Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights

2010-2011

Ms. Fatima Mbaye (Mauritania): Ms. Mbaye is a human rights lawyer, Vice-President of the International Federation of Human Rights (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 (also former board member for three years) 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. Ms. Mbaye was also member of the International Commission of Inquiry on human rights violations in Côte d'Ivoire serviced by OHCHR in 2004. She is member of the national commission of human rights in Mauritania and further works with the Terre des hommes fondation on juvénal justice in Mauritania.

Mr. Sozar Subari (Georgia): Mr. Subari ended his five-year term as Public Defender (Ombudsman) of Georgia in September 2009. During his tenure, the ombudsman's role in the Georgian society increased with Mr. Subari emerging as a prominent critical voice. He was involved with the influential NGO Liberty Institute from 2002 to 2003 and has worked as a journalist, including being a correspondent for Radio Liberty, and editor of the Tbilisi-based Kavkasioni newspaper. Mr. Subari is providing courses for journalists on freedom of expression and information, at the State University of Tbilisi, were he studied at the Theological Academy and Faculty of History.

Ms. Monica Pinto ( Argentina ): Ms. Pinto is a professor of international law and human rights law at the University of Buenos Aires Law School. She obtained her JD and Ph.D at the same university. In addition to teaching numerous courses as visiting professor of law, including the Inter-American and the International Institutes of Human Rights, she has also substantial experience in international law practice. She was the Independent Expert of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Guatemala 1993 – 1997 and Chad 2004 - 2005. She is a board member of several international institutions. She also served as Director for Human Rights Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina. Ms. Pinto has numerous publications on human rights and international law.

Mr. William Schabas ( Canada/Ireland ): Professor Schabas is director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, which is located at the National University of Ireland, where he holds the chair in human rights law. He is an honorary professor at the Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing , and a professeur associe at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal . He has authored major works on such subjects as the abolition of capital punishment, genocide and the international criminal tribunals, including the International Criminal Court. Professor Schabas served as one of three international members of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reonciliation Commission. He has frequently participated in human rights fact-finding missions for such organisations as Amnesty International and the International Federation of Human Rights. Professor Schabas is an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Dr. Deepika Udagama (Sri Lanka) is the former Head of the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo. Her specialization is international human rights law. She is Sri Lanka's former alternate member to the then United Nations (UN) Sub-Commission on the promotion and protection of Human Rights, and the UN Sub-Commission's Special Reporteur on Globalization and its impact on Human Rights. Dr. Udagama was the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights in the University of Colombo's Faculty of Law. She is presently a member of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka and previously served as the Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Foundation's Commission on Democracy and Human Rights, and as a member of Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission. She holds and LLB and LLM (University of Colombo) and a LLM and JSD (Berkley, Cal.). She has been a resource person for numerous OHCHR workshops.