of the Executive Board of the European Network of Equality Bodies (Equinet) and member of its Executive
Boards since 2011. One of the drafters of the Croatian Anti-
Discrimination Act in 2008, elected by the Parliament as
Deputy Ombudswoman in 2013, focusing on anti-discrimination, freedom of expression and rights of national
minorities. Member of the Council of Europe’s European
Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) and Alt. Management Board Member of the European Union Agency
for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Delivers lectures and trainings
and publishes on human rights, rights of national minorities
and particularly non-discrimination and equality.
ŠKRABALO Marina
Marina Škrabalo is a director of SOLIDARNA – Foundation for Human Rights and Solidarity, the first private foundation for
human rights and solidarity iendeavour of the Croatian
human rights community to enhance autonomy and sustainability of human rights activism in light of rising anti-
liberal tendencies. Since 2013, Marina Škrabalo is a
member of the European Economic and Social Committee where she represents Croatian democracy and human rights
civil society organisations. Škrabalo holds MA in public
administration from Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public
Affairs, Syracuse University and BA in ethnology and history from the University of Zagreb. She has extensive experience
in non-profit management, policy analysis and advocacy, community-based peace-
building - she has cooperated with numerous civil society organisations across the Western Balkans and has published research articles on issues related to
reproductive rights policy, community mobilisation and peace-building, EU
accession process and its impact on transparency of governance and the role of national parliaments and good governance in the non-profit and public sector. As
social development, she has conducted numerous program and project evaluations
in area of EU extrenal action focused on social development and human rights
protection. Email: [email protected]
Justice
and Consumers
SLOBODNIKOVA Andrea
My name is Andrea Slobodnikova and I am Roma, originally
from Slovakia. I received both my master’s degree in Science of Management (AACSB, accredited) and doctoral degree in
Higher Education from Texas A&M University – Commerce,
Texas, United States. I currently work at the Texas A&M
University – Commerce as an Assistant Professor for the Competency Based Education Program (BAAS –
Organizational Leadership) and collaborate with the Institute
of Competency Based Institute established at the same university. This program awarded the Star Award by the
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. I am a member
in nationally and internationally recognized associations such as National Society of
Leadership and Success, Beta Gamma Sigma - The International Honor Society for College Schools of Business, Academy of Management, and Eurasian Network of
Romani Scholars. I have authored, coauthored, and presented numerous scholarly
articles of major significance in the field of organizational leadership, management, and minority higher education.
SPAVENTA Eleanor
Eleanor Spaventa is Professor of European Law at the
Bocconi Department of Legal Studies in Milan; she previously held positions in Durham, Birmingham and Cambridge (UK).
Eleanor’s research focuses on both the constitutional and
substantive law of the European Union, fields in which she has published widely. Eleanor is a recognized expert on EU
fundamental rights, a filed in which she has been publishing
for years; she has also written a report on Article 51 Charter at the request of the PETI Committee of the European
Parliament as well as provide evidence to the House of Lords
on EU fundamental rights. Currently, Eleanor is at the early stages of writing a
monograph for OUP on EU fundamental rights. A full list of publications can be found at http://didattica.unibocconi.eu/docenti/cv.php?rif=214751.
Justice
and Consumers
SPITERI Dr Marlene
Dr Marlene Spiteri LLB, Dip Not, LLD, received her Doctor of
Laws degree from the University of Malta in 2011. She was licensed to litigate in 2012. Between 2011 and 2016 she was
engaged as a Law and Judicial Cooperation Attaché at the
Permanent Representation of Malta to the EU in Brussels
(Belgium) advising the Maltese Ambassador to the EU on Justice matters. She chaired several Council Working Party
meetings during the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the
European Union. She is currently engaged as the Assistant Director for Policy Development within the Maltese Ministry
for Justice, Culture and Local Government.
STOCKWELL Nathalie
Nathalie Stockwell graduated in law in Belgium (Université
Catholique de Louvain) and specialised in European and international law in London (Master of Laws - LLM - Queen's
College, King's College and LSE). She worked at the Brussels
Bar as an "avocat" on commercial and European law issues
before joining the Court of Justice of the European Union in 1999. She has been working at the European Commission
since 2003 on issues pertaining to people’s rights.
Justice
and Consumers
STOLLMEYER Alice
Alice Stollmeyer, Executive Director of Defending Democracy,
is a digital advocacy strategist. She has lived and worked in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, the heart of the European
Union. With a solid background in social science, science
studies and communication, in 2012 Alice founded her own
consultancy @StollmeyerEU, which specialises in EU public affairs, political communications and digital advocacy. She
has been ranked a top digital EU influencer ever since. In
2016 @StollmeyerEU broadened its portfolio: previously focused on energy and climate policies, now its focus is politics, digital
developments and European values like democracy, human rights and rule of law.
On 8 November 2017, Alice Stollmeyer founded Defending Democracy, an
independent, nonpartisan initiative defending democracy from internal and external threats: illiberalism and hybrid war are two sides of the same coin. Defending
Democracy has created several communities, two of which also meet offline:
Defenders of Democracy defend Article 2 of the EU Treaty as the soul of the European Union; they organise monthly Democracy Drinks to grow and support a
wider community of democracy defenders.
STOYTCHEV Georgi
Georgi Stoytchev has more than 20 years of experience in professional journalism and media and NGO management.
He has been executive director of Open Society Institute -
Sofia (OSIS) since 2005. Before joining OSIS he worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague, Czech Republic,
including as director of the RFE/RL’s Bulgarian department in
the period 2002-2003. Since 2012 he has been serving as Manager of the Fund Operator of the Active Citizens Fund in
Bulgaria under the European Economic Area Financial
Mechanism. He started his professional career as a newscast anchor and editor at
the Bulgarian National Television in 1992. Georgi Stoytchev holds a master’s degree in Philosophy from the St. Kliment Ohridski Sofia University.
Justice
and Consumers
SZKLANNA Dr Agnieszka
Ms Agnieszka Szklanna has worked as an administrator/legal
officer in the Council of Europe since 2003. Since 2009, she has been Secretary to the Committee on Legal Affairs and
Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE), where she has been assisting PACE
rapporteurs in drafting reports, resolutions and recommendations. Her work focuses on, inter alia, relations
between the Council of Europe and the European Union,
implementation of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, protection of human rights defenders,
preventing undue restrictions on NGOs, combating
discrimination, protection of freedom of religion, of the rights of children and
national minorities. Previously, in 2003-2004 and 2004-2009 she worked as a legal officer in the
Registry of the European Court of Human Rights and then in the Department for
the Execution of ECHR Judgments. Before joining the Council of Europe, between 1999 and 2003, she had worked as lawyer in the Karniol Małecki i Wspólnicy Sp. z
o.o. law firm in Warsaw and as an academic assistant at the Warsaw University,
Faculty of Law and Administration, International Law Institute. She holds a PhD and Magister (MA) in legal studies as well as Magister (MA) in applied linguistics from
the University of Warsaw and had also studied at the Université Catholique de
l’Ouest in Angers (France). She holds a Master of Arts in European Studies from the
College of Europe – Natolin. She is qualified as an adwokat in the Warsaw bar and was a visiting lecturer at the University of Strasbourg, Institut d’Etudes Politiques,
in 2012 and 2015.
TAMBINI Dr. Damian
Dr. Damian Tambini is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Media and
Communications, London School of Economics. He is an Associate Fellow at the
Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), and at The Oxford Internet Institute. He
is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and serves on the Advisory Groups of: The Oxford Media Convention, the Creative Archive License Group and Polis. From June
2002 - August 2006 Damian was Head of the Programme in Comparative Media
Law and Policy at Oxford University. Before that he was director of the IPPR media programme (1999-2002, at Nuffield College, Oxford (Postdoctoral Fellow, 1998)
Humboldt University, Berlin (lecturer, 1997) and the European University Institute,
Florence, Italy (PhD 1996). Dr. Tambini’s research interests include media and telecommunications policy and democratic communication. He co-edited
'Cyberdemocracy' (Routledge 1998) and 'Citizenship, Markets, and the State'
(Oxford University Press 2000). Other recent and forthcoming publications include:
‘Nationalism in Italian Politics’ (Routledge 2001), 'New News: Impartial Broadcasting in the Digital Age' (edited by D. Tambini and J. Cowling, IPPR 2002)
and 'Privacy and the Media' (with Clare Heyward, IPPR, December 2003). Damian’s
most recent book, ‘Codifying Cyberspace’ (with Chris Marsden and Danilo Leonardi) was published in January 2008.
Justice
and Consumers
TAYLOR-EAST Claudia
CEO of SOS Malta, a Voluntary Organisation established in
1991. Has been engaged in promoting volunteering in Malta and overseas in her managing roles in the third sector. Was
executive chairman of the Malta Hospice Movement
spearheading the development of Palliative Care services in
Malta. She has led various voluntary missions to Albania, Kosovo, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Uganda offering humanitarian
assistance during emergency phase contributing to the
enhancement of Malta’s reputation in the field of international solidarity. Her personal commitment to extensive community
and philanthropic activities contributes and creates all kinds
of partnerships that underlie a truly civil society.
TOFVESSON Mr. Mikael
Acting deputy head of Coordination and Operations
department
Head of MSB Counter Influence Task Force for Election 2018
Mr. Mikael Tofvesson has worked for the Swedish Civil
Contingencies Agency (MSB) since its beginning, in January
2009. As acting deputy head, he is responsible for coordinating MSB’s efforts to identify and counter influence
campaigns and other hybrid threats. He has previously been
head of operational analysis branch and head of the Global
Monitoring and Analysis Section. During his years at the MSB, he has headed several crisis management task forces. During
2007 and in early 2008, he was Chief J2X at the EU Nordic
Battle Group (F)HQ. Between 1989 and 2007, Mr. Tofvesson held various positions within the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Directorate. He holds a
bachelor's degree in Cultural Anthropology from Stockholm University.
Justice
and Consumers
TUBBING Niels
Niels Tubbing has a BA degree in Media & Culture, and a MA degree in Film & Philosophy. He has been working for the
City of Amsterdam since 2009, mostly in the field of
integration policies and adult education. He was the project
leader of the Welcome Europe project (2015-2016), an international collaboration between six different European
cities focusing on local welcoming policies for EU mobile
citizens. The project demonstrated that cities have a key role to play in the inclusion of mobile EU citizens in the host
community, since they are best placed to define the needs in their locality and put
in place adequate policies to fill these needs.
Since 2017 Tubbing is also international coordinator of the City of Amsterdam working group ‘Citizenship, Inclusion and Education’, as well as an EU-ambassador
of the City of Amsterdam. Through both these roles he aims to bring together local
and European priorities on matters of citizenship participation.
TUDOR Marius
Marius Tudor is a Romanian Roma, who was born and raised
in the Roma community of Marginenii de Jos. Marius joined EPHA in May 15, 2017, as the Roma Health and Early
Childhood Development Project Manager, after 6 years as
project manager for the association Center of Resources for Social Inclusion CRIS in Romania where he successfully
organized four local Roma communities to better represent
their interest in the relationship with policy and decision
makers. Marius ensures EPHA's Roma actions grow to their full potential, alongside its members, including the efficient implementation of
EPHA's projects. Marius holds a bachelor's degree in economics and one in Law and
in May 2015, graduated from Harvard University, where he specialized in
community organizing and leadership.
Justice
and Consumers
TURK Dr. Žiga
Dr. Žiga Turk (1962) is a professor of construction information technology and researcher in the field of design
communication and internet science at the University of
Ljubljana, Slovenia. As an academic he has published over 50
journal articles, he co-edits premier scientific journal of his field, was visiting professor in Ireland, Sweden, Turkey and
Croatia and has participated in several EU framework
projects. He is former Slovenian minister for development as well as for education, science, culture and sports. Between
2008 and 2010 he was Secretary General of the Reflection Group on the Future of
Europe. He is active in a few High Level Expert Groups of the European Commission including on Fake News and European Science Cloud. He is member of the
Academic Council of the Martens Center and author of the Center’s report on the
Future of Work.
UMEK Urška
Urška Umek (1975) is the Head of Media Unit at the Council
of Europe’s Information Society Department, responsible for developing standards in the area of media freedom. She
previously worked as a lawyer at the Registry of the
European Court of Human Rights (2012 - 2016) and as a lawyer-linguist at the Court of Justice of the European Union
(2008), after starting her career as a legal adviser at the
Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, where she
also headed the Research and International Cooperation Department from 2009 until 2012. She contributed to the
2011 “Commentary to the Constitution of the Republic of
Slovenia” and to the book “The Constitutional Reforms of the
Constitutional Justice”.
Justice
and Consumers
VALCKE Dr Anthony
Dr Anthony Valcke is the founder and supervising solicitor of the EU Rights Clinic, the first law clinic to specialise in EU law
which was set up by ECAS in collaboration with the University
of Kent in Brussels. He has also been an advisor for Your
Europe Advice for over twelve years. He is visiting lecturer at Kent where he teaches postgraduate courses on EU migration
law and EU advocacy. He is also Adjunct Professor of Law at
Vesalius College in Brussels where he teaches undergraduate courses on EU law relating to the single market and legal
aspects of migration. He is qualified as a solicitor in England and is also a member
of the Brussels and Palermo bars. He received his PhD in Comparative Law from the Università di Palermo (Italy) and holds degrees in English and French law as well as
a postgraduate qualification in EU law.
VAN HEEL MERDANOVIC Ajla
Ajla van Heel Merdanovic is currently Adviser on Gender
Equality at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and
Human Rights (ODIHR). Her expertise includes promoting women’s political participation and strengthening national
mechanisms for the advancement of women. While at
ODIHR, she contributed to the development of the following publications: Gender Equality in Elected Office: A Six-Step
Action Plan, Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions
on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, Comparative Study
of Structures for Women MPs in the OSCE Region, Handbook on Promoting Women’s Participation in Political Parties, and Compendium of Good
Practices for Advancing Women’s Political Participation in the OSCE Region. Prior to
the OSCE, she worked with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), focusing on prevention of
trafficking in women and girls in the Western Balkans. Ms. van Heel holds a
bachelor degree in international affairs from Princeton University and a master’s degree in human rights from University of Bologna. Her efforts to promote peace
and women’s rights were recognized through awards received from the British
Royal Family, Rotary International, and Zonta International.
Justice
and Consumers
VAN RAEMDONCK Dan
Dan Van Raemdonck is a Doctor in Philosophy and Literature and a Professor of French Linguistics at both Free Universities
of Brussels. After years as a militant with the Ligue des
Droits de l’Homme (LDH, Frenchspeaking Belgium), he
served as its president from 2000 to 2006. He focused on denouncing Belgian politicians guilty of discrimination in
migration matters and economical and social rights. He
created and chaired the European Association for the Defence of Human Rights (AEDH, 2000-2006). Since 2006, he has
been Honorary President of LDH and AEDH. He has been
Vice-President of the International Federation for human Rights (FIDH, 2007-2013) and is now Secretary General
(2013- ). At FIDH, he specialized in issues relating to counter
terrorism, SOGI rights and the Rule of Law.
VICENTE Lydia
Lydia Vicente is a Human rights lawyer and consultant. She is
the Executive Director of Rights International Spain. She has working experience with International Organizations,
including OSCE-ODIHR and as part of international peace-
keeping missions in Kosovo and Timor-Leste in areas
including justice sector reform, legal systems monitoring and analysis, international criminal law, international
humanitarian law and international human rights law. She
has also worked with international human rights NGOs and grass-roots organizations in Bolivia, Kenya, Brazil and India.
She also has experience in conflict-affected areas in the
Middle East and North Africa region.
Justice
and Consumers
VIDOVIĆ Lora
Lora Vidović was born in 1973 in Nova Gradiška. She finished her secondary education in Varaždin and graduated from the
Faculty of Law in Zagreb in 1997. In 2001, she obtained her
Master's degree with the thesis „Ombudsman for children“
following post-graduate studies of Civil Law at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb. In 2006, she passed the Bar Exam. She took
over the duty of the Ombudsman on March 1st 2013, after
the Parliament appointed her the commissioner responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights and
freedoms, for a term of eight years. Since March 2016 she
has been the Chair of ENNHRI and a European Member of GANNHRI Bureau. She has been working in the field of human rights protection and
promotion throughout her working career, especially from the perspective of public
international law, as well as on establishing highest international human rights
standards within the legal system of the Republic of Croatia. Prior to being appointed Ombudsman she worked as the Head of the UNICEF Office in Croatia and
in the period from 2006 to 2010 she worked as a Deputy Ombudsman for Children.
During that time, she had the opportunity to work on promoting the general knowledge on and improvement of children’s rights and interests in Croatia. She
participated on numerous international seminars, conferences and meetings related
to human rights and democratization. Also, she published a series of expert papers concerning the status of women in employment and on children’s status in society
and family.
VON SCHNURBEIN Katharina, M.St. MES
Katharina von Schnurbein was appointed the first European
Commission Coordinator on combatting Antisemitism in
December 2015. Prior to this, she worked for five years as advisor to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on
the dialogue with religions and non-confessional
organisations.
Katharina started working for the European Commission in
2002 as press officer for the EU Delegation in Prague. With enlargement, she moved to Brussels as the spokesperson for
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal opportunities under the
responsibility of the Czech EU Commissioner Vladimir Špidla. Prior to these posts, Katharina worked for the Chairman of the European Affairs
Committee at the German Bundestag in Berlin as well as a for an international
crisis management consultancy.
Justice
and Consumers
VON REPPERT-BISMARCK Juliane
Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck is the founder of Lie Detectors,
an independent journalist-led news-literacy campaign raising awareness of disinformation and media bias among European
schoolchildren and their teachers. She directs Lie Detectors’
development and strategy. Juliane represents Lie Detectors
within the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Digital Disinformation and Fake News and has advised
politicians and lawmakers on anti-radicalisation in an age of
media pluralism. An award-winning journalist, Juliane previously wrote for MLex, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Newsweek, Spiegel
Online, the Toronto Globe and Mail and others, reporting from Europe and the US
as well as from sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Arctic. She is an alumnus
of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York.
VOOLMA Halliki
Halliki Voolma is a Policy Officer working in the gender equality unit of DG Justice of the European Commission. She
gained her PhD from the University of Cambridge
Department of Politics and International Relations where she researched domestic violence against women with insecure
immigration status as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. She has
published her research in Violence Against Women journal,
the UN Women discussion paper series, and openDemocracy. Prior to joining the Commission she worked as the Founding
Director of a national social norms development programme
“Action-Metre” in Estonia.
Justice
and Consumers
VYAS Dr Lakshmi
Dr Lakshmi Vyas is the President of Hindu Forum of Europe, which is an umbrella organisation with more than 14
members from other European countries. Her main function
is to lobby and liaise with European Parliament and
Commission, on the recent challenging situations and pray for peaceful negotiations for the betterment of all faiths and
convictions. HFE works with HFB our partner in UK, to
achieve our aims and goals of mutual respect, peace and harmony. Dr Vyas is an Educationist cum Academician and
served as Principal of one of the most reputed college-
Elphinstone College in Mumbai. Currently works in the Educational Circle as
Internal and External Quality Assurer.
Dr Vyas’s other responsibilities are
Vice President & Chair of Education and Census coordinator - Hindu Forum of Britain,
Member of Religious Education Council, UK,
SACRE (Standing Advisory Committee for Religious Education for Royal Borough of Greenwich,
Executive member of UKWOMEN Network and involved with several other
charity work.
Executive member of ECRL - European council of Religiious leaders.
Dr vyas speaks seven languages and authored three books and published more
than 30 papers in International magazines.
WACHTELAER Claude
Né à Bruxelles en 1949
Enseignant
Psychologue (travail et organisations). Inspecteur – directeur honoraire du département de
l’Instruction publique - Schaerbeek.
Secrétaire général fondateur de la Fédération Humaniste Européenne (1990 – 2000)
Président de l’Initiative de dialogue interconvictionnel ‘Une
âme pour l’Europe – éthique et spiritualité’(1995 – 2005).
Président de l’asbl Pensée Libre Pour l’Europe depuis 2016.
Justice
and Consumers
WARREN Mark E.
Mark E. Warren holds the Harold and Dorrie Merilees Chair
for the Study of Democracy at the University of British Columbia. He is especially interested in democratic
innovations, civil society and democratic governance, and
political corruption. He is currently working with an
international team on a project entitled Participedia (www.participedia.net), which uses a web-based platform to
collect data about democratic innovation and participatory
governance around the world.
WHITE Aidan
Aidan White is the President of the Ethical Journalism
Network, the global organisation of the world’s major media professional groups which promotes ethics, good governance
and self-regulation of journalism across all media platforms.
White is a journalist who has worked on numerous publications including The Guardian and the Financial Times
and for 24 years was General Secretary of the International
Federation of Journalists, during which time he helped create the world’s largest organisation of journalists with members
in 126 countries. He founded the EJN in 2012. Today the
Network has more than 60 members and supports
programmes to strengthen journalism in the Middle East, South Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. It has provides leadership in strengthening
ethics, good governance and self-regulation in journalism across all platforms of
media. White is also founder of global networks and coalitions of media organisations and press freedom groups. In particular, the International Freedom of
Expression Exchange, (1993) and news safety International News Safety Institute,
(2003). For 30 years he has been an adviser to the intergovernmental organisations, including the United Nations and its major agencies, on ethical
journalism and regulation of media. He has written extensively on media policy,
journalism and human rights and has advised on international policy to combat
hate-speech and intolerance in journalism. He currently works closely with media development groups in South East Europe, Turkey, the Middle East and China and
has recently produced reports on the press freedom situation in Turkey (Censorship
in the Park, 2014) and edited three extensive reports for the EJN (The Trust Factor: Self-Regulation in Journalism, 2015, and Untold Stories: How Corruption in
Journalism, Politics and Business Stalks the Newsroom, 2015; and Moving Stories:
Media Coverage of Migration, 2017).
Justice
and Consumers
WOOLLEY Simon
Simon Woolley is co–founder and Director for Operation Black Vote. An organisation that tackles persistent race
inequality through Black and minority ethnic democratic
engagement.
Board memberships: Chair of No10 Downing St, Race Disparity Unit, advisory group , Police Now , Open society
foundation: Global Drugs Policy project , Open Society
Foundation: Roma Initiative Organisation
Past rolls:Commissioner at the EHRC responsibility for race 2008-2012 He has sat on two successful Government task
forces: REACH which looks at why some Black youths are
alienated, and Harriet Harman’s BME gender committee looking at ways to improve political representation for BME women.
Simon has been a visiting lecture at Nottingham University in their Social Sciences
Department for the past three years. In 2012 he received a honorary Doctrate for
his work in equality and Human Rights by the University of Westminster Publication: How to achieve better BME political representation. Published by the
Government Equalities Office. May 2008 Simon was voted onto the Grass roots
Powerlist 2002 which was published by the Big Issue and has also been awarded the Men of Merit Award in 2003 and the Bernie Grant community award in 2005,
Daily Telegraph most influential ‘Left’ thinkers 2009 and 2010. Evening Standard’s
London’s 1000 most influential people 2010, and 2011, and the Black Powerlist 2012/13/14/15/16/17 Simon is a regular contributor to the Guardians Comment is
Free web site and also writes for the Guardian, The Huffington post and the
Independent newspapers He is a regular contributor for the African, Caribbean and
Asian press. He regularly appears on national TV and radio programmes.
WOOPEN Christiane
Christiane Woopen is Professor for Ethics and Theory of Medicine at the University of Cologne. There she is Executive
Director of the Cologne Center for Ethics, Rights, Economics,
and Social Sciences of Health (ceres). She is as well Head of
Research Unit Ethics and vice dean for academic development and gender at University Medicine Cologne. She
is coordinator and leader of several international and national research projects
concerning ethical aspects of reproductive medicine, neuroethics, quality of life, aging, genome editing and digital health. She is former chair of the German Ethics
Council and President of the 11th Global Summit of National Ethics/Bioethics
Committees 2016. Amongst others she was member of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO until 2017. In 2017 she was appointed Chair of the
European Group on Ethics of Science and New Technologies (EGE), which advises
the European Commission. In July 2018 she was appointed as co-chair of the newly
established Data Ethics Commission of the German Government.
Justice
and Consumers
WYLIE Christopher
Christopher Wylie is a social researcher and data scientist. He has served as a senior adviser in both the British and
Canadian governments, and has extensive experience using
technology to improve communication and citizen
engagement. With an avid interest in cultural applications of technology, his postgraduate research focused on fashion
trend forecasting. Christopher is the former Director of
Research for Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group, which was a UK-based military contractor specialising in information
warfare. He witnessed first hand how culture, information
and algorithms were being weaponised by militaries, governments and companies to undermine elections around
the world. In 2018, Christopher worked with The Guardian
and New York Times as a whistleblower to expose how social media data was being
exploited and turned against ordinary citizens. Time 100 nominated Christopher for his work revealing the risks posed by unfettered data misuse and the growing
power of large technology companies. His testimonies at the United States
Congress and British Parliament served as a wake up call for many and have quickly led to new legislative proposals in both countries. Christopher is a graduate
of the London School of Economics and lives in London, UK.
YOUNGS Richard
Richard Youngs is senior fellow at Carnegie Europe. He is also
professor of international relations at the University of
Warwick. He is author of twelve books, including most recently Europe Reset: New Directions for the EU (Tauris,
2017). At Carnegie he coordinates the Reshaping European
Democracy project.
Justice
and Consumers
ZACHARZEWSKI Anthony
Anthony Zacharzewski is trying to make European democracy work. After fourteen years in strategic roles in UK central and
local government, he founded the Democratic Society to
develop new approaches to democratic governance that are
better suited to a networked world. Since 2010 he has grown the organisation to a team of 15 across three countries
undertaking practical democracy projects and research with
public bodies from village councils to the European Commission. Recent and current project partners include the
European Commission’s DGs for Networks, Research and
Communications, the Open Society Foundations, the Scottish Government, the Serbian government, the Council of Europe,
and the Omidyar Network. He is involved in numerous
European networks including the Club of Venice, SEECOM, and the World Forum for
Democracy’s Democracy Incubator.
From 1996 to 2010, he worked for the Treasury, Cabinet Office, and Department of
Health, and led the strategy team for the city of Brighton & Hove.
ZUIDERVEEN BORGESIUS Frederik
Frederik Zuiderveen Borgesius is a researcher (Marie Curie
fellow) at the LSTS Research Group on Law, Science,
Technology & Society, at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is also a fellow of the Institute for Information law (IViR) at the
University of Amsterdam. He has published extensively on
privacy, freedom of expression, and discrimination. He
regularly presents his work to academics, policymakers, and other stakeholders around the world. He has presented at the
leading international conferences in his field, and at the
Dutch and European parliaments. At the request of the European Parliament, he wrote a report on the proposal for an ePrivacy Regulation
in 2017. His 2014 PhD thesis focused on the regulation of behavioural targeting, a
type of online advertising. The thesis was awarded the René Cassin Prize of the
International Institute of Human Rights. An important theme of his research is protecting fairness and fundamental rights in the context of new technologies. In
2017 he received a EU Marie Curie grant, to conduct research into the risk of
discrimination in the context of machine learning and artificial intelligence.