Board members
The Council’s Executive Board directs the organisation and selects the themes of Council research. Board members are also members of the Council and are subject to the same terms of service. Board members serve in a private capacity, and do not represent their institutions.
Hina Jilani (Pakistan) – Chair
Hina Jilani is Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders. She is also Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. She is the founding member of several national, regional and international human rights organisations. In 1981 she established the first all-woman law firm in Pakistan, along with her sister, Asma Jahangir. In 1984 Hina and Asma set up AGHS Legal Aid, the first free legal aid centre in Pakistan. She has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the Millennium Peace Prize in 2001. She is specialised in human rights and constitutional rights litigation. Special areas of concern and activity in the field of human rights have been democratic development, the rights of women, minorities and children.
Lydia Alpízar Durán (Costa Rica)
Lydia Alpízar Durán is Executive Director of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), where she has also worked as Feminist Movements and Organizations Theme Manager. Lydia has extensive experience in advocacy and training on women’s human rights. She facilitated the participation of young women from Latin America in the UN Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing 95) process, and in 2000 she was the Latin American regional representative to the International NGO Committee for Beijing +5. Also, she participated for several years in the Campaign “Stop Impunity: No more murdered women”, a national Mexican initiative to put an end to the killings of women in the US/Mexico border city of Ciudad Juárez. Lydia is co-founder and advisor of ELIGE - Youth Network for Reproductive and Sexual Rights (Mexico), and she is also co-founder of the Latin American and Caribbean Youth Network for Reproductive and Sexual Rights. Since 1996, she has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Committee for the Peace Council. She is member of the Board of Directors of the Global Fund for Women and of the Central American Women’s Fund. Lydia is Sociologist by training.
Imrana Jalal (Fiji)
Imrana Jalal is Human Rights Advisor at the Regional Rights Resources Team (RRRT), a Pacific regional human rights project based in Fiji. Imrana is a feminist lawyer, activist and opinion shaper in the Pacific Islands region. She is also a founding member of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement and works locally, regionally and internationally as a human rights lawyer.
Marco Sassoli (Switzerland)
Marco Sassoli is Professor of International Law at the University of Geneva since 2004. He chairs the Boards of Geneva Call, an NGO engaging non-state armed groups to comply with humanitarian rules, and of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. From 2001 to 2003 he was Professor in the Legal Studies Department of the Political Science and Law Faculty at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), where he continues to serve as Associate Professor. He served as Clerk to the Swiss Federal Tribunal in Lausanne, and before that as Executive Secretary of the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva. For thirteen years, he worked at the International Committee of the Red Cross, in Geneva, the Middle East and the former Yugoslavia.
Wilder Tayler (Uruguay)
Wilder Tayler, a Uruguayan lawyer, is Deputy Secretary-General of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). Between 1997 and 2007 he was Legal and Policy Director of Human Rights Watch. From 1995 to 1996, he was Programme Director of the Americas Region of Amnesty International. Between 1990 and 1995, he was Legal Advisor of Amnesty International with responsibility for the Americas and Asia regional programmes. From 1987 to 1990 he was Executive Director of the Institute for Legal and Social Studies (IELSUR) in Uruguay and before that, Legal Officer (1983-1987), co-ordinating the Institute’s defence of political prisoners.