Board

Martine Graf is a former Member of the Swiss Federal Parliament, former Minister of Finance and Education for the Canton of Geneva and the current President of the Swiss Commission against Racism.

Michael Kellett retired from the police service in the United Kingdom in 2006 on completion of thirty years service. During that time he carried out a variety of roles, mainly as a criminal investigator. He has extensive experience, both in his human rights role and as an operational police officer, of working in Europe, throughout the former Soviet Union, in the Balkans and in Asia and North America and since leaving the police has worked as a consultant on behalf of the FCO, OSCE, EU, Council of Europe, UNDP and the APT.

Dr. Erika Schläppi is an experienced consultant on human rights and governance issues, particularly in the context of development and peacebuilding. Her knowledge of human rights and governance issues has been gained from her professional experience, including academic research, international governmental policy, non-governmental advocacy, and many years of consultancy work. She lives in Bern.

Christophe Broggi has over two decades of experience developing and executing financial strategies in fast-changing environments, ranging from start-ups, SMEs to multinational leader ABB. He has been CFO of a non-profit foundation. Computer science engineer by training Christophe brings experience in IT and digital transformation. 

Abdel Wahab Hani is a Tunisian humans right defender and former member of the United Nations Committee Against Torture. He previously worked as a consultant with the APT.

Cécilia Jiminez-Damary is a human rights lawyer specialised in forced displacement and migration. Originally from the Philipines, she has worked extensively with human rights NGOs in the Asia-Pacific region. Since November 2016, she has worked as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons.

Krassimir Kanev is a Bulgarian human rights activist and Professor of sociology. He is currently the Director of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, an independent NGO for the protection of human rights.

Juan Méndez is a Professor of Human Rights Law at the Washington College of Law and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. Born in Argentina, where he was subjected to reprisals for representing political prisoners under the military dictatorship, Mr Méndez dedicated his legal career to the defence of human rights. He regularly teaches International Human Rights Law and is the recipient of several human rights awards. Commissioner to the International Commission of Jurists.

Mervat Rishmawi is a Palestinian human rights activist. She worked with the International Secretariat of Amnesty International for approximately 12 years, most of which as the Legal Advisor to the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA). Ms. Rishmawi is currently self-employed as a human rights consultant.

Manuel Sager was born in 1955 and grew up in Baden, Switzerland. He graduated from the Law Faculty of the University of Zurich with a doctorate degree and from Duke University Law School, USA, with a "Master of Laws and Letters" (LL.M.). After his admission to the Arizona bar,he worked as an attorney in a law firmin Phoenixfrom 1986 to 1988. In 1988, he joined the diplomatic service of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). Following his diplomatic training he was assigned tothe Directorate of International Law from 1990 to 1995, specializing in International Humanitarian Law. From 1995 to 1999 he was Deputy Consul General in New York and from 1999 to 2001 Head of Communications at the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C. From 2002 to 2005 he served as Head of Communications at the FDFA and the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, respectively. From 2005 to 2008, Sager was Executive Director at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. From 2008 to 2010, he headed the FDFA's Division for Sectoral Policies. From 2010 to August 2014, he was Swiss Ambassador to the United States of America. From November 2014 to April 2020, Sager served as Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Since his retirement from government service in June 2020, Sager has continued to teach on the topic of Development Finance atvarious universities in the U.S. and Switzerland and has served on boards of non-profit organizations and academic institutions in both countries.

Caio Cesar Klein (Brazil) is Executive Director of SOMOS, a NGO focused on affirming the sexual and reproductive rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and LGBTI+ people. Caio led the project Passagens, through which thirteen institutions of deprivation of liberty in Brazil were visited and resulted in one of the first mappings of LGBT+ incarceration in the country. He is also one of the editors and organisers of the book “Sexuality and Gender in Prison, LGBTI+ and their passages through criminal justice”. Since 2019, Caio is a member of the National Committee to Prevent Torture.

Florence Simbiri-Jaoko (Kenya) is a lawyer by profession and  currently Lecturer at the University of Nairobi. She is the former Chairperson of the Kenyan National Human Rights Commission and was Special Envoy for the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI). She has worked as a judicial officer in Kenya for over 15 years and served on various government task forces in Kenya on legal, judicial and security sector reforms.

Anh Thu Duong (Switzerland) is the Co-Director, Policy and Partnerships of Geneva City Hub. She has extensive diplomatic expertise and robust negotiation skills in human rights and humanitarian affairs, including with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA).

Olga Espinoza (Peru) is an attorney-at-law and currently a candidate for a PhD. She is also coordinator of the Master in Criminology and Management of Citizen Security of the Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Chile (INAP). She has previously worked as a consultant for the Ford Foundation and for the Inter-American Development Bank on human rights issues and public policies in the criminal justice and penitentiary fields in Latin America.