Plenary Speakers

Mariclaire Acosta Urquidi

Former Undersecretary of Foreign Relations for Human Rights and Democracy, Mexico; Member of the New Tactics Working Group

Mariclaire Acosta served as the deputy secretary for human rights and democracy at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2001 to 2003. Before joining the public sector, she was president of the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights and the executive director of the Mexican Human Rights Academy. Several international human rights organizations have benefited from her consulting services, including the John Merck Fund and the John B. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She has also taught at a number of academic institutions, including the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Ali Bayramoglu

New Tactics Program Director, Helsinki Citizens Assembly, Turkey

Ali Bayramoglu is the director of the New Tactics Project for the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly in Turkey. Before coming to hCa, he worked as a journalist for many of Turkey’s leading newspapers, including as an editor at Yeni Safak. Prior to that he spent two decades in academia, as a professor of political science at the University of Marmara. Ali earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Istanbul, where he wrote his thesis on the role of the army in Turkish political life.

Murat Belge

Chair of the Board of Directors, Helsinki Citizens Assembly

Murat Belge earned his Ph. D in English literature from Istanbul University in 1969. In 1972, he was arrested because of his political activities. In 1974, he returned to his teaching position at the university. In 1982 he resigned to become editor in chief at Iletisim Publishing Group. In 1990 he participated in the founding meeting of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly and served on its Executive Council for two consecutive terms. He has written widely on daily cultural life, world issues and politics and has translated the works of Joyce, Dickens, Lawrence, Berger and Faulkner. His books include From History to the Quotidian, Socialism - Turkey and the Future, The Aesthetics of Marx, Where in the World is Turkey?, Guide Book to Istanbul, 12 Years after September 12, The Blue Cruise, and Literary Criticism.

Jon Benjamin

Head of Human Rights Policy Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom

Jon Benjamin has worked for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office since 1986. He currently heads the Human Rights Policy Department. Before taking this position he served as the deputy head of the Drugs and International Crime Department and has headed the Zimbabwe Unit, the Political Section of the British Embassy in Ankara and the Central Asia and Transcaucasus Section. Mr. Benjamin is fluent in French, German, Swedish, Indonesian and Turkish.

Yilmaz Ensaroglu

President, mazlumder, Turkey

Human rights activist Yilmaz Ensaroglu was elected to the Administrative Board at the first General Assembly (1992) of the Organization for Human Rights and Solidarity for Oppressed People (mazlumder), established in 1991. Between 1993 and 1996 he served as vice president, and from 1996 to 2004 as president. He relinquished that role on May 30, 2004. Over the course of 12 years he has presented many proclamations at various conferences and symposiums, as well as articles published in various newspapers and magazines. A part of his essays are collected in the book An Incomplete Value, Human Rights.

Turgay Ergun

General Director, TODAIE

Professor Turgay Ergun has been the elected director general and the chairman of the board of the Public Administration Institute for Turkey and the Middle East (TODAIE) since 1996. Since 1989 he has been a member of the Board of Management of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA) and in July 2004 he was elected president of the organization. Prof. Ergun graduated from Ankara University’s Faculty of Political Science in 1965. He received his MPA degree in 1969 and Ph.D. degree in 1973 from New York University. After working for some time as a specialist at the Ministry of National Education’s Organization and Method Unit, he transferred to the Department of the Treasury as a research specialist. He became an associate professor in 1980, and a full professor in 1988. From 1989 to 1990 he was a visiting Fulbright professor at the University of Tennessee. He has taught at the Army War School, Police Academy, Gazi University and Hacettepe University and has led doctoral dissertations at Ankara University. He has published several books and numerous articles in Turkey and abroad.

Mufuliat Fijabi

Senior Program Officer, BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights, Nigeria

Mufuliat Fijabi is a senior programme officer with BAOBAB for Women’s Human Rights. She joined BAOBAB in 1999 as an assistant program officer and works there on issues of women’s human rights, Muslim laws, violence against women, and gender and communication. Before 1999, she was a full-time journalist in both print and electronic media organizations. In 2001 she worked on the media committee in the planning of the National Mock Tribunal, a forum for women to testify to their experiences and abuses of their rights.

Somchai Homlaor

Secretary General, Forum Asia, Thailand

Somchai Homlaor is secretary general of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia). Forum-Asia was launched in December 1991 to facilitate collaboration among human rights organizations in Asia and develop a regional response for the promotion of human rights and democracy in the region. Collaboration among members of Forum-Asia is based on the understanding that human rights and fundamental freedoms are indivisible and interdependent. They include not only civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights but also the rights of peoples to pursue freely their economic, social and cultural development.

Douglas A. Johnson

Executive Director of the Center for Victims of Torture

Mr. Johnson has been a committed advocate of human rights since the 1970s, when he chaired the Infant Formula Action Coalition (INFACT). INFACT launched a boycott against the world’s largest food corporation, Nestle, to force it to change its marketing practices. As CVT’s executive director since 1988, He has led the organization through an important period of growth, as offices and treatment centers opened in St. Paul, Washington, D.C., Guinea and Sierra Leone. He has also pioneered the New Tactics in Human Rights project and the Tactical Mapping methodology. He was an original member of the OSCE Advisory Panel on the Prevention of Torture (established in 1998) and continues to serve on the panel.

Salma Khan

Former Chair and current member, United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women; board member, Women for Women, Bangladesh; Member New Tactics Working Group

Ms. Salma Khan, an economist and international human rights expert, was elected a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1992 and is now serving her third term. She was the first Asian to be elected chairperson of CEDAW in 1997. Ms. Khan has been involved in public office as a key decision-maker in the area of women in development for over 19 years. She has to her credit initiation of Women’s Wing in the National Planning Commission and mainstreaming gender issues in the macro framework of Five Year Development Plans of Bangladesh. Ms. Khan is a member of the National Council on Women and Development and National Education Commission. She is a board member of Women For Women: A Research and Study Group and founder of CEDAW Forum, an action and lobbying group for full implementation of the Women’s Convention. Ms. Khan is currently the Chairperson and Project Coordinator of NGO Coalition of Beijing Plus Five (NCBP) – a coalition of over 624 NGO’s committed to establish human rights of Bangladeshi women.

Maina Kiai

Chairman, Kenya National Human Rights Commission

Maina Kiai is the chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, which is a statutory but independent national human rights institution, with a broad mandate on protecting and promoting human rights in Kenya, as well as advising government on policy measures affecting human rights. The KNCHR was appointed in August 2003, with eight fulltime commissioners, and one chairperson, through a parliamentary process. Mr. Kiaia joined the National Commission from civil society, having been the founding Executive Director of Kenya’s leading human rights NGO, the Kenya Human Rights Commission, as well as Africa Director at Amnesty International in London, and the International Human Rights Law Group (now GlobalRights) in Washington DC.

Morten Kjaerum

President, International Association of National Human Rights Institutions and Director, Danish Institute for Human Rights, Denmark; Member New Tactics Working Group

Morten Kjaerum is an expert within the field of international human rights law and development of methodologies and strategies for their implementation. He has served as executive director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights and co-director of the Danish Centre for International Studies and Human Rights since 2003. From 1991 to 2002 he was executive director of the Danish Centre for Human Rights and from 1984 to 1991 he headed the asylum department in the Danish Refugee Council. Mr. Kjaerum has been a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination since 2002 and in 2004 he was elected president of the International Coordination Committee for National Human Rights Institutions.

Berry A. Kralj

Rule of Law Expert, OSCE ODHIR

Berry A. Kralj is a lawyer and Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs secondee to the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, an institution of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Since 2002 he has served as a rule of law advisor focusing on the South Caucasus, including Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Prior postings have included Montenegro, Kosovo and Vienna. Prior to working in international relations Mr. Kralj worked was an investigative judge and district attorney in Switzerland and taught law and economics for eight years. In November he will begin his new position as the personal advisor to the OSCE special representative (of the Chairman-in-Office) in combating trafficking in human beings, Minister Helga Konrad.

Mary Lawlor

Director of Front Line - the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Ireland

Mary Lawlor has a background of 30 years experience in human rights. She set up Front Line - the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in 2001 in order to focus solely on supporting and defending human rights defenders at risk. As director, she represents the organisation and has a key role in its development. Prior to Front Line, she was director of the Irish Section of Amnesty International for 12 years and before that was a board member for 15 years, during which she served as chair from 1983-1987. She has wide experience in the development of a human rights organisation having a significant role in bringing the Irish section of Amnesty from a membership of less than a hundred with no staff, to a professional, well-known and respected organisation with 14,000 members and 13 staff. She has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and psychology and postgraduate degrees in personnel management and montessori teaching.

Sofia Macher

Former Executive Director, Coordinadora de Derechos Humanos and Commissioner, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Peru; Member New Tactics Working Group

Dr. Sofía Macher, ex-commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, is the recipient of the 2004 Notre Dame Prize for Distinguished Public Service in Latin America. Her work with human rights elevated her to a position on the Executive Secretariat of the Coordinadora Nacional de Derechos Humanos (National Organizing Committee of Human Rights–a coalition of NGOs dedicated to human rights). Since the middle of the 1990s, when the human rights movement revitalized its efforts to restore democracy in her country, she represented civil society in the negotiations that led to the agreement that paved the way for Peru’s democratic transition. Currently, she continues her human rights work at the Institute for Legal Defense.

Liam Mahony

Board Member, Peace Brigades International and Lecturer in Human Rights, Princeton University, USA; Member New Tactics Working Group

Liam Mahony is an activist for nonviolence and human rights who has worked with Peace Brigades International since 1987. He has coordinated PBI’s volunteer accompaniment in Guatemala, facilitated volunteer trainings, served on PBI’s International Board and advised all of PBI’s projects as well as other NGO accompaniment projects. Together with Luis Enrique Eguren, he co-authored the book, Unarmed Bodyguards: International Accompaniment for the Protection of Human Rights, (Kumarian Press, 1997). Mr. Mahony is also the author of Risking Return: NGOs in the Guatemalan Refugee Return, (Life and Peace Institute, Uppsala, 1999). Mr. Mahony taught human rights seminars at Princeton University (2000-2003) and is now a consultant for several international NGOs, including the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and the New Tactics in Human Rights Project of the Center for Victims of Torture.

Joseph Otteh

Director, ACCESS for Justice, Nigeria; Member New Tactics Working Group

Mr. Otteh is a Nigerian lawyer and Director of Access to Justice, a Nigerian non-profit justice advocacy organization. He holds two Masters in Law Degrees from the University of Lagos and New York University. His involvement with human rights advocacy began quite early in his career spanning work with a number of human rights organizations in different capacities. They include the Civil Liberties Organization, Nigeria, and the Social and Economic Rights Action Center (SERAC). He was a Visiting Researcher of the Danish Center for Human Rights and has done some research work for Amnesty International on the death penalty. Mr. Otteh was a Global Public Service Scholar of New York University, New York, and is a member of the board of three organizations. He is editor-in-chief of Cases on Human Rights, an international caselaw report on human rights, and editor of The Justice Observatory Justice, a justice ethics and independence journal. He is the author of Fading Lights of Justice, and a number of other articles on human rights.

Michael H. Posner

Executive Director, Human Rights First, USA

Michael Posner, executive director of Human Rights first (founded as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in 1978), has been at the forefront of the international human rights movement for 25 years. Under his leadership Human Rights First lawyers began to go to foreign countries to investigate the status of human rights firsthand. In the years since, Human Rights First has sponsored more than 50 fact-finding missions and issued reports on numerous countries, including El Salvador, South Africa and Cambodia. In 1980 Posner played a key role in proposing and campaigning for the first U.S. law providing for political asylum and the Torture Victim Protection Act. Posner also helped found the Fair Labor Association.

Kailash Satyarthi

Chairman, South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude, India; Member New Tactics Working Group

Mary Lawlor has a background of 30 years experience in human rights. She set up Front Line - the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders in 2001 in order to focus solely on supporting and defending human rights defenders at risk. As director, she represents the organisation and has a key role in its development. Prior to Front Line, she was director of the Irish Section of Amnesty International for 12 years and before that was a board member for 15 years, during which she served as chair from 1983-1987. She has wide experience in the development of a human rights organisation having a significant role in bringing the Irish section of Amnesty from a membership of less than a hundred with no staff, to a professional, well-known and respected organisation with 14,000 members and 13 staff. She has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and psychology and postgraduate degrees in personnel management and montessori teaching.

Denise Searle

Senior Director for Campaigns and Communications, Amnesty International, United Kingdom

Denise Searle is senior director of communications and campaigning for Amnesty International, responsible for the organization’s audio-visual, publications and web teams, the press office and a wide range of campaign work from grassroots activism to major international initiatives such as Stop Violence Against Women. She joined AI in May 2004 after almost 25 years’ experience, including reporting, editing, union activity and campaigning for media freedom, women’s rights and international solidarity. Denise joined AI from UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, where she was chief of the Internet, broadcast and image section. Prior to that she was editor of programme support at the UK’s Channel 4 Television, in charge of campaigns, websites, publications and telephone helplines.

Jody Williams

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (1997), Ambassador, International Campaign to Ban Landmines

Jody Williams was awarded, along with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. The ICBL was formally launched by six nongovernmental organizations in October of 1992. Williams oversaw the growth of the ICBL to more than 1,300 NGOs in more than eighty-five countries and served as the chief strategist and spokesperson for the campaign. Working in an unprecedented cooperative effort with governments, UN bodies and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the ICBL achieved its goal of an international treaty banning antipersonnel landmines during the diplomatic conference held in Oslo in September 1997.