Special Initiatives
Rights & Democracy's Annual International Conference 2006 - Speakers
Biographical Notes
Masanori Aikyo
Centre for Asian Legal Exchange (CALE), Nagoya University, Japan
Masanori Aikyo is currently Professor at the Centre for Asian Legal Exchange at Nagoya University . He is an expert in Asian law, constitutional law, and comparative legal culture. He has conducted extensive research on Southeast Asian comparative law in general, and Vietnamese law in particular. He is the project leader of a grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology called "Legal Assistance in Asia -- Structuring a Paradigm for Countries in Asia ". This project is being conducted in cooperation with legal academics and practitioners from all around Japan from 2001 to 2006. Mr. Aikyo's publications include: What is Legal Assistance? How Should We Think Of It? (2000), History of the Vietnamese Constitution (1993), Vietnamese Legal Research (1989).
Homayoun Alizadeh
Regional Representative for South-East Asia, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Homayoun Alizadeh was born in 1952 in Zürich, Switzerland and attended primary and high school in Teheran and Shiraz, Iran. He studied Political Science (Ph. D) and Law at the University of Vienna, Austria, and graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1983. Since 1987, Alizadeh has been working with the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior as Deputy Director of Department for Refugees and Migration where he is currently on unpaid leave. Since 1995, Alizadeh has been working with the United Nations. From 1995 to 1998, he worked as Government Liaison Officer and Assistant to Chief of Mission with the United Nations Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda (UNHRFOR), and from 1999 to 2001, he worked as a Member of the Identification Commission and was Coordinator of the Appeals Analysis Teams with the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). From March 2001 to June 2005, Alizadeh was Head of Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Khartoum. From July 2005 to March 2006, Alizadeh served as Senior Human Rights Advisor to the Director of the Inter-Agency Internal Displacement Division (IDD), Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Geneva, Switzerland. He is currently working as the Regional Representative of OHCHR for South-East Asia with its seat in Bangkok, Thailand. Alizadeh has longstanding experience in human rights training programmes for members of the armed forces, including military, security and police personnel. As a human rights activist, he worked with Amnesty International (AI) from 1976 to 1981 and was a board member of the Austrian Section of AI and responsible for adoption groups and co-ordinator of the campaign against the death penalty. From 1982 to 1987, he was chairperson of the Austrian Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran.
Jacques Bertrand
University of Toronto
Jacques Bertrand is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto . For over fifteen years, he has worked on issues of ethnic politics, nationalism, democratization, as well as local politics in Indonesia . In his current research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the United States Institute of Peace, Professor Bertrand is working on ethnic minority interests and representation in Southeast Asia comparatively, with an emphasis on recently democratized countries of the region. He is the recipient of the 2003 William L. Holland prize for the outstanding article published in Pacific Affairs in 2002. He holds a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University (1995). His latest publication is entitled Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Patrick Brown
Asia Correspondent, CBC-TV
Patrick Brown is CBC's correspondent in Beijing. Before taking up his assignment in China , he was a correspondent in London from 1980-90, Beijing from 1990-96, and Delhi from 1997-99. He has reported from around the world - from Europe, Russia and other former Soviet states to Iran , Iraq , China , Vietnam , Cambodia , Hong Kong , Thailand and the Philippines . Brown came to Canada in 1970 and joined Radio-Canada International as a news editor after working as a computer systems analyst, teacher and freelance journalist. He went to Montreal to work for the local CBC radio station as a reporter in 1976 and he became radio's national reporter based in Montreal two years later. Brown was educated in his native England at Cambridge . He holds a Master's degree in social anthropology.
Charles Burton
BrockUniversity
Charles Burton has been Associate Professor of Political Science at Brock University since 1989. Since 1991, he has been borrowed from Brock by the Department of Foreign Affairs to work in the Canadian Embassy in Beijing twice, from 1991-1993 and most recently from 1998 until 2000, as Counsellor for Political Affairs. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1987 after studies at Cambridge University in England , and three years at Fudan University in Shanghai in the late-70s. Mr. Burton’s first job was with the Communications Security Establishment in the Department of National Defence in Ottawa . He is the author and editor of books and articles about China and North Korea . He continues to consult for the Department of Foreign Affairs and other agencies on Canada ’s policy to China and to North Korea.
Dominique Caouette
Université de Montréal
Dominique Caouette has been Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science of the Université de Montréal since 2004, teaching International Relations with a particular focus on non-state actors, transnational activism and Southeast Asia. Prior to this, he was a lecturer at the University of Ottawa and worked for over five years with Inter Pares as program officer and member of the Asia Team. He has lived and worked in the Philippines and Latin America and written on social and revolutionary movements and lately on transnational networks and advocacy. He has a PhD from Cornell University and a M.A. in International Affairs from Carleton University. He is currently a member of the Chair of Asia Studies of the Centre for East Asian Studies, the Research Group in International Security and the Centre for Social and Public Policy, all at the University of Montreal. He is an Executive Board Director of USC-Canada and a member of the Editorial Committee of Éditions Écosociété, a publishing house in Montreal.
Danish Institute for Human Rights, Denmark
Paul Dalton is a lawyer and Project Manager, Access to Rights, at the Danish Institute for Human Rights. He is responsible for the Institute’s programmes with State institutions, the justice sector and civil society organizations in Vietnam , Indonesia and Cambodia . His primary areas of interest are human rights jurisprudence, administrative and criminal justice, and implementation of human rights standards by law enforcement agencies and security forces. From 2001-2004, he was Institutional Relations and Legal Programme Coordinator at the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims. He is a member of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Danish Association of Lawyers and Economists, and Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. He is married with two children.Pip Dargan
Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions
Pip Dargan is the founding Deputy Director of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF). She has been with the APF since its inception in 1996. Ms. Dargan has been responsible for the management and implementation of key human rights programmes and has worked extensively with APF member institutions and other partners particularly in relation to human trafficking, women’s rights and internally displaced persons. Ms. Dargan has also represented the APF at various international, regional and national meetings and forums and has strategic and managerial responsibilities for the operation of the APF secretariat. Prior to the APF, Ms. Dargan worked in various areas of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission including investigation and conciliation, public education and human rights policy. In 1996, the Australian Commission selected Ms. Dargan to represent it at the Asia Young Leaders’ Forum held in Shanghai , China . Ms. Dargan graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in Politics and History.
Han Dongfang
China Labour Bulletin
Han Dongfang is the son of a peasant and, before the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, worked as an assistant librarian and a refrigeration engineer. Han Dongfang is known primarily for his activities during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 after which he became a human rights activist. In 1989 Han Dongfang convened the Beijing Autonomous Workers Federation, the first independent union in mainland China in 50 years. His goal was to build a workers federation that could monitor the Chinese Communist Party, especially its treatment of workers. The Workers Federation was shut down as the Tiananmen Square protests came to a bloody end on June 4, 1989. After the June 4th massacre he was jailed for 22 months without trial during which time he contracted tuberculosis. He was released from jail on the verge of death and soon after received an American visa to travel for medical treatment. He eventually recovered while in the United States, though he lost the use of one lung. He currently lives in Hong Kong, where he runs the China Labour Bulletin, which promotes independent trade unionism and monitors labour issues in China. He hosts an influential weekly program on Radio Free Asia that reaches an estimated 40 million people on the mainland. He is also on the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy. Han Dongfang continues to promote workers’ rights in China, and is in contact via phone and e-mail with workers throughout the mainland. Han has received the National Endowment for Democracy’s “Democracy Award,” presented by President Bill Clinton in 1993, as well as the Gleitsman Foundation’s 2005 “International Activist Award.”
Paul Evans
Asia Pacific Foundation
Paul M. Evans (Ph.D Dalhousie) is currently on secondment from the University of British Columbia to the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, where he serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors and Co-CEO. Dr. Evans’ previous teaching and administrative appointments include: Assistant, Associate and Professor, Department of Political Science, York University, 1981-97; Director, University of Toronto - York University Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, 1991-96; Visiting Professor, Asia Center, Harvard University, 1997-99; and Acting Director, Liu Institute for Global Issues, 2004-05. He has held visiting fellowships at the Australian National University (1988); National Chengchi University (1989); Chulalongkorn University (1989); the East-West Center (1995); and the National Institute for Research Advancement in Tokyo (1999). He has served as Co-Chair of the Canadian Member Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific from its founding in 1993 until July 1997 and, from 1994 until June 1998, co-chair of CSCAP’s North Pacific Working Group. He was the founding director of the Canadian Consortium on Human Security in 2001-02. A member of the International Council of the Asia Society in New York and the international advisors to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, he also sits on the editorial boards of The Pacific Review and Pacific Affairs. He is directing a two-year dialogue program on “Rebuilding American Security” funded by the Ford Foundation. His current writing focuses on East Asian regionalism, Asian responses to human security, and Canada's Asia policy.
Irene Fernandez
TENAGANITA, Malaysia
Irene Fernandez is a campaigner for the rights of migrant workers, farm workers, domestic workers, prostitutes and AIDS sufferers. She is still working, even though a conviction and year's prison sentence hangs over her head on the trumped-up charge of "maliciously publishing false news". She was born in Malaysia in 1946 and has three children and several foster children. She began her career as a high school teacher. She then became involved with the Young Christian Workers Movement (YCW), based in Brussels, and became national president of the Malaysian YCW in 1972-75. In 1976, she joined the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) and worked on consumer education, launching the consumer clubs for secondary school children to teach them about basic needs, safety and protection of the environment. She also began a consumer programme for rural women, linked to a breast-feeding campaign and the Nestle boycott. In 1986, she led campaigns to stop violence against women. Various women's groups mushroomed as a result of these campaigns. One was the All Women's Action Society, of which Fernandez was president for five years. It is now one of the strongest women's advocacy groups in Malaysia. The Domestic Violence Act, Sexual Harassment Code and changes to the laws related to rape are all a result of its work. In 1986, she founded the Asia Pacific Women in Law and Development (APWLD). From 1992, she was the chair of the Pesticide Action Network, working for the elimination of pesticides and developing sustainable agriculture. In 1991, she founded and continues to run Tenaganita, which campaigns for the rights of foreign workers.
Nimalka Fernando
International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), Sri Lanka
An attorney-at-law and women’s rights activist, Nimalka Fernando is a member of the Democratic People’s Movement in Sri Lanka which is a coalition of people’s movements, NGOs and trade unions initiating action and dialogue for alternative development paradigms. She is President of the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), which was founded in Japan in 1988. She is also President of the Women’s Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka. She is a founding member of Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA) and was a member of the ARENA Executive Board 1994 – 1997.
Douglas Goold
Canadian Institute of International Affairs
Douglas Goold succeeded The Hon. Barbara McDougall as President and CEO of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs in January 2004. Mr. Goold is a well-known journalist, author and commentator and the former Editor of The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business and Report on Business Magazine. For many years, he wrote widely on Canada’s role in international business and politics as a national columnist for The Globe. He is the author of a book on Canadian banks; The Bre-X Fraud (with Andrew Willis), a national number one bestseller; and Peace Without Promise, a book on the peace settlement after the First World War. He is working on a book with Neal Sher, the head of the Office of Special Investigations in the U.S. Department of Justice from 1982 to 1994, which was in charge of pursing Nazi war criminals. Sher led the international effort to trace the fate of Josef Mengele and was responsible for keeping former U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim out of the United States because of his Nazi past. Mr. Goold has a Ph.D. in modern history from Cambridge University. He taught at the University of Alberta and the University of Victoria, and completed two Killam Postdoctoral Fellowships at the University of British Columbia.
Ian Hamilton
Executive Director, Equitas
Ian was appointed Executive Director of Equitas in January 2004. In this role, he is responsible for providing leadership in the development and implementation of Equitas’ strategic directions and in management of it’s day-to-day operations. For five years prior to this appointment, Ian was Equitas’ Director of Programs, helping to shape the organization’s programming during this period. He joined Equitas team in 1997 as Director of the National Institutions Program, responsible for capacity-building projects with national human rights commissions, particularly in Asia .. Before coming to Equitas, Ian worked for the Coordinating Committee of Human Rights Organizations of Thailand for 16 months in Bangkok , assisting their campaign for the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission. From 1992-1995, he worked in a number of positions, including Asia Program Officer, at the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights and Democracy) in Montreal. He graduated from University of Toronto in 1990 with a Bachelor’s Degree in History.
Carolina G. Hernandez
Professor, University of the Philippines
President, Institute for Strategic and Development Studies
Carolina G. Hernandez is currently Professor of Political Science at the University of the Philippines and the holder of its Carlos P. Romulo Professorial Chair in International Relations. She is founder and President of the Institute for Strategic and Development Studies, an independent, non-profit think tank on foreign policy, domestic politics, and security concerns and development issues. Dr. Hernandez is widely published in international, regional and Philippine academic journals such as the Asian Survey, Pacific Review, Third World Quarterly, and Public Policy, in the fields of regional security and foreign relations; military in politics, democracy and development, and Philippine domestic politics and foreign policy. She holds a B.S. in Foreign Service (cum laude) from the University of the Philippines , and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Karachi where she finished first in her class. She also did graduate work in political philosophy at Duke University and holds a Ph.D. degree in Political Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo where she wrote a pioneering study on Philippine civil-military relations. She is married to Judge Jose R. Hernandez with whom she has five children.
Claire l’Heureux-Dubé
Former Judge, Supreme Court of Canada
The Honourable Claire L’Heureux-Dubé served on the Supreme Court of Canada between 1987 and 2002 and remains today one of this country’s foremost activists in promoting human rights through equality. Her judgments endorsed and defended equality rights and spanned many areas of law, from family law to civil law to employment, taxation, and criminal law. Throughout her career, she was steadfast in her protection of women, children, Aboriginal people, people of colour and other disadvantaged groups in society. First appointed to the Bench in 1973 as a Quebec Superior Court judge, the Honourable Madame L’Heureux-Dubé was appointed shortly thereafter to chair a Royal Commission into allegations of sexual exploitation of immigrant women by immigration officers. Her recommendations were accepted in full by the federal government. In 1979, she became the first woman appointed to the Quebec Court of Appeal and eight years later, she was the first woman from Quebec appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. She received a LL.L cum laude from Laval University in 1951 with special awards in Civil Law and Labour Law. During her career in private practice between 1952 and 1973, the Honourable Claire L’Heureux-Dubé served as partner of the firm Bard, L’Heureux & Philippon and later senior partner with L’Heureux, Philippon, Garneau, Tourigny, St-Arnaud & Associates. Since her retirement from the bench in July 2002, she has been named to the position of judge in residence at her alma mater, Université Laval.
Niraja Gopal Jayal
Professor, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance and Director, Jawaharlal Nehru University Institute of Advanced Study , India
Niraja Gopal Jayal is Professor, and currently Chairperson, at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University . She is the author of Democracy and the State: Welfare, Secularism and Development in Contemporary India (Oxford University Press, 1999); co-author of Drought, Policy and Politics in India (Sage, 1993); and editor of Democracy in India (Oxford University Press, 2001). Her current research interests include the Indian idea of citizenship; gender and governance; decentralization; and environmental political theory. She is Director of the Ford Foundation project Dialogue on Democracy and Pluralism in South Asia.
André Laliberté
Université du Québec à Montréal
André Laliberté is professor of Political Science at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and associate professor at the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Ottawa. He is a graduate of UQAM (1991), and received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of British Columbia in 1999. Laliberté has served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Asian Studies Association’s East Asian Council since 2003 and has been on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Consortium on Asia-Pacific Security since 2004. He is currently a member of the China cluster, a group of analysts that examines and debates issues in China and Taiwan that are of importance to Canada, and sits on the editorial boards of Monde chinois and Politique et société. Laliberté’s research and writing have concentrated on Taiwanese and Chinese politics, with a special emphasis on identity politics, religion and the State, constitutional issues, and the evolution of disagreements over national identity and sovereignty between China and Taiwan. More recently, Laliberté has been working on welfare policy in both China and Taiwan. http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/cridaq/spip/article.php3?id_article=52
Peter Li
Professor, University of Saskatchewan and Board member, Rights & Democracy
Peter S. Li has been a professor for 30 years. He is currently a faculty member of the Department of Sociology at the University of Saskatchewan, as well as editor of the JIMI and Chair of the Prairie Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Integration’s economic domain. He has served as a consultant and advisor to several Government of Canada departments, working on immigration, multiculturalism, race relations and social statistics. Dr. Li has published 11 books and over 60 academic papers on a variety of subjects, including immigration and race relations in Canada. He has lectured in many countries, including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Australia, as well as in Europe.
Sanjeewa Liyanage
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
Sanjeewa Liyanage, a Sri Lankan, became Asian Coordinator for International Young Christian Students (IYCS) an international Catholic student body in 1988 and since then has conducted social awareness and leadership training programs for students in about 14 Asian countries. In 1995, he joined the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), a regional human rights NGO based in Hong Kong . He helped AHRC establish its electronic communications network involving thousands of individuals and NGOs in Asia and other countries. He assisted human rights related legal training programs for different groups including civic group leaders, lawyers and judges from the Asia-Pacific region. He was part of the team that organized the declaration of Asian Human Rights Charter – A people’s Charter, in Gwangju in 1998. He has represented AHRC at numerous UN forums including the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Geneva , preparatory meetings leading to the World Conference against Racism in Warsaw and Bangkok , the Human Rights Committee in Geneva and the Committee against Torture. Mr. Liyanage is currently the East Asian focal point for the NGO Coalition for International Criminal Court (CICC). He is a member of the editorial board of the AHRC by-monthly publication Article 2. He has undergone human rights training at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in the Hague and Danish Institute (formerly Danish Centre) for Human Rights (DIHR) in Copenhagen . He obtained his Masters of Law (LLM) (Human Rights) at the University of Hong Kong in 2004.
Yiyi Lu
Royal Institute of International Affairs
Yiyi Lu is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House (the Royal Institute of International Affairs) and is currently leading a project on civil society and environmental governance in China and a project on corporate social responsibility in China. Yiyi Lu previously worked for several international development organizations in China, including the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the Ford Foundation, and Save the Children UK. She has a PhD from the London School of Economics, an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BSc from Beijing ( Peking) University.
Flora MacDonald
Canada
Flora MacDonald served 16 years as Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands during which time she held three Cabinet positions including Minister of External Affairs. Since leaving Parliament she has been Chairperson of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa; Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Canadian Studies at the University of Edinburgh; and in 1999 she was Co-Chair for Canada of the UN International Year of Older Persons. She also presently serves on the Boards or Advisory Councils of many organizations including Canadian Council of Refugees and Partnerships Africa Canada. Ms. MacDonald was named Companion of the Order of Canada in 1999.
Vitit Muntarbhorn
Professor, Chulalongkorn University and Board Member, Rights & Democracy
A professor in the Faculty of Law at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, and a barrister of the Middle Temple in London, Vitit Muntarbhorn has taught at a number of human rights institutions around the globe, including in the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Switzerland, Denmark and Austria. He has worked for several United Nations agencies, conducting studies, and acting as special rapporteur, advisor and committee chair, mostly in the area of children's and women's rights. Mr. Muntarbhorn wrote Thailand's first report for the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. He has produced human rights and children's rights educational materials, and is the former Executive Director of Child Rights ASIANET, which collaborates closely with UNICEF. In 1992 he was spokesperson for Thailand's Campaign for Popular Democracy. He has published extensively on the sexual exploitation of children, and on democracy and human rights.
Ravi Nair
Executive Director, South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre
Mr. Ravi Nair is the Executive Director of the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC) since October 1990. He serves on the Advisory Committee of the Institute for International Criminal Investigations (IICI), San Francisco, USA. He is a member of the International Advisory Committee of the Robert F Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award, Washington DC, and the Coordinator of the Asia Pacific Human Rights Network, a coalition of human rights NGOs across the Asia-Pacific region. Mr. Nair was the recipient of the M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award for 1997. Mr. Nair was the Ida Beam Distinguished Lecturer at Iowa University in October 2000. Mr. Nair delivered the Edward A. Smith Lecture in November 2005 at the Harvard Law School. Mr. Nair was an international consultant to the Technical Advisory Services Program of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in its training programs in Nepal and has earlier done workshops in Armenia for UN Human Rights mechanisms. Mr. Nair has served on the Curriculum Development Committee of the University Grants Commission of India for the teaching of Human Rights in Law Schools across India. He is a regular guest lecturer at the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science (NICFS), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. He has been a visiting professor at Mahidol University, Thailand for the MA programme on Human Rights in 2005.
Luke Peterson
International Institute on Sustainable Development (IISD)
Luke Peterson is a consultant and free-lance writer based in Ottawa, Ontario. In the trade and investment field, he has worked as a research consultant for the Royal Institute for International Affairs, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development. His writings on trade and investment policy have appeared in a variety of specialized and general interest media including World Trade Agenda, The Toronto Globe and Mail, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), The ( London) Guardian, and The New Republic Online. Mr. Peterson currently works on a number of IISD trade and investment policy projects, including ones focused on the impacts of international economic rules on health, human rights and development. He is also the editor of the INVEST-SD News Bulletin, IISD's news service dedicated to tracking developments in international investment law, policy and dispute settlement. Before becoming a consultant in 2000, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, a Commonwealth Scholar at University College London, and a graduate of the University of New Brunswick.
T. Rajamoorthy
Regional Council on Human Rights in Asia and Third World Network, Malaysia
T. Rajamoorthy is a specialist on international law and has been practising as an Advocate & Solicitor for the last 35 years having qualified as a Barrister-at-Law at the Middle Temple in London . He is one of the founders and council member of the Regional Council on Human Rights in Asia , a human rights body based in Manila with consultative status with the UN. He is also a legal advisor to Third World Network (TWN) and one of the editors of Third World Resurgence, TWN’s monthly magazine.
Nancy Riche
Former Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress
Nancy Riche has served as Secretary-Treasurer and Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress. As one of Canada’s leading female labour leaders, Ms. Riche also served as Vice-President of the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and Chair of its Women’s Committee. A community college instructor in Newfoundland and Labrador, she served as Secretary-Treasurer of the National Union of Public and General Employees and as Director of Education, Research and Communication with the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees. She has been recognized for her outstanding contribution to the lives of working women in Canada and around the world. She received both the National Action Committee on the Status of Women Woman of Courage Award and the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case. She also received the AFL-CIO George Meary-Lane Kirkland Human Rights Award and was awarded the Order of Canada in 2003. Since 2002, she is mainly involved in various volunteer activities.
Jean-Louis Roy
President, Rights & Democracy
Jean-Louis Roy holds a Ph.D. in history from McGill University and a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the Université de Montréal. Jean-Louis Roy’s postings include Director at the Centre d'études canadiennes françaises at McGill University (1971 to 1981), Director of the daily newspaper Le Devoir for six years (1981 to 1986) and Quebec’s General Delegate in Paris for four years (1986 to 1990). Elected Secretary-General of l’Agence intergouvernementale de la francophonie (La Francophonie) in 1990 and re-elected to the post three years later, Jean-Louis Roy worked to improve cooperation among its 50 French-speaking member states. During this mandate, he also prepared and ensured the follow-up of several international Summits, which were attended by the Heads of State and chief representatives of La Francophonie’s member governments. Jean-Louis Roy is currently President of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (Rights & Democracy), a position he assumed in August 2002, thus renewing commitments he first undertook during his presidency of la Ligue des droits de l’homme du Québec, his role as Commissioner for la Commission des droits et libertés de la personne du Québec, and the implementation of a legal and judicial cooperation programme within La Francophonie. Jean-Louis Roy is also Chancellor of Université Sainte-Anne in Churchpoint, Nova Scotia, a position he assumed in 2001.
Kem Sokha
Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, Cambodia
Kem Sokha is a prominent Cambodian human rights and democracy advocate. He is the founder and president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, a non-governmental, non-political and independent human rights organization o fficially launched on November 12, 2002 to promote and protect democracy, human rights and development in Cambodia . Kem Sokha was arrested December 31, 2005 in Phnom Penh for displaying a banner held at the December 10, 2005 Human Rights Day rally and allegedly accusing Prime Minister Hun Sen of illegally selling Cambodian land to Vietnam. An international campaign for his freedom led to his release from prison after 17 days. Kem Sokha was a Member of Parliament from 1993-1998 and a Senator from 1999-2002.
Janice Stein
Director, Munk Centre, University of Toronto
Janice Stein has substantial knowledge and expertise in political conflicts in unstable areas of the world, and in Middle East issues. She is currently Director of the Munk Centre for International Studies and Belzberg Professor of Conflict Management and Negotiation in the political science department of the University of Toronto. She has authored many books and articles on the management and resolution of crises and conflicts, on the cold war, and on questions of international safety and the Middle East. She is a member of a number of editorial and advisory boards on international issues, including Foreign Affairs Canada’s Working Group on the Middle East. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Science.
Charm Tong
Shan Women’s Action Network, Thai-Burma Border
Charm Tong is a Shan refugee who grew up in Burma , and today works for the rights of oppressed ethnic groups in Burma . When she was only seventeen, along with other Shan women active on the Thai-Burma border, she founded the Shan Women’s Action Network (SWAN), an organization dedicated to stopping the exploitation of and violence against women and children. A few years later, recognizing that their lack of education leaves Shan youth more vulnerable to being trafficked or lured into exploitative activities, Charm Tong founded the School for Shan State Nationalities Youth. The school works to empower and build the capacity of the students to become leaders in their communities. More recently, Charm Tong became instrumental in launching a campaign to bring attention to the systematic use of rape of Shan women by the Burmese military. In 2005, Charm Tong received the Reebok Human Rights Award and was selected as one of Time Magazine’s Asian Heroes.
Hau Sing Tse
Vice President, Asia Branch, Canadian International Development Agency
Hau Sing Tse was born in Canton , China and grew up in Hong Kong . He obtained his MBA (Finance and Business Economics), MA (International Relations) and Ph.D. (International Relations - with International Political Economy as major field of study) from the University of Southern California . Mr. Tse spent the first few years of his professional life in the private sector in North America . He joined CIDA in 1984 and occupied various positions on the Pakistan Program, the China Program and with the Canadian Embassy in Beijing , China . He spent one year, 1996-97, as Policy Advisor with the Priorities and Planning Secretariat of the Privy Council Office (PCO) during the Government's transition to its second mandate. Upon his return to CIDA from PCO, he served as Director General of the Performance Review Branch for two years. He currently holds the position of Vice-President, Asia Branch.
Antonio Tujan, Jr.
Asia Pacific Research Network, Philippines
Antonio Tujan, Jr. is the Chairperson of the Board of Convenors for the Asia Pacific Research Network and is a Member of the Managing Committee of ‘Reality of Aid’. One of the foremost commentators and critics of trade liberalization, globalization and developments related to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Mr. Tujan has written and edited numerous publications on these subjects. He is Executive Director and Founding Member of the Manila-based IBON Foundation, a socio-economics research and publishing non-governmental organization, established in 1978. He has been Editor in Chief for the Institute of Political Economy Journals , from 1994 to the present; and is a Columnist for "Cutting Edge", The Journal. He has also served as editor/publisher for TFD (Task Force Detainees Philippines) Update (1978-1980), and editorial consultant for Talakayan and Breaktime Komiks, Labour Education and Assistance for Development Inc. publications (1991-1993) as well as Laya, a feminist quarterly published by the Laya Women's Collective (1991-1995).
Ban Wenzhan
ChinaUniversity of Political Science and Law (CUPL)
Wenzhan Ban is a Professor and Deputy Director at the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) in Beijing. He has published several books and articles on international human rights law and the acceptance and implementation of human rights in China. He received his Masters in Law at CUPL in 1985 and has done training and research at the University of Essex Human Rights Center and at the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Center in the UK.
Lois Wilson
Former Senator of Canada
An author, minister and internationally-known authority on human rights issues, Dr. Wilson was the first woman Moderator of the United Church of Canada. Dr. Wilson earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Divinity from United College in Winnipeg. She has also received numerous honorary degrees in Divinity and Laws from universities and colleges across Canada and in the United States. She was ordained a United Church minister in 1965. From 1976-79, she served as the first woman President of the Canadian Council of Churches and from 1980-82 as the Moderator of the United Church of Canada. From 1983-91, she was the first Canadian President of the World Council of Churches, during which time she worked extensively around the world on human rights issues. She is currently Chancellor of Lakehead University and Vice-President of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. Her expertise on human rights issues has seen her serve as advisory board member (1978-88) with Amnesty International; with the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security (1984-88); 1997-98, as chair of the board of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. In 1985, she was awarded the Pearson Peace Prize by the United Nations Association in Canada. That same year, she was awarded the World Federalists Peace Award, and has been President of the World Federalists (Canada) since 1996. In 1984, Dr. Wilson was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Dr. Sein Win
MP Elect and Chairman, Party for National Democracy
Prime Minister, National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
Dr. Sein Win was elected Prime Minister following the formation of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) in Manerplaw ( Karen State) on December 18, 1990. He is the son of U Ba Win, one of Burma’s top political leaders and elder brother of General Aung San, the architect of Burma’s independence and founder of the Burma Army, as well as the first cousin of 1991 Nobel Peace Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma’s democracy movement. Dr. Sein Win earned his Doctorate in Mathematics from Hamburg University in Germany. He taught at Colombo University in Sri Lanka, at Nairobi University in Kenya, and at Rangoon University in Burma. He became involved in politics when the military brutally cracked down on the people involved in the pro-democracy uprising of 1988. The Party for National Democracy (PND), with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo as patrons, was set up in 1988 as a backup party, if the military authorities decide to ban the National League for Democracy (NLD). When the SLORC refused to honour the election results and instead started arresting NLD leaders and elected representatives throughout the country, the NLD caucus held a series of secret meetings and decided to send some of its MPs to the liberated areas to form a provisional government. The main task of that legitimately elected government is to help restore democracy and human rights in Burma. Currently Dr. Sein Win is serving his fourth-term as Prime Minister of the NCGUB.
Joseph Wong
University of Toronto
Joseph Wong is Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, Canada and Director of the Asian Institute at the Munk Centre for International Studies. Wong received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001. Prior to joining the faculty at Toronto in 2001, Wong was an associate in research at the Fairbank Center for Asian Research, Harvard University . He has also been a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Policy Research in Taipei and the Graduate School of Public Administration at the Seoul National University . Wong recently completed a collaborative project on East Asian welfare states with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Wong’s research interests lie in the area of comparative public policy in the Asia region. His earlier research focused on the impact of democratic transition on social policy. Wong’s current research examines biotech development strategies in Taiwan , South Korea and Singapore , and in particular, the intersection (and tensions therein) of industrial, science and public health policies. Professor Wong is the author of the book, Healthy Democracies: Welfare Politics in Taiwan and South Korea (Cornell University Press, 2004). His published works have appeared in Comparative Political Studies, the International Political Science Review, Pacific Affairs, the American Asian Review, Nature Biotech, and the Journal of East Asian Studies.
