Dr Husna Ahmad OBE
Dr Ahmad is the CEO of Global One 2015, a Muslim women-led international development organisation. With a PhD in Environmental Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, she is former Group CEO of the Faith Regen Foundation, a Muslim-inspired multi-faith organisation working with disadvantaged communities in the UK, and is currently a member of its Board. Dr Ahmad is an adviser to Palmers Green Mosque and East London Mosque, as well as Secretary General of the World Muslim Leadership Forum. She sits on the task force for Faith Action’s work on Together in Service, which supports faith groups in multi faith social action communities in the UK. Additionally, Dr Ahmad is an author and thought leader linking faith and environment, and has presented many papers internationally focussing particularly on climate change and faith.
|
|
Professor Heiner Bielefeldt
Professor Bielefeldt was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief until 2016. He is Professor of Human Rights and Human Rights Policy at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg and an Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Bielefeld. He is also a German Catholic theologian, a historian and a philosopher. As UN Special Rapporteur, his duties are to identify existing and emerging obstacles to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion or belief and present recommendations on ways and means to overcome such obstacle, as well as to promote the adoption of measures at the national, regional and international levels to ensure the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of religion or belief.
|
|
Professor Francis Campbell
Professor Campbell is Vice Chancellor at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. Between 1999 and 2003, Francis served on the staff of the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, first as a Policy Adviser in the No.10 Policy Unit and then as a Private Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Between 2005 and 2011 he served as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the Holy See and as Deputy High Commissioner in Pakistan between 2011 and 2013. His most recent appointment was the Head of the Policy Unit in the FCO and Director of Innovation at UKTI. Professor Campbell has Honorary Doctorates from Fordham University (New York), Queen’s University (Belfast), Steubenville University (Ohio), the Pakistan Institute of Business and Technology (Karachi), and the President’s Medal from the Catholic University of America.
|
|
The Rt Reverend Dr Christopher Cocksworth
Dr Cocksworth is the Bishop of Coventry (Church of England). He has served in several roles within the Church of England prior to becoming Bishop, including being Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, and has written a number of books and articles in the area of Christian theology and practice. Bishop Christopher entered the House of Lords in January 2013, and he contributes primarily on foreign affairs, especially freedom of religion or belief. He is an active member of the International Panel of Parliamentarians for Article 18, and has also been involved in setting up the Inter-Religious Platform for Article 18, or IRP18, which seeks to act as a catalyst for religious leaders from different faiths to act together in defence of religious freedom around the globe.
|
|
Professor Francis Davis - Political and Policy Advisor
Professor Francis Davis is Director of Policy at the Cadbury Centre, previously taught at Cambridge, and has published widely on cities, the Religious Right, and civil society advocacy. Born in Zambia and a graduate of SOAS he was active in the anti-apartheid movement, in human rights defences of Soviet Bloc dissidents, and worked supporting Muslim rape victims during the Bosnian War of independence. Previously a Cabinet level advisor in the UK government he has also worked with - and taught - NGOs, private foundations, government bodies, elected politicians and think tanks in Southern Africa, ASEAN and Eastern Europe and retains a personal interest in post conflict rape and torture trauma and the human rights of mental ill health. He is a regular social commentator on BBC and the international media.
|
 |
Professor Sir Malcolm Evans OBE KCMG (Chair of the CIFORB Advisory Board)
Sir Malcolm has worked extensively on human rights issues for numerous international bodies and NGOs and is currently a member and Chair of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture. He has been appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) – a special honour reserved for those who have shown exceptional service in relation to foreign and Commonwealth affairs. The Foreign Secretary’s overseas New Year Honours list describes Sir Malcolm’s ‘exceptional and unparalleled contribution to the global fight against torture and other inhuman treatment and punishment and a consistently strong contribution to the promotion of religious liberty’.
He is a member and Chair of the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture (the SPT) and currently Chair of the Meeting of Chairs of UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies. He is also a member of the Foreign Secretary’s Human Rights Advisory Group and Chair of the Advisory Board for the Commonwealth Initiative on the Freedom of Religion or Belief. From 2002 – 2013 he was a member of the OSCE ODIHR Advisory Council on the Freedom of Religion or Belief. He is currently General Editor of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly and Co-Editor in Chief of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. Major published works include: Religious Liberty and International Law in Europe (CUP, 1997), Preventing Torture (OUP, 1998), Protecting Prisoners (ed) (OUP, 1999), Combating Torture in Europe (Council of Europe, 2002), Manual on the Wearing of Religious Symbols in Public Areas (Council of Europe/Brill, 2009), The Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OUP, 2011). He is also Editor of International Law (OUP, 4th ed, 2014) and Blackstone’s International Law Documents (OUP, 11th ed, 2013).
|
|
Senator David Fawcett
Senator Fawcett is a Senator for South Australia in the Australian Parliament. Senator Fawcett is a Deputy Government Whip in the Senate and Chair of two Parliamentary Committees, one with oversight of Defence and the other relating to the Government’s regulation of Corporations and Financial Services. He is also a member of Committees on Intelligence and Security, Treaties, and Foreign Affairs and Trade. Senator Fawcett is also the Chair of the Government members Policy Committee for Legal Affairs. Prior to his Parliamentary career, he served for over 22 years in the Australian Defence Force as an Army officer. His full-time service culminated in an appointment as the Commanding Officer of the Royal Australian Air Force, Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU).
|
|
Dr Nazila Ghanea
Dr Ghanea is an Associate Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford. She is a member of the OSCE Advisory Panel on Freedom of Religion or Belief. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Universal Rights Group and an Associate of the Oxford Human Rights Hub. Along with Heiner Bielefeldt and Michael Wiener, she has co-authored the forthcoming 2016 monograph by Oxford University Press on Freedom of Religion or Belief: An International Law Commentary. and acted as a consultant and legal advisor to the government of Canada in the development of their strategies on FoRB in relation to the Commonwealth and contributed to the APPG on International Religious Freedom publication Article 18: An Orphaned Human Right. Nazila has also advised the UN, UNESCO, OSCE, Commonwealth, Council of Europe and the EU on different aspects of human rights law.
|
|
Professor Mary Ann Glendon
Mary Ann Glendon is the Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard University and a former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See. She currently serves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the Board of Directors of the Institute of Religious Works (Vatican Bank). She writes and teaches in the fields of human rights, comparative law, constitutional law, property law, and political theory. Professor Glendon is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (serving as President from 2004 to 2014), the International Academy of Comparative Law, and is a past president of the UNESCO-sponsored International Association of Legal Science. She served two terms as a member of the U.S. President's Council on Bioethics (2001-2004), and has contributed to legal and social thought in widely-translated publications.
|
|
Jonathan Hellewell
Jonathan Hellewell has served as Private Secretary to His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, to David Cameron and to several other political leaders. He currently runs The Lambeth Partnership, a charity focussed on supporting Justin Welby, The Archbishop of Canterbury, and his personal initiatives. He has worked for many years in the House of Commons and has also worked in the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg. He was educated at Christ Church Oxford, where he read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He was appointed Lieutenant of The Royal Victorian Order, an honour in the personal gift of the Her Majesty The Queen, in 2015.
|
|
Dr Ahmed Shaheed
Dr Ahmed Shaheed is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, (appointed 2016) and Deputy Director, Human Rights Centre and Lecturer, at the School of Law, University of Essex.
An internationally recognised expert on foreign policy, international diplomacy, democratisation and human rights reform especially in Muslim States he has twice held the Office of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Maldives, a position he used to promote human rights standards and norms. Dr Shaheed previously held the office of UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran. (2011 - 2016) He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Interfaith Dialogue established by the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect and he is the founding Chair, of the Geneva-based human rights think-tank, Universal Rights Group. In April 2009, the Centre for the Study of Islam and Democracy in Washington presented him with the “Muslim Democrat of the Year Award,” and in 2010, the President of Albania awarded him the “Medal of Gratitude” for his contribution to peace and human rights in the Balkans. Other awards include Leo Nevas Human Rights (Global Leadership) Award, UN Foundation, 2015.
|
 |