Daniel Ziv

Daniel Ziv is a documentary filmmaker, author, and social justice advocate. A native of Canada, he moved to Jakarta in 1999 and has since been documenting society in the country’s bustling capital. His 2014 feature-length film “Jalanan” is a gritty portrait of Indonesia through the life stories of three marginalized Jakarta street musicians. It became the first Indonesian documentary in history to be released in commercial cinemas across the country, was adopted by Jakarta’s governor as a tool for social policy change, and has traveled to 60 international film festivals and won 12 awards. Daniel founded and edited the popular and irreverent Djakarta! magazine, and he authored the urban pop…

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Sawsan Zaher

Sawsan Zaher is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, a feminist, and a human rights lawyer currently with Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, serving as the Director of the Social, Economic, and Cultural Rights Unit since 2005. Through her work with Adalah, Sawsan litigated several landmark cases before the Israeli Supreme Court challenging discrimination and racism against the Palestinian minority in Israel. Sawsan has received several fellowships and honors, including being selected as a 2015 Young Global Leader, an integral part of the World Economic Forum, a 2012 Fellow at the Women in Public Service Project at Wellesley College, and a 2008 Fellow of the Public…

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Amira Yahyaoui

Amira Yahyaoui is a Tunisian human rights advocate and founder of the award-winning Al Bawsala, a public policy and accountability NGO. Al Baswala monitors the work of the Tunisian Parliament, the Constitutional Assembly, and Tunisian city halls, using technology to make information accessible to citizens. When she was a teenager, Amira was banned from her homeland for her human rights activism and fled to Paris as a refugee. After the Arab Spring, Amira returned to Tunisia for the political transition and writing of the new Tunisian constitution. She won a Vital Voices Global Trailblazer award in 2012 for women transforming the Middle East and was named top 100 most powerful…

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Pilar Velasco

Pilar Velasco is a Spanish journalist currently working at Cadena SER (Prisa Group), the radio network leader in Spain. Specializing in investigative and data journalism, she has exposed political and economic malpractices in Spain and uncovered high profile international corruption cases. Her reports have focused on revealing unlawful and unethical activities of the powerful against the public interest. Pilar is the author of two books, one about social change in Spain; and another one about the rise of indignados (Occupy) movement, both of which have been translated into several languages. She has also published two essays in Germany about the challenges of democracy in Europe in the context of the…

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Chinwe Philomena Uwandu

Chinwe Philomena Uwandu retired from the service of the Federal Government of Nigeria in January 2020. In the course of her career as a Government Legal Advisor, she counseled the Federal Republic of Nigeria, its Agencies, and Overseas Missions on a diverse and complex range of legal issues. She also represented Nigeria at bilateral and multi-lateral meetings at sub-regional, regional, and international levels, and participated in the negotiation and preparation of bilateral and multi-lateral treaties, and other agreements. As Lead Counsel to Nigeria’s Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, Chinwe uncovered crimes and gross human rights violations during thirty years of Military dictatorship in Nigeria. She also prosecuted criminal cases on…

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Ernest "Duga" Titanji

Ernest "Duga" Titanji is a founding member and senior partner of the Duga & Co. Law Firm, and president of the Cameroon Bar Association Human Rights Commission and Training Commission. He also serves as a senior lecturer in law at the University of YaoundĂ© and consults for the World Bank. As chairman of the National Human Rights Observatory, Duga works fearlessly to remedy human rights abuses in Cameroon. He is particularly focused on cases of child abuse and violation of the rights of girls, and has defended men charged with homosexual acts. His law firm is the first in Cameroon to launch a pro bono practice for those unable to foot…

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Julien Steimer

Julien Steimer is CEO of AXA Indonesia, a leading insurance company headquartered in France. Convinced of the added value of public-private partnerships, Julien served the French government for over a decade in the areas of agricultural policy reform, global food security, and EU affairs. From 2009-2012, he shaped the political strategy of the French Ministry of Agriculture, a department with a EUR 15.5 billion budget. Julien successfully led high-level negotiations on the Agricultural Action Plan adopted by G20 Heads of State in 2011 and the first-ever signed Franco-German agreement on Common Agricultural Policy. Previously, he served as Deputy Director for European Issues in the French Foreign Service, where he planned,…

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Zafar Sobhan

Zafar Sobhan is Founder and Editor of the Dhaka Tribune, a daily newspaper launched in 2013, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Tribune has already made its mark as the fastest growing English-language newspaper in the history of Bangladesh. Prior to this, Zafar spent seven years as a senior editor at The Daily Star and four years as the editor of Forum, a monthly long-form magazine. He has also worked as a corporate attorney in Manhattan and a New York City public school teacher. In addition, Zafar is Bangladesh's first columnist to be syndicated outside the country, and has written for The New York Times, the Guardian, TIME, YaleGlobal, EPW, Vice,…

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Andriy Shevchenko

Andriy Shevchenko is a prominent Ukrainian politician, diplomat, journalist, and civil activist. In 2015-21 he served as the Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada. Prior to that, he was a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, winning seats in 2006, 2007, and 2012. He served as the Chairman of the Free Speech Committee and the 1st Deputy Chairman of the Human Rights Committee. Andriy is the author of the Law on Access to Public Information and was an active participant of the Euromaidan Revolution of 2013-14. As a seasoned journalist, he helped to establish the 5th Channel, the first 24/7-news channel in Ukraine, and became the face of the 2004 Orange Revolution for viewers. Prior to this,…

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Pablo AmĂ­lcar Sandoval Ballesteros

Pablo AmĂ­lcar Sandoval Ballesteros is a Mexican politician and activist serving as State Coordinator of the Development Programs of the State of Guerrero. He was previously Coordinator of the Morena Parliamentary group and President of the Political Coordination Board (2018). He was a member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, serving as Secretary of national organization. He was national delegate of the CEN of the PRD in the campaign for the government of Guerrero and the state of Mexico in 2005. In the public sector, Pablo has served as director of Control and Evaluation in the Federal District Government and was part of the AndrĂ©s Manuel LĂłpez Obrador Advisory…

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