Members of the Board of Trustees of the Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation
(As of July 2012)

Ms. Fatimata MBAYE (Mauritania): Ms. Mbaye is a human rights lawyer, Vice-President of FIDH and President of the Mauritanian Human Rights Association (member of FIDH) awarded the Anti-Slavery Award in 1998. She is Board Member of the West Africa Civil Society Institute which was established by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa to enhance the capacity of civil society in the region. In 1999, Ms. Mbaye became the first African to receive the third Nuremberg International Prize for Human Rights, awarded to individuals held to be symbolic figures in the struggle for the recognition and respect for human rights in Africa (her work had resulted in her arrest and imprisonment in Mauritania). She is the only woman member of the Mauritanian Bar. Ms. Mbaye was also member of the International Commission of Inquiry on human rights violations in Côte d'Ivoire serviced by OHCHR in 2004. Ms. Mbaye has been appointed as VFTC Board Member by the Secretary-General in December 2009.  

Ms. Sozar SUBARI (Georgia): Ms. Subari ended his five-year term as Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia in September 2009. During her tenure, the ombudsman's role in the Georgian society increased. Ms. Subari was involved with the influential NGO Liberty Institute from 2000 to 2004 and has also worked as a journalist, including being a correspondent for Radio Liberty, and editor of the Tbilisi-based Kavkasioni newspaper. Ms. Subari started her term as VFTC Board Member in December 2009. Since October 2012 Ms. Subari is part of the Government of Georgia, in charge of penitentiary matters.

Dr. Nelum Deepika Udagama: Ms. Udagama is a human rights educator and advocate from Sri Lanka. An academic specialized in international human rights law, she is currently the Head of the Department of Law, University of Peradeniya. Previously, she was the Head of the Department of Law, University of Colombo. There she pioneered the teaching of human rights law and was the Founding Director of the Centre of the Study of Human Rights of the University of Colombo (1991-97) with a mandate to provide human rights education to the larger community. She has served as a member of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (2003-06) and the Law Commission of Sri Lanka (2004-2009) and also serves on boards of several national non-governmental human rights and research organizations. She was Sri Lanka’s Alternate Member to the then UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (1998- 2001), and served as the Sub-Commission’s co-Special Rapporteur on ‘Globalization and its Impact on the Full Enjoyment of Human Rights’. Ms. Udagama was appointed by the Secretary-General to the VFTC Board in 2008.

Mr. Chris SIDOTI (Australia): Mr. Sidoti is a Human rights lawyer, activist and teacher. He currently works from Sydney, Australia, as an international human rights consultant, specializing in the international human rights system and in NHRI. He was director of the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), based in Geneva, from 2003 to 2007, and is currently a board member. He has been Australian Human Rights Commissioner (1995-2000), Australian Law Reform Commissioner (1992-1995) and Foundation Director of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1987-1992). He has also worked in non-government organisations, including the Human Rights Council of Australia and the Australian Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. In 2007-2008 he was the independent chair of the United Kingdom Government’s Northern Ireland Bill of Rights Forum. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Sydney, Griffith University (Queensland) and the Australian Catholic University, a Fellow of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University and an Affiliate at the Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney. Mr. Sidoti has been appointed as VFTC Board Member by the Secretary-General in December 2011. He was elected as Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the VFTC, for a one-year term, as of April 2013.