Reaching the heights for the rights of the child

Council of Europe Strategy

for the Rights of the Child

2016-2021

High-Level Launching Conference

Sofia, 5-6 April 2016

Biographies:

Speakers, Moderators and Discussants

Antigoni Angelaki

Antigoni Angelaki is Head of the Interpretation Services Department and a Project Manager at NGO METAdrasi. She has been actively engaged in the field of refugees and asylum seekers since 2008 and has been cooperating with METAdrasi since 2010 in the field of design and management of projects focusing on the provision of community interpreting in the field of asylum and first reception, rights of unaccompanied minors and provision of legal aid services. She holds a BA in International and European Studies from Panteion University of Athens and a Master’s degree in Migration Studies from Sussex University. She speaks fluently English, French, Spanish and Greek.

Anna Austin

Anna Austin qualified as a Solicitor (Law Society of Ireland) in 1991. Having worked for 6 years with A&L Goodbody in Dublin, she joined the European Commission for Human Rights in 1994 and, subsequently, the European Court of Human Rights in 1998. Having worked as a Head of Division in the Registry of the Court for 10 years, she is currently the Court’s Deputy Jurisconsult. She was seconded from those institutions on a number of occasions. She was the Deputy Ombudsperson for Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997. She headed the Office of the Investigating Judges of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia 2008-2009. Ms Austin was charged with Human Rights issues in the Secretariat of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe 2014-2015. From 2013-2015 she acted as the Legal Advisor of the International Advisory Panel on Ukraine.

Michael Barron

Michael Barron is the Founding Director of both BeLonG To, Ireland's national LGBT youth rights organisation, and EQUATE, a children's rights organisation advocating for equality in education. He has worked with and on behalf of LGBTI children and young people nationally and internationally since 2003. This work has included establishing networks of professional youth supports, research and developing toolkits on best practice in working with LGBTI children. Michael has successfully advocated for significant Irish national policy change for LGBTI children in the areas of education, violence, suicide prevention and drug and alcohol use.  He has written extensively in this area.

Susan Bissell

Susan Bissell spent over twenty-five years, focused on the rights of children, working in various capacities for UNICEF in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Italy. As of January 2016, she is leading the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.  She holds a PhD in public health and medical anthropology from the University of Melbourne. She produced a documentary "A Kind of Childhood," which has won awards and been screened widely.  Dr. Bissell has an honorary professorship from Barnard College/Columbia University, Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship award from Tufts University, Flambeau D’or from Panathlon International, and Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Tomáš Boček

The Special Representative of the Secretary General for Migration and Refugees, Tomáš Boček, took up his duties on February 1st 2016.  He will collect information on the human rights situation of refugees and migrants, explore ways of strengthening the Council of Europe's assistance to member states in this field and liaise with other IGOs. Mr. Boček was Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Council of Europe. Previously he served as Deputy Minister for International Relations and EU Affairs at the Ministry of Justice, being responsible for the Czech EU-Presidency. He has also been agent of the Czech Republic before the European Court of Justice and Director of the EU-law department at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Elizabeth Canavan

Elizabeth Canavan is an Assistant Secretary at the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, Ireland. She has responsibility for policy and legislative developments relating to child welfare and protection; alternative care; family support and related issues of children's rights; children’s health and well-being; implementation of the national policy framework for children and young people, and cross-sectoral working in the area of children services. Previously, Elizabeth was Chief Executive Officer at the Adoption Authority of Ireland, and Deputy Director at the National Children’s Office.

Jorge Cardona Llorens

Born in Valencia in 1957, Jorge Cardona Llorens is the Chair of Public International Law at the University of Valencia, and Jean Monnet Chair in Community Law. He is member of the UN Commettee on the Rigth of the Child, and the Committee appointed by the Secretariat of the Ibero-American Youth Organisation (OIJ) for the monitoring of the compliance by States of the Ibero-American Convention on Young People’s Rights. He is the legal expert of the Conference of Ibero-American Ministers of Justice (COMJIB). He is author of nearly 200 publications on International Law, in particular on: Human Rights, especially children’s rights, the Law of Treaties, European Law, the Law of International Responsibility, the Law of International Organisations, and peacekeeping and international security.

John Carr

John Carr is Expert Adviser to the European NGO Alliance for Child Safety Online (eNACSO) and to Bangkok-based global NGO, ECPAT International. He is also Secretary of the UK Children’s Charities’ Coalition for Internet Safety (CHIS), a Member of the UK Government’s Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science).  John was formerly a Senior Expert Adviser to the United Nations, a former Vice President of MySpace and Former Member of the Microsoft’s Policy Board for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  He co-authored ‘One in three: internet governance and children's rights’ alongside Sonia Livingstone and Jasmina Byrne. John is also a member of the Europol Expert Platform.

Gabriela Coman

Acting in the field of children rights since 1992, Ms Coman was the initiator and coordinator of the process of drawing up the national legal framework on children rights. As key expert with UNICEF, Ms Coman participated at a multi-country evaluation on child protection reform for several Central and Eastern European countries, providing consultancy to UNICEF Romania and to the authorities of Moldova.  She was elected as the President of the Federation of the Non-governmental Organizations for Child Protection, the largest federation of NGOs acting in this field in Romania, nominated as Executive Manager of the Romanian Center for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children, and elected as member of the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children.

Anne Crowley

Dr Anne Crowley is a policy and research consultant and an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University in Wales, where in 2012 she completed a PhD on the impact of children’s participation on policy-making. From 1999–2009 Anne worked as the Assistant Director (Policy and Research) with Save the Children. More recently Anne has been working with the Council of Europe on the Child Participation Assessment Tool and on developing a policy instrument to support young people’s access to rights. Prior to becoming involved in policy and research, Anne worked with marginalised young people as a social worker.

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography on 8 May 2014. Between 2002 and 2012, she served as Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe. Throughout her mandates, she has focused her work on the fight against discrimination and violence, and the promotion of the rights of the most vulnerable groups, especially children. She has spearheaded the development and adoption of three key Council of Europe Conventions, namely, the Convention on action against trafficking in human beings, the Convention on the protection of children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, and the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. She launched the Council of Europe programme “Building a Europe for and with children”, advocating for a holistic and integrated approach towards the issue of eliminating all forms of violence against children and respect for children’s rights. She is President of the European Federation for Missing and Exploited Children (“Missing Children Europe”), and continues to dedicate herself to ending abuse and neglect of children.

Yuri de Boer

Yuri de Boer is policy advisor in the Council of Europe’s Equality Division, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Unit, since 2014. Prior to joining the Council of Europe, he advised policy makers on LGBT inclusive policies and development programs, and worked with human rights defenders in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Africa on LGBT human rights, community mobilization and access to healthcare, including prevention of HIV/AIDS. He holds Master’s degrees from the University of Amsterdam and the University of Oxford.

Bernard De Vos

Since March 2008, Bernard De Vos has been the General Delegate (Ombudsman) for Children’s Rights in the French Community of Belgium. He was the chairman of ENOC, the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children last year (September 2013- September 2014).  Bernard De Vos has been Director of a special service provided to young people in Brussels during more than 15 years. He has also created several innovative services in the field of youth protection and assistance and he is the author of several books and articles on childhood and youth issues.

Petya Dimitrova

Petya Dimitrova has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and a Master’s degree in International Economic Relations. Her main working experience in the social sphere is on inclusion of people at risk and marginalized groups and civil participation in decision-making processes. Previously, she worked both in the nongovernmental sector and in the administration with specific focus on child participation. Since 2013, she has been working at the State Agency for Child Protection in Bulgaria (SACP) and she is responsible for the compliance of the national policy with the international standards. Also she supports the work of the Child Council – a children’s consultative body at SACP.

Pat Dolan

Professor Dolan is joint founder and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at the National University of Ireland Galway, and also holds the prestigious UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement, the first to be awarded in the Republic of Ireland. The UNESCO Chair delivers a comprehensive programme of work towards the objective of promoting civic engagement and leadership skills among children and youth. Prof. Dolan has worked with and for families as a practitioner, service manager, and academic for over 20 years. He has completed an extensive body of research on family issues. His major research interests are Civic Engagement in Children and Youth, Family Support, Reflective Practice and Service Development, Youth Mentoring Models, Adolescents Resilience and Social Networks.

Gianluca Esposito

Gianluca Esposito is the Head of the Equality and Human Dignity and Head a.i. of the Anti-Discrimination and Social Cohesion Departments at the Council of Europe. He started his career at the Council of Europe in 1995 where he was responsible for the negotiation of several conventions and other legal instruments. He was an Adviser to the Council of Europe’s Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General from 2005 to 2009.  From 2009 to 2015, Gianluca acted as a Senior Counsel in the Legal Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, DC. He focused on financial integrity and economic governance issues. He has published extensively on legal, policy and Human Rights issues.

Sevinj Fataliyeva

Sevinj Fataliyeva is member of the Parliament of Azerbaijan, where she is deputy chairperson of the foreign affairs and interparliamentary relations committee and member of the national delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly (since 2011). At the Assembly, she is Vice-Chairperson of the Sub-Committee on the European Social Charter and General Rapporteur on Children. After a report on “Ending child poverty in Europe” in 2014, she is currently rapporteur for the “Preventing the radicalisation of children by fighting the root causes” to be debated at the Assembly’s April 2016 part-session. She is very committed to children’s rights, and has promoted the ONE in FIVE Campaign to stop sexual violence against children (2010-2015) through activities aimed at school teachers, parents and children.

Zuzana Fišerová

Zuzana Fišerová is the Chairperson of the European Committee on Legal Co-operation (CDCJ) as of January 2016 and is a long-standing active member of CDCJ. She is the Director of the International Department for Civil Matters and Junior Deputy Minister of Justice within the Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic. She is also involved on other international fora such the Civil Law Committee of the Council of the EU, the European judicial network in civil and commercial matters, and the Hague conference of private international law(HCCH). She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of European Law (ERA) and is a lecturer in private international law.

Kiira Gornischeff

Kiira Gornischeff is project manager & advisor at the Estonian Union for Child Welfare, the biggest and oldest advocacy organisation in Estonia.  She has carried out various projects on national level and under her leadership the first multidisciplinary children's rights training module for lawyers and social workers was established at the University of Tartu. She has provided advice, carried out research and given trainings on children's rights for specialists, children and young people. In her work she is promoting child participation and child-friendly justice. She has experience of organising capacity building workshops, conferences, roundtables. She has MA degree from Faculty of Law at the University of Tartu and she is currently doing her PhD in Social Work at the Tallinn University.

Susanna Greijer

Dr Susanna Greijer is a project coordinator at ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes), where she leads the Interagency Project on Terminology and Semantics aimed at drawing up a set of Terminology Guidelines on the protection of children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. She is also in charge of ECPAT Luxembourg's education and awareness-raising projects. Dr Greijer holds a PhD in International Law from the European University Institute and a Master's degree in International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris. She has been researching and working on children's rights and child protection since 2006, in particular international crimes against children.

Elfa Ýr Gylfadóttir

Elfa Ýr Gylfadóttir is the Director of the Media Commission, the independent regulator for media in Iceland. Ms. Gylfadottir was one of the main authors of the Act on the National Broadcasting Service No. 23/2013 and the Icelandic Media Law No. 38/2011, transposing the AVMS Directive. Ms. Gylfadottir has been a lecturer at the University of Iceland for 12 years. She is the author and co-author of several peer reviewed articles on media policy and media law.  Ms. Gylfadóttir is the Chair of the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society at the Council of Europe.

Hurid Heiberg

Turid Heiberg is Head of the Children’s Unit in the Council of Baltic Sea States Secretariat (CBSS). The Baltic Sea Region covers Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden. Turid has worked with human rights issues for more than 30 years including as Regional Director for Save the Children Sweden in South Asia. Presently, Turid facilitates work to prevent and respond to violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of children. Promoting the Children’s House model in Europe is a priority as is the prevention of exploitation and trafficking of children. Preventing corporal punishment and promoting the system-based monitoring/auditing of child welfare facilities are other priorities.

Mario Janeček

Mario Janeček is a Senior CT Adviser, acting as a National Counter Terrorism Coordinator, at the Bosnia and Herzegovina Ministry of Security. Among others, his responsibilities include coordinating, planning and monitoring the implementation of BiH Security Policy and national strategies in the field of Terrorism and Violent Extremism and Hate Crime, drafting legal solutions, and developing specific curricula and education projects in the field of combating terrorism.  Recently, he has been appointed as the Chair of the Specialized Governmental Supervisory Board which monitors the implementation of the BiH Strategy for Preventing and Combating Terrorism. He is the Head of the BiH Delegation to the Council of Europe Committee of Experts on Terrorism (CODEXTER) and member of the CODEXTER Bureau.

Claude Janizzi

Claude Janizzi, chairman of the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote Committee, is currently the coordinator of Luxembourg’s children’s rights policy. He has been working during his entire career in the area of children: as a school teacher, as a licensing inspector, as head of the Childcare Department at the Ministry of Family and as head of Luxembourg’s Central Authority for International Adoption. In parallel, he has been teaching at Luxembourg’s Training Institute for Educators and at the University of Luxembourg. He was the chairman of ChildONEurope in 2014 and 2015. He holds a BA in Education Sciences, and a BA and MSc in Psychology.

Regína Jensdóttir

Regína Jensdóttir is of Icelandic nationality and holds a law degree from the University of Iceland where she specialised in human rights and a post graduate degree (D.E.A.) from the University of Strasbourg in international public law. Since 2010, she has been the Council of Europe Co-ordinator on Children’s Rights and is currently heading the Children’s Rights Division. In these capacities she follows the launching and implementation of the Council of Europe Strategy for the Rights of the Child (2016-2021).

Gudrun Jevne

Gudrun Jevne is a Senior Adviser at the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs' Equality Department.  She is the case worker for the programme “Pink Competency: Child Welfare” - implemented by the Norwegian LGBT organization LLH - as part of her responsibilities at the “LGBT Knowledge Centre”.  The LGBT Knowledge Centre is a Government initiative launched in 2011 which aims to increase knowledge of living conditions of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in Norway.  Previously, she worked at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland, and Beirut, Lebanon, as an Associate Expert focusing on gender equality.  She has an M.A. in Gender and Development from the University of Sussex.

Luis Jimena Quesada

Luis Jimena Quesada has been Member and President of the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe -CoE-(mandate 2009-2014) and is the current CoE alternate member before the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). He is a Professor of Constitutional and European Law at the University of Valencia (Spain) and, since 1997, has been substitute judge of the High Court of Justice of Valencia. He is also the current Secretary General of the International Institute of Human Rights-René Cassin Foundation in Strasbourg, where he has been Director of Studies and Professor from 1993 to the present.

Deyana Kostadinova

Deyana Kostadinova has extensive professional experience in the field of human rights and especially children’s rights. She worked in the State Agency for Child Protection as Director of the "Monitoring the Rights of the Child" Directorate.   She started her political career in 2009 as Adviser on Social Policy to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria.  In 2011-2012 she was Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy.  In 2012 she was appointed Secretary of Social Policy, Youth and Sports to the President of the Republic of Bulgaria.  In 2013 she was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Policy in the Caretaker Government.  Since December 2015 she is the Chief of the Cabinet of the President.

Stella Kyriakides

Stella Kyriakides, clinical psychologist with long-standing experience in the child and adolescent psychiatric services of the Cyprus Ministry of Health (specialising in child sexual abuse, psychological support of children with cancer, and children with disabilities), has been a member of the House of Representatives of Cyprus since 2006. She is Vice-Chairperson of the House Committee on Health and Head of the Cyprus Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly. At the Assembly, she has been newly elected as Chairperson of the Social Affairs Committee in January 2016, after holding the function of General Rapporteur on Children (2013-2015) and being strongly committed to the Council of Europe ONE in FIVE Campaign to stop sexual violence against children (2010-2015), both at the European and the national level.

Gerison Lansdown

Gerison Lansdown was the founder director, 1992-2000, of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, and, over the past 16 years, has worked as an international children’s rights consultant and advocate publishing and lecturing widely on the subject of children’s rights. She is co-director of Child Rights Education for Professionals, a senior associate of the International Institute for Child Rights and Development in Victoria, and was for nine years Vice Chair of UNICEF-UK. She is on the editorial advisory board of the Canadian Journal of Children’s Rights and is also Chair of Child to Child and of CATS (Children as Actors Transforming Society). 

Jean-Claude Legrand

Jean-Claude Legrand was a sociology lecturer in France in the 80’s. From 1985, he started working on the protection of civilians in situations of emergency and armed conflicts.  Since 1993, he is working for UNICEF as a Child Protection Senior Advisor.  Since 2008, he supports UNICEF response in Eastern / Central Europe and Central Asia region.  He is a key advocate for the right of children to live in a family environment, to get equitable access to justice and for the right of children to be protected from abuse, violence and exploitation. He is currently involved in the coordination of the UNICEF response to refugees and migrants in Europe.

Ton Liefaard

Professor Dr. Ton Liefaard holds the UNICEF Chair in Children’s Rights at Leiden University. He teaches and publishes widely on issues related to children’s rights, juvenile justice, child friendly justice, child protection, alternative care and violence against children. He is the programme director of the Master’s Programme (LL.M) Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights. He also coordinates the Leiden Summer School on International Children’s Rights. Ton Liefaard is an honorary juvenile judge at the District Court of Amsterdam and he regularly works as a consultant for international organizations, including UN agencies, the Council of Europe and the European Union.

Sonia Livingstone

Sonia Livingstone is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. Sonia has published twenty books examining the opportunities and risks for children and young people afforded by digital and online technologies, with a focus on media literacy, social mediations, and children’s rights in the digital age. She is a fellow of the British Psychological Society, Royal Society for the Arts, and is fellow and past President of the International Communication Association. She was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2014. She leads the projects Global Kids Online and Preparing for a Digital Future and she directed the 33-country network, EU Kids Online.

Laura Lundy

Laura Lundy is a Professor of Education Law and Children’s Rights at Queen’s University, Belfast and a Barrister at Law. She is the Director of the Centre for Children’s Rights at Queen’s, an interdisciplinary research collaboration on children’s rights. Her expertise is in law and children’s rights, with a particular focus on the implementation of the UNCRC, education rights, children’s right to participate in decision-making and children’s rights-based participatory research methods. With colleagues (Orr and Marshall), she has recently completed a consultation with over 2600 children which sought their views on public expenditure to realise children’s rights.

Fredrik Malmberg

Fredrik Malmberg has worked as Head of the Swedish Program at the Save the Children Fund and as regional representative of the Save the Children Fund in Southern and Central Asia. Before that, he was lead writer at the newspaper Göteborgs-Posten. In November 2008, Fredrik Malmberg was appointed Ombudsman for Children in Sweden.

Maya Manolova

Maya Manolova is the Ombudsperson for Children of the Republic of Bulgaria. She graduated from the University of National and World Economy, Sofia, with Master’s degrees in Law and Economics.  She has been a member of the Kyustendil Bar Association since 1998.  From 2005 to 2015, Maya Manolova was member of the 40th, 41st, 42nd and 43rd National Assembly; where, among other duties, she was the Chairperson of the Interaction with Civic Organizations and Movements Committee, Deputy Chairperson of the Legal Affairs Committee, member of the Human Rights, Religion, Citizens’ Complaints and Petitions Committee, Labour and Social Policy Committee, and Healthcare Committee. She also served as the Vice-President of the 42nd National Assembly.

María Amor Martín Estébanez

María Amor Martín Estébanez is a Programme Manager of Legal Research at the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). She has a D.Phil in Law of the University of Oxford, and an M.Phil in International Relations of the University of Amsterdam. Prior to joining FRA, she worked as a legal officer at the OSCE Legal Services and as a consultant for the CoE, the OSCE HCNM, and NGOs.  She was Researcher and Project Manager at the Institute for Human Rights of the Åbo Akademi University and lecturer of international law for the Foreign Service Programme of the University of Oxford.  She has authored/co-authored several publications on human rights protection and on the legal status of the OSCE.

Benyam Davit Mezmur

Benyam Dawit Mezmur, from Ethiopia, is an academician who specializes on children’s rights law. He is the Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. Benyam is an Associate Professor of Law and Acting Director at the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance, and Human Rights of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. He conducts research, and lectures and supervises post-graduate students on international protection of human rights and children’s rights.

Elda Moreno

Elda Moreno is the Director of the Office of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Violence against Children since 2014. Her responsibilities include advising and assisting Special Representative Marta Santos Pais in the fulfillment of her mandate and managing her Office. During her almost 20 years of experience within the Council of Europe, Elda Moreno’s responsibilities included developing and leading the Programme “Building a Europe for and with Children” from 2006 to 2010 and leading the Gender Equality and Human Dignity Department, where she developed the Gender Equality Programme and its strategy  2014-2017.

George Moschos

 

Born in Athens (1957), George Moschos studied Law and Criminology and was trained in youth work and adult education. Since 1984 he has been working for the defence of children’s rights, the prevention of youth social exclusion and youth empowerment. In 2003 he was appointed as the first Deputy Ombudsman for Children’s Rights (Children’s Ombudsman) in Greece and was reappointed in 2007 and 2011. In 2006 he was elected Chairman of the European Network of Ombduspersons for Children (ENOC). In his capacity, he meets and discusses regularly with children and professionals working with them, in all kinds of settings.

Nils Muižnieks

Nils Muižnieks was appointed Commissioner for Human Rights in 2012. He is a Latvian national educated in the United States of America, where he obtained a Ph.D. in political science. He has been working in the field of human rights for the past two decades and has published extensively on racism, discrimination and minority rights. He has held prominent posts such as Director of the Advanced Social and Political Research Institute at the University of Latvia in Riga (2005-2012); Chairman of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (2010-2012); Latvian minister responsible for social integration (2002-2004); and Director of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies (1994-2002).

Elise Nikonov

Elise Nikonov works in the Department for Children and Families of Ministry of Social Affairs in Estonia. Her main responsibility is reforming Estonia’s juvenile justice system, and the topics she is most passionate about include restorative justice, interdisciplinary approaches to children’s rights, and everything that has to do with listening to children and respecting their opinions. In regards to child participation, she was responsible for drafting the relevant part in Estonia’s new Child Welfare Act as well as organising the piloting process of the Council of Europe Child Participation Assessment Tool in Estonia.

Michael O’Flaherty

Professor Michael O’Flaherty is Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights since 16 December 2015.  Previously, Professor O'Flaherty was Established Professor of Human Rights Law and Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, Galway since February 2013.  He has served as Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.  From 2004-2012, he was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, latterly as a Vice-Chairperson.

Audrey Osler

Audrey Osler is Professor of Education at University College of South-East Norway and previously director Centre for Citizenship and Human Rights Education, University of Leeds, UK. Her research addresses children’s human rights, participation and citizenship. She has published widely and is translated into Japanese, Mandarin and various European languages. In 2015, Dr Osler was awarded a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Invitation Fellowship. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education from University of Birmingham, UK.  Her 2016 book Human Rights and Schooling: an Ethical Framework for Teaching for Social Justice is published by Teachers College Press, Columbia University, New York.  

Astrid Podsiadlowski

Dr Astrid Podsiadlowski is Head of Sector on Rights of the Child in the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.  Her areas of expertise include child-friendly justice, child poverty, discrimination and social inequalities (multiple discrimination, ageing, ethnicity and national origin, gender and LGBTI), migration and integration and research methodologies (both quantitative and qualitative, including fieldwork research with children). She is a psychologist by education and has previously held academic research and teaching positions in Europe as well as New Zealand and the USA.

Marie-Pierre Poirier

Marie-Pierre Poirier has over 30 years of experience in developing partnerships for children with governments, civil society and the private sector, serving in Brazil, Mozambique, Namibia and Pakistan; in Geneva as Head of Child Rights, and at NY Headquarters dealing with child poverty and exclusion in urban areas. She has been Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (CEE/CIS) since 2012, and was appointed Special Coordinator for the Refugee and Migrant Crisis in Europe in September 2015.  She holds a Master’s Degree from the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Sorbonne Nouvelle), and a degree in Economics from the University of Paris. She has 2 children.

Marta Santos Pais

Marta Santos Pais is the Special Representative of the United Nations

Secretary-General on Violence against Children since 2009.  As a high level global independent advocate, she promotes the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against children in all settings. Since her appointment, she has mobilized action and political support to maintain momentum around this agenda and to achieve progress across the world. Marta Santos Pais has more than 30 years’ experience on human rights issues, and engagement in United Nations and intergovernmental processes, including the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Helmut Sax

Helmut Sax leads the Child Rights/Women’s Rights/Anti-Trafficking team at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights (Vienna), the largest academic human rights institution in Austria. He is a member of the Working Group on trafficking of children of the Austrian Task Force against THB and of the CoE’s Group of experts on action against trafficking in human beings (GRETA). He has worked for several years in the field of anti-trafficking standards and national and European practice, with particular emphasis on establishment of national referral mechanisms and child rights-based approaches. His work includes collaboration with non-governmental networks (former acting chair of the European Children’s Network; Austrian Child Rights Coalition) and organisations (ECPAT Austria, Austrian League for Child and Youth Health).

Luiza Shahbazyan

Luiza Shahbazyan is the deputy coordinator of the Bulgarian Safer Internet Center, managed by Applied Research and Communications Fund. She has experience in conducting research on the use of digital technologies and associated risks among children and young people. She also works on developing campaigns and trainings for children, parents, teachers and other professionals to promote digital opportunities and prevent online risks. Since 2012, Luiza Shahbazyan has been the national coordinator for the European research network EU Kids Online. She holds a PhD in Psychology.

Ivanka Shalapatova

Ivanka Shalapatova has been working in the NGO sector for 19 years. She was involved with the pilot project “Children and Families” which has introduced a range of innovative for Bulgaria services for child protection. She has been part of the advocacy and lobbying activities for setting up basic social services for child protection and family strengthening in Bulgaria as well as the planning and management of the process of deinstitutionalisation of children and the development of a range of alternative, community based services for children and families. She has experience in working with the national authorities not only as a leader of an NGO and a member of a range of consultative bodies, but also as a Deputy Minister in the remits of the Care-taker Government in 2013.

Renata Szredzińska

Renata Szredzińska graduated in modern languages from Warsaw

University and in sociology from University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw. She completed post graduate studies in public communication and the media at Polish Academy of Sciences. Since 2008 she works in Nobody’s Children Foundation as a coordinator of the programme aimed at prevention of young child abuse, and since March 2016 as the member of the Foundation’s board. She is a member of an interdisciplinary team for counteracting domestic violence in one of Warsaw’s districts and a member of the working group on family support at Eurochild.

Michael Taylor

Mike Taylor is policy lead for WePROTECT at the Home Office in the UK.  WePROTECT is a global coalition of countries and organisations that  is dedicated to national and international action to end the sexual exploitation of children online.  Mike was responsible for organising the WePROTECT Summits in London (2014) and Abu Dhabi (2015) and is secretary to the WePROTECT Board.  He also chairs the Executive Management Committee of the Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative.  He has previously focused on China and East Asia at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Cabinet Office, and on disarmament in the Ministry of Defence. 

Velina Todorova

Velina Todorova Ph.D., Associate Professor on Family & Succession Law; Civil Status and Child Protection at both the Law Faculty, Plovdiv University and Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. A Deputy Minister of Justice (2011-13): sectors of International and European Law, International Child Protection, Family Law and Juvenile Justice. With an extensive experience in law making (Child Protection legislation 1999-2000; Domestic Violence Act 2005, Draft Child’s Rights Act 2010, Juvenile Justice reform currently) and in research nationally and internationally (over 50 publications). NGO expert and activist. Committee on the European Family Law member (2014). Awarded by the President of Bulgaria for the 25 CRC Anniversary.

Margaret Tuite

Margaret Tuite is the European Commission coordinator for rights of the child since 1 November 2011 in the unit responsible for fundamental rights and the rights of the child of DG Justice and Consumers.  Margaret has worked for the European Commission for 30 years, 15 of them in the justice and home affairs domain.

 

Liubomir Tulev

Lyubomir Tulev is an investigator and a team leader at the Cybercrime Department of the General Directorate Countering Organized Crime, Bulgaria. For the past 6 years, he has been involved in the investigation of more than 350 child sexual exploitation cases within Europe, the US, New Zealand and Australia. He is the contact point for Bulgaria for the Europol CSE Focal Point “TWINS”, the European EMPACT-CSE Project, the Global Alliance Against Child Sexual Exploitation, the FBI International Task Force, Facebook, Inc. for all legal police requests from/to Bulgaria, and Interpol’s ICSE DB for Bulgaria. He is also a national expert on child sexual exploitation, in which capacity he regularly participates in awareness rising campaigns, provides peer trainings, and gives presentations to students on how to stay safe online.

George Tyrikos Ergas

George Tyrikos Ergas is a PhD Candidate (Univeristy of Ioannina) in Folklore Studies and Research Associate at Durham University (Anthropology Department) in "Transitory Lives”, an ESRC-funded comparative study of the migration crisis in the Mediterranean.  He is co-founder and Vice President of "Agkalia" a volunteer team in Lesvos, Greece which was awarded the Raul Wallenberg Prize 2016 of the Council of Europe for its outstanding response providing shelter, food, medicine and transportation for thousands of refugees irrespective of their origin and religion. “Agkalia” runs on a totally volunteer basis without fees for its council or members and without funding from governments or the E.U.

Johan van den Hout

Johan van den Hout (Dutch Socialist Party) is one of the six members of the provincial executive of the province of Noord-Brabant. His portfolio contains two major policy fields: ecology and law enforcement.  From 1999 to 2008 he was the Dutch Socialist Party group chairman of the municipal council n Tilburg, the sixth biggest town of The Netherlands.  He is a member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and its Thematic Spokesperson on Children. In this role, he has contributed to raising awareness on the Pact of towns and regions to stop sexual violence against children.

Benoit Van Keirsbilck

Benoit Van Keirsbilck is the Director of the Belgian section of Defence for Children – International (DCI) and the President of the International Executive Council (International board) of DCI. He was the Director of the Children Law Service of Brussels during 25 years. This service assists young people and their families to access to justice. He is co-director of the Interdisciplinary Centre of the Rights of the Child (CIDE) which gathers 4 universities and 2 NGO. The CIDE organises a University degree and conducts academic researches on children’s rights. Finally, he is Chief Editor of the Journal of Children’s Law (Belgium).

Helen Veitch

Helen began her career in the 1990s with ECPAT UK (End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking) turning it from a single issue campaign to a multi-faceted NGO. In 2004-2006 Helen worked as a Consultant on Children’s Participation at the East Asia Pacific Regional Consultation for the UN Study on Violence against Children. In 2009 she founded Children Unite where she facilitated and promoted participatory advocacy and research with child domestic workers.  In 2015 Helen become an Oak Fellow, in a collaboration between the Oak Foundation and Bedfordshire University’s International Centre: Researching Child Sexual Exploitation, Violence and Trafficking.

Nick Vijn

My name is Nick Vijn, a 17-years old, enthusiastic, creative and happy youngster from Wervershoof, The Netherlands. Besides a fulltime study for ‘Manager Flower-retail’’ I am a volunteer at Jong&Out. Jong&Out is for and by youngsters under 19. My function is coordinating and motivating the web and PR teams. Because I think visibility of LGTB-youngsters is important at school, I started a Gay Straight Alliance. The GSA is a group of students and teachers who stand up for the LGTB-youngsters at school. Together we organise events like Purple Friday (a day when everyone wears purple clothes to show their solidarity with the LGTB-people at school), International Day of Silence (IDOS) and Coming Out Day.

Eva Zhecheva

Ms Eva Zhecheva has been the Chairperson of the State Agency for Child Protection since 2013. She holds a Master’s degree in Bulgarian language and history from the St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo and qualifications in Public Administration, European Integration and Integration of Women and Minor Migrants. Previously she was a member of the Bulgarian Parliament and as such she was one of the initiators for elaboration of the first Bulgarian Child Protection Act. She was an Executive Director of the Bulgarian Fund for Media for Children Association and later worked at the Ombudsperson’s Office where she was the head of the Rights of the Child, People with Disabilities and Discrimination Department.