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Steering Committee

*Ex-officio member as representative of the Secretariat

Mariclaire Acosta, Mexico

Director of the Americas, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)

Mariclaire Acosta is the current Director of the Americas at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).  Prior to joining the ICTJ, Ms. Acosta served as special adviser to the secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS) on civil society affairs and as Deputy Secretary for Human Rights and Democracy at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before that she served as Special Ambassador for Human Rights and Democracy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as Adviser to the Social Convergence Working Group for Civil Organizations, Political Coordinating Office and Transition Team for President Vicente Fox. Her involvement with human rights encompasses a wide spectrum of non-profit, public, and private activities.

Ms. Acosta is a founding member and former president of the Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos (non-profit Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights), a founding member and former executive director of the Academia Mexicana de Derechos Humanos (Mexican Human Rights Academy), and served as chairperson of the Mexican section of Amnesty International.

Mahnaz Afkhami, Iran

President, Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace

Mahnaz Afkhami is Founder and President of Women's Learning Partnership (WLP), Executive Director of the Foundation for Iranian Studies and former Minister of State for Women's Affairs in Iran. Born in Kerman, Iran, she founded the Association of Iranian University Women and served as secretary general of the Women's Organization of Iran prior to the Islamic revolution.

In exile in the United States, Ms. Afkhami has been a leading advocate of women's rights for more than three decades, having founded and headed several international non-governmental organizations focused on advancing the status of women. Most recently, she was President of the Sisterhood Is Global Institute. She serves on the boards and steering committees of a number of international organizations including the Commission on Globalization, The Global Fund for Women, International League for Human Rights, Women's Human Rights Net, Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, and the World Movement for Democracy. She created the concept and mobilized support for the establishment of the Asian and Pacific Centre for Women and Development (APCWD) and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). She served as a member of Iran's High Council of Family Planning and Welfare, the board of trustees of Kerman University, and the board of trustees of Farah University for Women. Additionally, Ms. Afkhami has led numerous task forces on democratization, leadership, and women's human rights in the Global South including multinational delegations to the UN Human Rights Conference in Vienna (1993) and the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (1995).

Ms. Afkhami has lectured and published extensively on the international women's movement, women's human rights, women in leadership, women and technology, and women, civil society, and democracy. Her publications have been widely translated and internationally distributed. Among them are Women and the Law in Iran (Foundation for Iranian Studies, 1993), In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Postrevolutionary Iran (Syracuse University Press, 1994), Women in Exile (University Press of Virginia, 1994), Faith and Freedom: Women's Human Rights In the Muslim World (Syracuse University Press, 1995), Claiming Our Rights: A Manual for Women's Human Rights Education in Muslim Societies (Sisterhood Is Global Institute, 1996), Muslim Women and the Politics of Participation: Implementing the Beijing Platform (Syracuse University Press, 1997), Safe and Secure: Eliminating Violence Against Women and Girls in Muslim Societies (Sisterhood Is Global Institute, 1998), and Leading to Choices: A Leadership Training Handbook for Women (Women's Learning Partnership, 2001).

Igor Blaževic, Bosnia

Director, Human Rights and Democracy Department, People in Need

Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Igor Blaževic graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, Croatia, with degrees in philosophy and comparative literature.  Since 1991 he has lived and worked in Prague, Czech Republic.   Since 1992, Mr. Blaževic has been engaged with People in Need (PIN), a Prague-based nonprofit, nongovernmental organization established by Czech journalists and former dissidents with the aim "to inspire a largeness of spirit in Czech society by helping others in need, and to promote democratic freedoms for all."  PIN is one of the largest organizations of its kind in post-communist Europe and has administered projects in more than 40 countries over the past 16 years.  Mr. Blaževic is the director of People in Need´s Human Rights and Democracy Department, which provides assistance to dissidents and pro-democracy groups operating in challenging environments around the world.

Mr. Blaževic is also the founder of One World, which is the biggest human rights film festival in Europe. Organized under the auspices of former president Václav Havel, One World annually presents 130 high-quality documentaries that take a concerned and often critical look at the present-day world and its transformations.  Apart from staging One World in Prague and 28 other Czech cities, PIN is assisting NGOs in other countries to develop their own human rights film events.  Ten human rights festivals have been held to date.  Mr. Blaževic has also co-directed ten documentaries for Czech Television.

Francesca Bomboko, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Francesca Bomboko has been working in the political arena since 1990, when she founded the Bureau d'Etudes, de Recherche et de Consulting International (BERCI) along with Olivier Kamitatu. The Kinshasa-based research center and polling organization has produced numerous public opinion polls of ordinary Congolese regarding their perspectives on important political issues. BERCI became an innovator in its field by publishing the results of such polls locally on a free, monthly basis, made possible by a National Endowment for Democracy (NED) grant. BERCI has been an important channel for raising government awareness of public opinion on critical issues facing the country and holding the government accountable for its policies and actions.

In 1999, BERCI was forced to close for approximately 14 months. In 2000, BERCI reopened, and in 2002 Ms. Bomboko participated in the Inter Congolese dialogue as an expert on President Masire's Facilitation Team. In collaboration with Professor Paul Bouvier, she published Le Dialogue inter congolais: une négociation à la lisière du Chaos about the experience.

In 2003, Ms. Bomboko became the lead researcher for a good governance study financed by the World Bank that aimed at undertaking an institutional review of the ministry of health, education, justice, and public administration, and an evaluation of the general population's level of satisfaction with the public services of the ministries under review.

In 2004-2005, she was a permanent consultant to the National Steering Committee of poverty reduction in the DRC, a special unit of the ministry of planning. That committee drafted the Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper to be presented to the World Bank as part of their program for debt reduction in highly indebted countries.

A graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University, Ms. Bomboko also holds four masters degrees, from Columbia University, Solvay Business School of the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), CERIS (ULB), and the Plate-forme PME of Namur, Belgium.

Kim Campbell, Canada
Chair

The Right Honorable Kim Campbell P.C.; C.C.; Q.C. served as the 19th and first female Prime Minister of Canada in 1993.  She also held the cabinet portfolios of Minister of State for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Minister of National Defense and Minister of Veterans' Affairs. She was the first woman to hold the Justice and Defense portfolios and the first woman Minister of Defense of a NATO country.

Ms. Campbell served as Canadian Consul General in Los Angeles (1996-2000) and taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (2001-2004), and is past Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders and past President of the International Women's Forum.  From 2004 to 2006, she was Secretary General of the Club of Madrid, an organization of former Presidents and Prime Ministers of which she is a founding member.

Today, Kim Campbell chairs the board of trustees of the Foundation for Effective Governance in Kyiv.  She also serves on the boards and advisory committees of a number of international organizations, including the Club of Madrid, International Crisis Group, Salk Institute, Middle Powers Initiative, Arab Democracy Foundation, and the Forum of Federations, among others. She also serves on corporate boards and consults in the field of leadership.  She is married to composer, pianist, and actor, Hershey Felder.

Kavi Chongkittavorn, Thailand

Kavi Chongkittavorn is assistant group editor of Nation Media Group, publisher of English-language, The Nation and vernacular, Krungthep Turakij and Kom Chat Luek in Thailand. He has been a journalist for more than two decades covering Thai and regional politics. He was a bureau chief in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from 1988-1990 and Hanoi, Vietnam from 1990-1992. He also served as special assistant to the secretary general at the Jakarta-based Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from 1993-1994 before returning to journalism until the current position.

In 1993, he was a Reuters Fellow at Oxford University and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2001. He was named the Human Rights Journalist of 1998 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of UNDHR by Amnesty International, Thailand. From 1999-2003, he was the president of Thai Journalists Association. Since 1999, he chairs the Bangkok-based regional free media advocacy group, Southeast Asian Press Alliance. He also serves as President Jury of Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, UNESCO.

Alicja Derkowska, Poland

President, Education Society of Malopolska (MTO)

In 1988, Alicja Derkowska founded the Educational Society of Malopolska (MTO), a Polish NGO that instills democratic values by promoting a democratic school environment, innovative teaching methods, and responsible citizenship.  She has been president of MTO since 1997.  In July 2004, Dr. Derkowska was awarded the “For the Future of the Children of Europe” prize from the Future of Europe Association, Hungary, and in March 2004 she was granted the POLCUL Award by the Jerzy Boniecki Foundation, Australia.  She has been an ASHOKA Fellow since 1999.

Dr. Derkowska is a designer and coordinator of various projects to build grassroots democracy in the Balkans and the former Soviet Union based on citizen participation and using Polish expertise and experience.  A second, but equally important goal, is to foster communication and cooperation in the region through a network of open, innovative schools supported by local parent-teacher associations.  In 2004, MTO established the Academy of Young Social Entrepreneurs (AYSE) to introduce young people to the profession of social entrepreneur and to support those, who already have a vision of how to solve their local communities’ problems creatively.  Since then, groups from Moldova, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, and Montenegro have participated in the AYSE program in Nowy Sacz, Poland.  

In the 1980s, Dr. Derkowska was actively involved in the Solidarity movement.  She was a member of the National Education Board (REN), one of the first illegal Solidarity structures (1982-89).  In 1989, after martial law ended, she established one of the first independent, non-state schools in Poland and served for ten years as its director.  In cooperation with the Educators for Social Responsibility, USA, she began running yearly Summer Schools of Teaching Democracy from 1991 to 1997.

Dr. Derkowska holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and taught at Lodz University.  In 1975, she moved with her husband and two sons to Nowy Sacz where she founded the Nowy Sacz Branch of the Polish Mathematical Society (PTM) and served as its president for six years.  Dr. Derkowska was an active member of the Election Committees in Poland and a founding member of the ROAD, Democratic Union, and Union for Freedom political parties (1989-1995).  She also served as an international monitor of the election to the National Assembly of Serbian Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1997).

Ivan Doherty, Ireland

Director of Political Party Programs, National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI)

Ivan Doherty is Director of Political Party Programs at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). As the Institute's in-house expert on political party development, he currently oversees party development programs in more than 35 countries and is responsible for building NDI's relationships with political party international organizations and other democracy foundations. Mr. Doherty also leads NDI's participation in a number of global and regional initiatives, including the World Movement for Democracy, the Community of Democracies, and the OAS Inter-American Forum on Political Parties.

Mr. Doherty has an extensive background in political party development and international affairs. He worked for more than 15 years with Ireland's Fine Gael Party in a number of senior positions, including assistant national director of organization, deputy general secretary, and general secretary from 1990 to 1994. Appointed government program manager in 1994, Mr. Doherty was assigned to Ireland's Ministry of Tourism and Foreign Trade. He has served as senior advisor to the European People's Party parliamentary grouping in the European Parliament; played a role in the Irish Presidency of the EU and the WTO Ministerial in 1996; and conducted Irish trade promotion missions around the world.

Mr. Doherty speaks and writes often about political parties and political party development. His publications include "Democracy out of Balance: Civil Society Can't Replace Political Parties," which appeared in Policy Review.

Han Dongfang, China
Vice Chair

Director, China Labour Bulletin

Han Dongfang is the Director of China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based labor rights group. He is a frequent speaker at international labor movement, NGO, and government-sponsored conferences around the world. Mr. Dongfang is also a broadcaster for Radio Free Asia. He presents thrice-weekly radio program from Hong Kong, focusing on workers' struggles in mainland China. The number of regular listeners in China is estimated by RFA to be around 40 million. Mr. Dongfang has also worked as a railway maintenance worker on long-distance cargo trains and has served in People's Liberation Army, rose to rank of squad leader.

Yuri Dzhibladze, Russia

President, Centre for the Development of Democracy and Human Right

Mr. Dzhibladze is a specialist in political science, human rights, international law, and development of civil society. Medical doctor-cardiologist by first training, he received his second degree in international relations in 1998 from Columbia University in New York. Mr. Dzhibladze started his participation in social movements in mid-1980s as an activist in anti-nuclear movement. In 1980s-first half of 1990s he created several Russian and international NGOs concerned with civil society development, non-violent social change, intercultural dialogue and conflict resolution. He acts as a consultant to a number of Russian and international NGOs as an expert in democratic institution building, development of civil society and rule of law, human rights and conflict resolution. As a coordinator of and consultant to a number of grant programs of charitable foundations, he has developed and implemented grant programs for NGOs totaling several million US dollars.

Hannah Forster, Gambia

Executive Director, The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies

Hannah Forster is the Executive Director of the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies in Gambia.  Created by the Gambian government in 1989, the Center’s mission is to ensure respect for individual rights and freedoms through educational activities and publications, as provided in the Charter.  In 2007, Ms. Forster was the first Gambian to receive the US Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award.  She has also worked for the adoption of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.  Ms. Forster is the current Chairperson of the African Democracy Forum, a region network affiliated with the World Movement for Democracy.

David French, United Kingdom

Chief Executive, Westminster Foundation for Democracy

David French has been Chief Executive of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy since January 2003. Under his leadership the Foundation has transformed its role as the UK’s official agency for international democracy assistance.  WFD now specialises in political party development, parliamentary strengthening and local governance and it focuses its contributions in programme countries in Africa, Europe and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions.  Less than 10% of its funds are now spend in reactive grant making.  WFD is developing its reputation around its innovative approach in its programme countries, always working with local partners to achieve agreed objectives relevant to each context.

Prior to joining the Foundation, David French developed a reputation in transforming established agencies to meet contemporary needs. From 1997 to December 2002 he was Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Institute where he was responsible for negotiating the Institute's independence from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, effective January 2000, and building its reputation in education across cultures. In his last year he worked with the Board of Trustees on the Institute's transformation from its historic UK role to a new role in education across the Commonwealth.

Prior to this David French worked in the UK voluntary sector. He was Chief Executive of Relate (formerly the National Marriage Guidance Council) from 1987 to 1995 where he became a leading contributor to public policy and debate on the family and played a major role in the shaping of the Family Law Act (1996). From 1978 to 1987 he was Director of Services for The Children's Society. He began his voluntary sector career with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, from 1971 to 1974.

Carl Gershman, USA

President, National Endowment for Democracy

Carl Gershman was appointed President of the National Endowment for Democracy by the Endowment's Board of Directors and assumed his position on April 30, 1984. In that capacity he has presided over the development of the Endowment's grants program in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Latin America. Under his leadership, the NED created the quarterly Journal of Democracy in 1990 and launched the International Forum for Democratic Studies in 1994.

Mr. Gershman is currently encouraging other democracies to establish their own foundations devoted to the promotion of democratic institutions in the world.

Prior to assuming the position with the Endowment, Mr. Gershman was Senior Counselor to the United States Representative to the United Nations beginning in January 1981. In that capacity, he served as the U.S. Representative to the U.N.'s Third Committee, which deals with human rights issues, and also as Alternate Representative of the U.S. to the U.N. Security Council.

While at the U.S. Mission to the U.N., Mr. Gershman also served as lead consultant to the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America, and helped draft the final report.

Prior to his assignment at the United States Mission to the United Nations, Mr. Gershman was a Resident Scholar at Freedom House (1980-81) and Executive Director of Social Democrats, USA (1974-80).

Mr. Gershman has lectured extensively and written articles and reviews on foreign policy issues for such publications as: Commentary, The New Leader, The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, The New York Times Magazine, Midstream, The Washington Quarterly and the Journal of Democracy. He is the co-editor of Israel, the Arabs and the Middle East (Bantam, 1972) and the author of The Foreign Policy of the American Labor (Sage, 1975). He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Paul Graham, South Africa

Executive Director,  Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA)

Paul Graham is Executive Director of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) which is a non-profit public interest organization headquartered in Pretoria.  Founded in 1987, IDASA is committed to promoting sustainable democracy in South Africa and elsewhere by building democratic institutions, educating citizens, and advocating social justice. It was one of the local partner organizations for the World Movement for Democracy’s Third Assembly held in Durban, South Africa, in February 2004.  Mr. Graham joined IDASA as Regional Director of the KwaZulu/Natal office in 1988 and was Director of the Training Centre for Democracy in Johannesburg between 1992 and 1996.  At IDASA, Mr. Graham has been responsible for its election support program, developing its public education work, designing various conflict prevention, mitigation and resolution activities inside and outside South Africa, establishing the local government center, and its civil society strengthening work.

Mr. Graham has served or continues to serve on the councils of Diakonia Council of Churches, the Independent Projects Trust, Vuleka Trust, the World Methodist Assembly, Joint Education Commission (JED/JEC), Impumelelo Innovations in Government, the Centre for Public Participation, the SA Anti-Discrimination Forum (Faze 2) and the Open Democracy Advice Centre.  He is also a member of the management committee of the African Democracy Forum and the International Steering Committee of the Community of Democracies NGO process.

He observed the Angolan elections in 1992 for AWEPA, the 2002 Jamaican elections with the Carter Centre, and the 2004 Presidential elections in Taiwan for the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.  In 1996, he was part of the Commonwealth group which evaluated the 1995 South African local elections in the report “The end of the beginning.”  In 2002 he co-authored the Electoral Commission of Kenya’s report on ending electoral and political violence in Kenya. He is the editor of two introductory texts on democracy: “Preparing for Democracy” and “Governing at Local Level,” the IDASA democracy index “Democracy in the time of Mbeki,” and he has authored the Civic and Voter Education Section on www.aceproject.org.

Bambang Harymurti, Indonesia

CEO and Corporate Chief Editor, Tempo International Media

Bambang Harymurti is CEO and Corporate Chief Editor of Tempo International Media in Jakarta, Indonesia.  He has been a journalist covering regional and international news since the early 1980s, working for several journals, including TIME magazine, Media Indonesia Daily, and Tempo Weekly Newsmagazine.  He has been a member of the Press Council of Indonesia since 2006.

Mr. Harymurti holds his MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and his BS in electrical engineering from the Institute of Technology Bandung.  He has been an Alfred Friendly Free Press Fellow, a Fulbright Fellow, a New Generation Fellow at the East West Center, an Edward S. Mason Fellow, and a Foreign Affairs Fellow with Johns Hopkins University, SAIS. He has received numerous awards, including an Excellence in Journalism award from the Indonesian Observer Daily in 1997 and the PWI Jawa Timur Pena Award in 2006.

Jana Hybásková, Czech Republic

Member of the European Parliament

Since 2004, Jana Hybásková has been a Member of the European Parliament. She currently heads the Inter-parliamentary Delegation for Relations with Israel. Ms. Hybásková is also a member of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly and of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. She is a substitute member of the Sub-committee on Security and Defense, the Committee on Economic and Financial Issues, Social Affairs and Education, the Committee on Budgets, the Delegation for Relations with the Palestinian Legislative Council, and the Delegation for Relations with Iran. Since October 2004, Ms. Hybásková is a member of the Czech liberal conservative party "European Democrats (ED)," by which she was nominated for the European Parliament. In 2005, she was elected Chairwoman of the Czech liberal conservative party SNK-ED.

Ms. Hybásková began working for the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic and the Czech Republic in 1990. Between 1991 and 1997, she was Director of the Middle East and North Africa Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1997 until 2001, she was Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Republic of Slovenia, and from 2002 until 2004, she was Ambassador to Kuwait and Qatar. Ms. Hybásková was awarded with the Cross of Merit by the Czech Minister of Defense in 2003.

Ms. Hybásková received her Ph.D. from Charles University, Prague, in 1989. Prior to 1989, she studied at the Faculty of Arts, Arabic and Oriental Studies at Charles University, and at the Arabic section of the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University in Egypt. In 2004, she published Cekání na Válku (Rybka Publishers). Apart from her native language Czech, Ms. Hybásková is fluent in English, Slovenian, Arabic, and Russian.

Melinda Quintos de Jesus, Philippines

Executive Director, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR)

Melinda Quintos de Jesus started a career as a free-lance journalist in the 1970s, starting out in the field of television documentary film. Her experience in journalism has since included print, radio and television. She has written columns for leading newspapers in the Philippines.

In the 1980s, she was among the columnists of Bulletin Today who wrote critically of the Marcos regime. When she was "eased out" of that job, she moved to the forefront of the 'alternative press' as editor and columnist of Veritas NewsWeekly.

She currently serves as the executive director of the private non-stock, non-profit Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility (CMFR), which she founded to address the problems confronting the press in a developing democracy. Now publisher of the Center's Philippine Journalism Review, she has developed training programs on media and the justice system, peace reporting, media and gender-based reporting, and other emerging issues in the news agenda. CMFR is also one of the founding organizations of the regional press freedom association, Southeast Asia Press Alliance, where Ms. de Jesus serves as a member of the Board of Trustees.

Hisham Kassem, Egypt

Independent Journalist
 
One of Egypt’s most prominent publishers and democracy activists, Hisham Kassem was, until recently, the publisher of Al-Masry Al-Youm (“The Egyptian Today”), Egypt’s only independent daily paper.  He is also former Vice President of the liberal opposition Hizb al-Ghad (Tomorrow Party), and has served as Chairman of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.  Mr. Kassem is a staunch advocate of independent journalism, and stresses the importance of transparency in newspaper ownership and funding for preventing corruption and covert political influence.

Asma Khader, Jordan

General Coordinator, The Sisterhood is Global Institute

Asma Khader, the General Coordinator of The Sisterhood is Global Institute in Jordan, works to promote women’s rights, freedoms, and power. She was a former Minister of State and Government Spokesperson for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and former President of the Jordanian Women’s Union. She was instrumental in creating a Legal Literacy/Legal Assistance program for Jordanian women, and was also elected to the Permanent Arab Court as Counsel on violence against women.

Maina Kiai, Kenya

Chairman, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)

Maina Kiai, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, is the Chairperson of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR). He was also the Founding Executive Director of the nongovernmental Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), where he led the revitalization of the constitutional reform process in Kenya. He has served as Africa Director at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International and Director of Africa Programs at the International Human Rights Law Group in Washington, DC (now called Global Rights). Kiai was named Jurist of the Year in 2005 by the International Commission of Jurists and is a member of the Management Committee of the African Democracy Forum, the World Movement’s Africa regional network.

Reginald Matchaba-Hove, Zimbabwe

Chairman of the, Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)

Reginald Matchaba-Hove is one of the leading human rights activists in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa. His human rights career has focused on empowering Zimbabweans to protect fundamental civil rights, ensuring free, fair, and transparent democratic processes, and facilitating the provision of basic social services.

He currently serves as the chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), a network of civic organizations, and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), which aims for long-term change of underlying policy, legislation and democratic practices. He remains on the advisory boards of the Zimbabwe National Students' Union and the Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust, groups with which he began his involvement in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

Prior to 1999, Dr. Matchaba-Hove was the chairman of Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights). For several years, he served on the international advisory board of the African Network for Human Rights and Development (AFRONET). Additionally, he has served lengthy terms in numerous public health positions. Dr. Matchaba-Hove, who has a private medical practice, is also a senior lecturer in public health at the University of Zimbabwe.

George Mathew, India

Founder Director, Institute of Social Sciences

Since its inception in August 1985, George Mathew has been the Founder Director of the Institute of Social Sciences in New Delhi. Additionally, he is a member of several committees of the feredal government of India and on the board of governors of national and international organizations. He has participated and presented in international conferences on political processes, democracy, federalism, human rights, religion, and society.

Born in Kerala in 1943, Dr. Mathew received his Ph.D in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was a visiting fellow of the University of Chicago South Asian Studies Center from 1981- 1982 and Visiting Professor at the University of Padova in 1988. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in the summer of 1991 at the University of Chicago. His areas of specialization are grassroots democracy, local government system (Panchayati Raj), decentralization, gender equity, and human rights.

His numerous studies and articles on state and society appear in national periodicals, journals, and books. His major works include: Communal Road to a Secular Kerala, Panchayati Raj From Legislation to Movement, and the following edited/co-edited works: Shift in Indian Politics, Dignity for All: Essays in Socialism and Democracy, Panchayati Raj in Karnataka Today: Its National Dimensions, Panchayati Raj in Jammu and Kashmir, Status of Panchayati Raj in the States and Union Territories of India 2000, Grassroots Democracy in India and China: The Right to Participate, and Inclusion and Exclusion in Local Governance in Rural India: New Age Panchayats in Transition [forthcoming].

Roel von Meijenfeldt, Netherlands

Executive Director, Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy

Roel von Meijenfeldt is a political scientist by training, with majors in public administration and international relations. He obtained his degree at the Free University of Amsterdam in 1972 and lectured in public administration. He was President of the Dutch Committee for International Youth Affairs. In 1970 he organized and presided over the first parallel NGO conference within the history of the United Nations family at the occasion of FAO's Second World Food Conference.

He worked on international co-operation and globalizing markets within the trade union movement, in the management of a national educational institute. In 1984 he moved to Harare, Zimbabwe, as the Regional Representative for southern Africa for the Netherlands Organization for International Development Co-operation (NOVIB). He became the Secretary General of the Standing Committee of NGOs in Brussels in 1988, and managed an EU programme in support of the eradication of apartheid and the transition to democracy in South Africa and Namibia. Subsequently, he worked as an independent adviser on issues of democracy and development for the institutions of the European Union and wrote a report on 'Democracy's Development' for the EU.

In March 1996 he was appointed Programme Director of the newly established International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm. In this position he designed and directed programmes aimed at the consolidation of democracy. Under this programme, national dialogues about democratic reform processes were managed in-countries around the world, including Indonesia, Nepal, Burma, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, the Arab region, the Balkans, Romania, Slovakia, Guatemala. The programme developed an innovative framework for democratic development to guide international assistance for advancing democracy and produced national assessments for the aforementioned countries. He became an adviser for the World Bank on the application of the Comprehensive Development Framework, specifically in conflict-affected countries.

In March 2002, Roel von Meijenfeldt was appointed Executive Director of the new Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD) in The Hague, the Netherlands.

Nafiz Can Paker, Turkey
Treasurer

Chairman, Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)

Nafiz Can Paker has Masters and Doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Berlin Technical University and a Masters degree on Business Administration from Columbia University (1973). He serves as the Chairman and General Manager of Türk Henkel where he has been working in various executive positions since 1971. Currently, he is the Chairman of TESEV and the member of the Discipline Committee of TUSIAD, the Board of Trustees of Sabanci University, Istanbul Culture and Arts Foundation, the Board of Trustees of Robert College and a board member of Sabanci Holding.

Inna Pidluska, Ukraine

President, Europe XXI Foundation

Inna Pidluska focuses on issues of civil society and politics in transition states, and the role of nongovernmental organizations and other civil society institutions in European integration processes. Since 1991 she has been involved in building research and institutional capacity of Ukraine's nongovernmental research and advocacy institutions, identifying research agendas, and developing production of regular publications. Since 1998 she has been involved in developing the NIS Conflict Prevention and Resolution Working Group and its Ukraine-Moldova-Belarus part, the Western NIS Conflict Prevention Network. She coordinates a project on inter-ethnic tolerance in multi-ethnic societies. She was a FCO Chevening Scholar (UK, 1994-1995), NATO Democracy Fellow (1996-1998), fellow at the Advocacy Institute (USA), and International Policy Fellow at the Open Society Institute (2001-2002). She is an adviser to a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, a member of the British Council's Ukraine-UK Professional Network and of the World Bank's NGO Contact Group in Ukraine.

Jacqueline Pitanguy, Brazil

A sociologist and political scientist, Jacqueline Pitanguy held the Laurie New Jersey Chair in Women´s Studies at Rutgers University in 1991-92 and currently coordinates the course Saber Medico, Corpo e Sociedade at the Medical School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. From 1986 to 1989, she held a cabinet position as President of the National Council for Women's Rights (CNDM), designing and implementing public policies to improve women's conditions in Brazil. CNDM played a key role in assuring women's rights in the new Brazilian Constitution and in developing programs in the areas of reproductive health, violence, legislation, labor rights, culture and education, black and rural women's rights.

In 1990, she founded CEPIA - Cidadania Estudo Pesquisa Informação Ação - a nongovernmental organization based in Rio de Janeiro, and has served as its director since then. CEPIA conducts research on gender relations and advocacy work mainly on violence against women, access to justice, and reproductive health. Since 1997 CEPIA has been the co-secretariat of the Civil Society Forum in the Americas, which aims to strengthen civil society, building common strategies among NGOs with different agendas.

Ms. Pitanguy is a co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of the Commission on Citizenship and Reproduction, based in Sao Paulo. She is a member of the Boards of the Inter-American Dialogue, the Society for International Development, and the Women's Learning Partnership, and is currently the Chair of the Boards of the Global Fund for Women, and of CARE-Brazil, where she recently assumed the presidency. She was also a member of the International Human Rights Council, headed by former President Jimmy Carter, of the International Advisory Group of the MacArthur Foundation, and of the Institute for Education of UNESCO.

Ms. Pitanguy has published extensively and is frequently interviewed by the national and international media on issues related to women's rights, and participates in numerous national and international conferences. She is fluent in French, Spanish and English. Portuguese is her native language.

Carlos Ponce, Venezuela

Director, Consorcio Desarrollo y Justicia

Carlos Ponce is founder and director of Consorcio Desarrollo y Justicia or “Development and Justice Consortium” and several other not-for-profit human rights, democracy, and social development organizations in Latin America.  He has been an advisor to more than 47 NGOs in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States since 1992, and is currently promoting the creation of an effective Latin American and Caribbean Network for Democracy.  He has worked for companies, government, universities, congress, international institutions and human rights and environmental organizations. 

In the 1990s, Mr. Ponce worked as an advisor to the Ministry of the Presidency of Venezuela, Executive Secretary of Venezuela’s National Human Rights Commission, and as an advisor to the Venezuelan Congress, the Ministry of the Family, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Venezuela’s National Park Institute.  He has been a professor at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, a professor at Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, and a lecturer at Tufts University.  In 2003, Mr. Ponce received a Fulbright Scholar Award.  He was also selected for the European Union Special Visitor Program, the Department of State Visitor Program, World Bank Scholarship, the Deans List for Academic Achievement, and several other awards and honors in Latin America.  He has been invited as a guest speaker to conferences organized by presidents and former presidents of the Americas and invited to share his ideas with numerous institutions worldwide.

Mr. Ponce has extensively researched, analyzed, and written about the phenomena of Latin American political behavior.  As an activist, he has been promoting human rights and democracy for more than 20 years; in terms of legislation, he has written bills that have been introduced in the Venezuelan Congress and enacted into law.  Among different statutes and laws, he is co-author of the Justice of the Peace Law that democratized access to justice in Venezuela.  Some of his human rights, justice, and environmental recommendations are now part of the Venezuelan Constitution.  

Mr. Ponce holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School, a Master of Arts degree in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University, a JD from the Andres Bello Catholic University, and is currently in the dissertation stage of his PhD program at Northeastern University.  

Elisabeth Ungar, Colombia
Secretary

Executive Director, Corporación Transparencia por Colombia

Colombian born, of Austrian immigrants, Elisabeth Ungar is a full professor of Political Science, Political Science Department, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, where she has been professor since 1978 and director of both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Elisabeth Ungar has written numerous books and articles and lectured extensively on the role of political parties and Congress and on political reform. She was advisor to the president of Colombia, Virgilio Barco.

She has promoted and participated in several citizen and civil society initiatives to promote public interests, electoral transparency and political accountability. Recently, she became the Executive Director of Corporación Transparencia por Colombia, the Colombia chapter of Transparency International. Before joining Corporación Transparencia por Colombia, she directed the project Congreso Visible -Candidatos Visibles, a congressional and electoral monitoring project whose objectives are to foster conditions for citizen follow up of congresspersons' activities and access to their elected representatives, improve the information available to citizens regarding legislators, disseminate information on congressional procedures and promote institutional reforms in order to recuperate politics.

Yevgeniy Zhovtis, Kazakhstan
Secretary

Director, Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law

Yevgeniy Zhovtis is the director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, founder and board member of the "Bota" Foundation, board member of the Central Eurasia Project of the Open Society Institute, and a participant in a Working Group on Reform of Electoral Legislation in Kazakhstan. He has received several honors for his work in human rights over the last decade, including the 1998 USA and European Union Democracy and Civil Society Award, the 1999 International League for Human Rights Award, the 2005 International Helsinki Federation Recognition Award, and the 2007 Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Human Rights Award.

In the early 1990s, Mr. Zhovtis worked for the Independent Trade Union Center of Kazakhstan, now the Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Kazakhstan. He left this work to study law in 1996, and in 1999 graduated with honors from the High Law School "Adilet" in Almaty, Kazakhstan. In 2002 he was named the Best Lawyer of Kazakhstan. Mr. Zhovtis has published more than 150 publications on the problems of democratization and economic transformation, and on the human rights situation and rule of law in Kazakhstan, and has lectured extensively on these topics at various universities.

Mr. Zhovtis has chaired various committees, such as the Forum of Democratic Forces of Kazakhstan and the Board of Directors of "Soros-Kazakhstan" Foundation. He has also participated in the Consultative Council on the Problems of Public Policy; the Working Group on Abolition of the Death Penalty; the OSCE Expert Panel on Freedom of Assembly; the Expert Council attached to the Commission on Human Rights under the President of Kazakhstan; the Expert Council on Free Access to Justice attached to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan; the Open Society Institute Sub-Board on Law, Human Rights, and Criminal Justice; the Kazakhstan Democracy Informational Network; the "Interlegal" Foundation; the Civil Movement "Azamat"; and the Social-Democratic Party of Kazakhstan.