Appendix 3 Biographies of Key Speakers, Organisers, Chairpersons and Workshop Facilitators

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Ms Diane ‘Ala’i Diane ‘Ala’i has served as Representative to the United Nations for the Bahá’í International Community, United Nations Oﬃce in Geneva since 1992, acting as Coordinator for Human Rights. In this capacity, she has participated in numerous sessions of UN organs, e.g. the General Assembly, Commission on Human Rights (now Human Rights Council), its Sub-Commission, related Committees, and the UNHCR ExCom. She works together with representatives of other NGOs accredited to the UN, and currently is Chair of the NGO Sub-Committee on Freedom of Religion and Belief and Vice-Chair of the NGO Committee on Racism and Racial Discrimination. She has coordinated NGO input into the work of the Commission and participated in training interns, in particular those of the European Union. Diane Ala’i holds post-graduate degrees from IERI (Paris) and IEHEI (Nice), and degrees from IIHR (Strasbourg) and GPRI (Geneva).

Ms Widney Brown Widney Brown is the Senior Director for International Law, Policy and Cam- paigning at Amnesty International. She is responsible for developing AI’s work on discrimination based on religion or belief. Additionally, in her capacity as provid- ing strategic vision for AI’s global campaign to Stop Violence Against Women, she has explored the backlash against women right’s. Prior to joining Amnesty International in February 2006, she was the Deputy Program Director at Human Rights Watch where she researched, wrote and edited numerous reports on a wide range of human rights issues. Widney has a law degree from the New York Uni- versity School of Law.

Dr Dennis de Jong Dennis de Jong studied law and economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and international relations at the New School for Social Research in New York City. In 2000, he received his PhD in international law at the University of Maas- tricht on the basis of his thesis about the Freedom of Religion and Belief in the

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United Nations. Between 1987 and 1998 he worked in the field of asylum and immigration policies, at first for the Netherlands Ministry of Justice and later for the European Commission. In 2001, he organised for the Ministry of Justice the Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity II. Since 2003, he has been working for the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Advisor on Human Rights and Peace-Building. He is currently the secretary of the Knowl- edge Forum on Religion and Development Co-operation. He has published and taught in the field of asylum and immigration policies, and also published many articles on the freedom of religion or belief.

Mr Piet de Klerk HE Ambassador de Klerk is the Ambassador at Large for Human Rights for the Netherlands Government and has held this position since 2003. Before that he held various governmental posts: Director of the Office of External Relations and Policy Coordination, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna (1998–2003); Counsellor (Political) Netherlands Embassy, Head of Consular Section, Bonn (1996–1998); Head of Arms Control Section, Atlantic Coopera- tion and Security Affairs Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1991–1996); 1987–1991 First Secretary/Counsellor, Permanent Mission to the United Nations and IAEA, Vienna (1991–1996) and Desk Officer Disarmament and Peace Affairs Section, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Hague (1980–1987). Before that Mr de Klerk was Assistant Professor Physics and Society at the University of Amsterdam (1978–1980). Mr De Klerk has published widely, especially in matters of peace and security. He studied at the University of Amsterdam and at Politecnico Milano.

Professor Malcolm Evans Malcolm D Evans OBE is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Bristol, UK and currently Dean of its Faculty of Social Sciences and Law. His areas of interest include both the freedom of religion and torture and torture prevention issues. He is a member of the OSCE Advisory Council on the Free- dom of Religion or Belief. He has also acted as an advisor for numerous international organizations including the Council of Europe, the EU and the ICRC. His principal publications include ‘Religious Liberty and International Law in Europe’ (Cambridge University Press, 1997), Preventing Torture (Oxford University Press, 1998) and Combating Torture in Europe (Council of Europe, 2001). He is also editor of International Law (Oxford University Press, 2006). He is also a member of the Editorial Board of numerous journals, including the ‘Interna- tional and Comparative Law Quarterly’ and ‘Religion and Human Rights’.

Dr Tom Fox Born of English parents in Kenya and lived in Tanzania and South Africa, before moving to England at the age of 14. He took up photography soon after moving

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