Confirmed Speakers (Please Check Back For Updated List and Bios)
Keynote Speaker
Benny Dembitzer
Benny Dembitzer is an international development economist. He was a member of the team that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. He has been a consultant to the UN Development Programme, UN Industrial Development Organization, UN Capital development Fund, International Trade Centre (ITC/UNCTAD), the World Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat and British Government. He is Visiting Lecturer in macroeconomic theory at the University of Greenwich, London. He is the author of THE ATTACK ON WORLD POVERTY, BACK TO BASICS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Dembitzer
Benny Dembitzer is an international development economist. He was a member of the team that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985. He has been a consultant to the UN Development Programme, UN Industrial Development Organization, UN Capital development Fund, International Trade Centre (ITC/UNCTAD), the World Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat and British Government. He is Visiting Lecturer in macroeconomic theory at the University of Greenwich, London. He is the author of THE ATTACK ON WORLD POVERTY, BACK TO BASICS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Dembitzer
Transitional Justice Panel
Panelists:
Youssef Mahmoud
Youssef Mahmoud is a Senior Adviser at IPI supporting the Africa, Middle East, and peace operations programs. Youssef has held numerous senior positions at the UN, both in New York and in the field, including as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) and as Executive Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Burundi (BINUB).
Prior to these assignments, he served as United Nations Resident Coordinator in Guyana and Director in the UN Department of Political Affairs.
Before joining the United Nations in 1981, Youssef was Assistant Professor at the University of Tunis. He received his PhD in Linguistics from Georgetown University, Washington, DC, in 1979.
http://www.ipinst.org/about/people/70-detail.html
Lisa Magarrell
Lisa Magarrell is one of two directors of ICTJ's program office, overseeing all regional and thematic programming, under the Vice President for Programs and Legal. She is from the United States and is based in the New York office. Most recently, she was director of ICTJ's U.S. programs, with a focus on accountability for human rights abuses in U.S. counterterrorism operations and on community-based truth-seeking initiatives to address systemic racism in several U.S. states. She has also served as director of the Reparations unit. Since joining ICTJ in 2001 she has worked on reparations issues in relation to a number of countries, including Ghana, Guatemala, Liberia, Peru, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, and in connection with the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court. She led ICTJ's technical assistance on truth-seeking, justice and reparations in Peru for several years and served as advisor to the Greensboro (North Carolina) Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its founding grassroots project.
Ms. Magarrell also served as a technical resource as Canada moved toward a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the legacy of forced residential schooling of aboriginal children. She has written widely on transitional justice issues. Her human rights work prior to joining ICTJ includes legal representation of asylum seekers and migrant farm-workers in the United States, extensive human rights documentation and advocacy work with the Non-governmental Human Rights Commission of El Salvador (CDHES-NG) and verification of human rights and other peace agreements in Guatemala as a UN political affairs officer.
She has law degrees from the United States (1979) and El Salvador (1994), and an LL.M. from Columbia University (2001) with a focus on human rights and international law.
http://ictj.org/about/lisa-magarrell
Lisa Magarrell is one of two directors of ICTJ's program office, overseeing all regional and thematic programming, under the Vice President for Programs and Legal. She is from the United States and is based in the New York office. Most recently, she was director of ICTJ's U.S. programs, with a focus on accountability for human rights abuses in U.S. counterterrorism operations and on community-based truth-seeking initiatives to address systemic racism in several U.S. states. She has also served as director of the Reparations unit. Since joining ICTJ in 2001 she has worked on reparations issues in relation to a number of countries, including Ghana, Guatemala, Liberia, Peru, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, and in connection with the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court. She led ICTJ's technical assistance on truth-seeking, justice and reparations in Peru for several years and served as advisor to the Greensboro (North Carolina) Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its founding grassroots project.
Ms. Magarrell also served as a technical resource as Canada moved toward a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the legacy of forced residential schooling of aboriginal children. She has written widely on transitional justice issues. Her human rights work prior to joining ICTJ includes legal representation of asylum seekers and migrant farm-workers in the United States, extensive human rights documentation and advocacy work with the Non-governmental Human Rights Commission of El Salvador (CDHES-NG) and verification of human rights and other peace agreements in Guatemala as a UN political affairs officer.
She has law degrees from the United States (1979) and El Salvador (1994), and an LL.M. from Columbia University (2001) with a focus on human rights and international law.
http://ictj.org/about/lisa-magarrell
Peter Gastrow
Peter Gastrow's research and policy work focuses on transnational organized crime and related threats and involves a review of the current international framework for countering organized crime. He forms part of the Coping with Crisis program and focuses on multilateral responses to new transnational security threats. Mr Gastrow joined IPI from South Africa, where he was Cape Town Director of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). His work there related to organized crime, money laundering, corruption, and governance issues in sub-Saharan Africa. He has served as expert adviser to the South African government and as a member of various expert groups and panels of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). He served as a member of the South African parliament where he concentrated on justice, policing, and constitutional matters. He was involved in initiatives to address political violence in South Africa during the 1980s and participated in the establishment of the National Peace Accord in 1991. He thereafter served as a member of the National Peace Committee and of the National Peace Secretariat, which was charged with the implementation of the Accord and the establishment of Peace Committees.
http://www.ipinst.org/about/people/47-detail.html
Peter Gastrow's research and policy work focuses on transnational organized crime and related threats and involves a review of the current international framework for countering organized crime. He forms part of the Coping with Crisis program and focuses on multilateral responses to new transnational security threats. Mr Gastrow joined IPI from South Africa, where he was Cape Town Director of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). His work there related to organized crime, money laundering, corruption, and governance issues in sub-Saharan Africa. He has served as expert adviser to the South African government and as a member of various expert groups and panels of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). He served as a member of the South African parliament where he concentrated on justice, policing, and constitutional matters. He was involved in initiatives to address political violence in South Africa during the 1980s and participated in the establishment of the National Peace Accord in 1991. He thereafter served as a member of the National Peace Committee and of the National Peace Secretariat, which was charged with the implementation of the Accord and the establishment of Peace Committees.
http://www.ipinst.org/about/people/47-detail.html
Moderator: Edwin Rekosh
Lecturer-in-law, Columbia Law School Edwin Rekosh is founder and Executive Director of PILnet: The Global Network for Public Interest Law (formerly known as the Public Interest Law Institute (PILI)), an international NGO that connects with local partners to develop the institutions essential to rights-respecting societies. PILnet inspires lawyers to serve the public interest, strengthens the ability of civil society to help shape law and policy and makes formal systems of justice more accessible.
For more than fifteen years, Mr. Rekosh has been a leader in the effort to promote the development of public interest law throughout Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the former Soviet Union and, more recently, in China. He teaches Human Rights, Law and Development at Columbia Law School and has been a visiting professor at Central European University in Budapest.
http://www.law.columbia.edu/fac/Edwin_Rekosh
http://www.law.columbia.edu/fac/Edwin_Rekosh
Gender Panel
Panelists:
Mary Hope Schwoebel
Mary Hope Schwoebel is a senior program officer in the Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. For the past ten years Mary Hope has worked as a consultant for international organizations. She also conducted peace and conflict assessments and evaluations around the world, including South Asia, East, West, and southern Africa, and elsewhere.
Prior to that she lived and worked in Africa for six years and South America for five years. She has taught peace and conflict studies, international relations, and foreign policy as adjunct faculty at American, Georgetown, and George Mason universities. She has over 25 years of experience as a trainer for multilateral and non-governmental organizations in conflict management, disaster management, humanitarian assistance, democracy and governance, peacebuilding and development. At USIP she has designed and taught courses for universities in Fiji, Kashmir, and Costa Rica; trained international police and peacekeepers from Africa, South America, Europe and South Asia; and trained NGOs in Colombia, Nigeria, and Haiti.
http://www.usip.org/experts/mary-hope-schwoebel
Mary Hope Schwoebel is a senior program officer in the Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. For the past ten years Mary Hope has worked as a consultant for international organizations. She also conducted peace and conflict assessments and evaluations around the world, including South Asia, East, West, and southern Africa, and elsewhere.
Prior to that she lived and worked in Africa for six years and South America for five years. She has taught peace and conflict studies, international relations, and foreign policy as adjunct faculty at American, Georgetown, and George Mason universities. She has over 25 years of experience as a trainer for multilateral and non-governmental organizations in conflict management, disaster management, humanitarian assistance, democracy and governance, peacebuilding and development. At USIP she has designed and taught courses for universities in Fiji, Kashmir, and Costa Rica; trained international police and peacekeepers from Africa, South America, Europe and South Asia; and trained NGOs in Colombia, Nigeria, and Haiti.
http://www.usip.org/experts/mary-hope-schwoebel
Amy Young Evrard
Amy Young Evrard is a cultural anthropologist interested in women's rights, human rights, gender, social movements, transnationalism, Islam, and the Middle East/North Africa region. Her current writing is on the women's rights movement in Morocco and how activists attempt to localize transnational feminist ideas such as "equality" and "women's human rights" in ways that make them more relevant and meaningful to Moroccan society. In 2011, she continued exploring her interests in human rights, law, and political status by beginning a new research project on Christian communities in Syria.
http://www.gettysburg.edu/academics/anthropology/faculty/employee_detail.dot?empId=04042809649019065&pageTitle=Amy+Young+Evrard
Sara Abbas
Sara Abbas is an independent researcher in the field of international development, with a focus on governance, gender and political rights. She has worked for various organizations, including the UNDP, UN WOMEN, Columbia University and the Carter Center. Sara is a member of the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Consortium, and is currently looking at the application of gender quotas in Sudan’s authoritarian context. Following the Arab Spring uprisings, Sara spent 5 months as an elections observer in Tunisia and Morocco. She holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Sara Abbas is an independent researcher in the field of international development, with a focus on governance, gender and political rights. She has worked for various organizations, including the UNDP, UN WOMEN, Columbia University and the Carter Center. Sara is a member of the Pathways of Women’s Empowerment Research Consortium, and is currently looking at the application of gender quotas in Sudan’s authoritarian context. Following the Arab Spring uprisings, Sara spent 5 months as an elections observer in Tunisia and Morocco. She holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Moderator: Eugenia McGill
Eugenia McGill is a Lecturer in the Discipline of International and Public Affairs and the Assistant Director of the Economic and Political Development Concentration at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.
A lawyer and development specialist, Professor McGill also advises development agencies, governments and nongovernmental organizations on social policy, law and development issues, and on addressing gender and other social concerns through development plans, programs and projects. Some of her recent projects have included an assessment of gender impacts of the global recession in the Mekong region (for Asian Development Bank), a review of gender-related progress toward the Millennium Development Goals in Asia (for Asian Development Bank, UNDP and UNESCAP), and a gender analysis of trade laws and policies in Bangladesh (for the US Agency for International Development).
http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/em419-fac.html
A lawyer and development specialist, Professor McGill also advises development agencies, governments and nongovernmental organizations on social policy, law and development issues, and on addressing gender and other social concerns through development plans, programs and projects. Some of her recent projects have included an assessment of gender impacts of the global recession in the Mekong region (for Asian Development Bank), a review of gender-related progress toward the Millennium Development Goals in Asia (for Asian Development Bank, UNDP and UNESCAP), and a gender analysis of trade laws and policies in Bangladesh (for the US Agency for International Development).
http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/academics/directory/em419-fac.html
Education Panel
Panelists:
Linda Bishai
Linda Bishai is a senior program officer in the Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding, where she focuses on secondary and university education in international relations, conflict resolution, human rights and peace studies. She is responsible for curriculum development and developing faculty and teacher workshops throughout the United States and in conflict zones, especially the Sudan.
Before joining USIP, Bishai was an assistant professor of political science at Towson University, where she taught courses in international relations, international law, the use of force and human rights. Her research interests include identity politics, international human rights law in domestic courts and the development of international law after the Nuremberg trials. During 2003-2004, Bishai served as a Supreme Court Fellow at the Federal Judicial Center, where she worked on an introduction to international human rights law for the federal judiciary. She has also taught at Brunel University, the London School of Economics and the University of Stockholm. Bishai holds a B.A. in history and literature from Harvard University, a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics.
http://www.usip.org/experts/linda-bishai
Linda Bishai is a senior program officer in the Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding, where she focuses on secondary and university education in international relations, conflict resolution, human rights and peace studies. She is responsible for curriculum development and developing faculty and teacher workshops throughout the United States and in conflict zones, especially the Sudan.
Before joining USIP, Bishai was an assistant professor of political science at Towson University, where she taught courses in international relations, international law, the use of force and human rights. Her research interests include identity politics, international human rights law in domestic courts and the development of international law after the Nuremberg trials. During 2003-2004, Bishai served as a Supreme Court Fellow at the Federal Judicial Center, where she worked on an introduction to international human rights law for the federal judiciary. She has also taught at Brunel University, the London School of Economics and the University of Stockholm. Bishai holds a B.A. in history and literature from Harvard University, a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a Ph.D. in international relations from the London School of Economics.
http://www.usip.org/experts/linda-bishai
Rebecca Wolfe
Dr. Rebecca Wolfe is a Senior Youth and Peacebuilding Advisor with Mercy Corps’ Youth and Conflict Management team. Since joining Mercy Corps, she has developed and supported programs in various countries including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kosovo, Kenya, Liberia, Philippines, Kashmir and Yemen. She also published the agency’s Youth and Conflict toolkit in January 2011. In November 2009, Dr. Wolfe worked with USAID/Kosovo to develop their youth strategy. Before joining Mercy Corps, Dr. Wolfe taught at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Harvard University.
http://wagner.nyu.edu/Wolfe
Dr. Rebecca Wolfe is a Senior Youth and Peacebuilding Advisor with Mercy Corps’ Youth and Conflict Management team. Since joining Mercy Corps, she has developed and supported programs in various countries including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kosovo, Kenya, Liberia, Philippines, Kashmir and Yemen. She also published the agency’s Youth and Conflict toolkit in January 2011. In November 2009, Dr. Wolfe worked with USAID/Kosovo to develop their youth strategy. Before joining Mercy Corps, Dr. Wolfe taught at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs. She received her PhD in Social Psychology from Harvard University.
http://wagner.nyu.edu/Wolfe
Moderator: Zeena Zakharia
Zeena Zakharia (B.A., Yale; Ed.M., Harvard; Ed.D., Columbia) is the Middle Eastern Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University, where she is jointly appointed by the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College and the Middle East Institute at the School of International and Public Affairs. She currently lectures and conducts research on youth, education and conflict in the Middle East and the Arab diaspora, specifically in relation to human rights and peacebuilding in education. Her recent publications consider the interplay of language policy, collective identity, and human security in schools, during and after violent political conflict. She is also engaged in research on the education of Arab Americans in New York City in the transnational context of conflict. These interests stem from over 15 years of experience in educational development, school leadership, teaching, and research in war-affected contexts. She comes to Columbia from the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government where she was Tueni Fellow, and currently leads the Lebanon country team as International Senior Research Consultant for UNICEF’s study on Education and Peacebuilding.
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/academics/?facid=zzz2103
http://www.tc.columbia.edu/academics/?facid=zzz2103