Staff
Mr Robert Archer (United Kingdom) – Executive Director
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 08
Before coming to the Council, Robert Archer was Senior Policy Adviser at Christian Aid where he worked on aid policy, parliamentary advocacy, and development policy issues in Africa and the Caribbean. Prior to that he was Desk Officer of the Asia Programme at the Catholic Institute for International Relations (now Progressio). Robert has taught and done research in Madagascar, and is the author of books on Madagascar and South Africa. He has degrees in philosophy and literature from Cambridge University and in African Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (London).
Mr Patrick Cattan (France) – Finance and Administration Officer
Staff and colleagues at the International Council mourn the loss of Patrick Cattan who died on 14 September 2008, leaving his wife Patricia and sons Christian and Anthony.
An experienced accountant, Patrick worked for both Digital Equipment Corporation and Motorola, and for a Geneva-based NGO working in the Caucasus Region and Central Asia before he joined the Council at the beginning of 2005. In the short time that he was with us, he developed the Council’s reporting system and proved a kind and conscientious colleague.
Ms Axelle Devun (France) – Communications Assistant
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 21
Before joining the Council, Axelle Devun worked in communication and promotion at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, particularly in the fields of web editing and marketing strategy. Prior to that, she worked for the Sphere Project on the promotion of materials and trainings. Previously, she developed activities, organised events, created and produced communications tools in a think tank, a web agency as well as a biotechnologies research & development company. She graduated in Marketing and Management from the IDRAC Business School, Lyon and has a Master’s degree in Media and Communication from Paul Cézanne University, Aix en Provence.
Ms Fairouz El Tom (Sudan and Switzerland) – Research and Publications Officer
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 05
Before joining the Council Fairouz El Tom was a Consultant at the Hague Appeal for Peace in New York. Prior to that she was an Education Observation Officer with UNICEF in Iraq. Fairouz also worked as Programme Assistant at Family Care International, New York. She has a Master’s degree in international educational development from Columbia University, New York.
Mr Stephen Humphreys (Ireland) – Research Director
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 23
Prior to joining the Council, Stephen Humphreys was Senior Officer, Communications, responsible for publications and communications at the Open Society Justice Initiative, an operational human rights program of the Open Society Institute (OSI) in New York. Before that, he oversaw a project monitoring minority rights in ten Eastern European countries for OSI’s EU Monitoring and Advocacy Programme (EUMAP), based in Budapest, Hungary. Between 1997 and 1999 he worked with ENDA Tiers Monde’s Programme Energie, in Dakar, Senegal, researching and publishing on climate change and development. In the mid-1990s, he lectured in English literature at Budapest’s ELTE University. Stephen has a Master’s in international law from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, and a Ph.D. in international law from the University of Cambridge.
Ms Sabrina Lambat (Switzerland) – Office Administrator
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 09
Sabrina Lambat’s previous work experience was mainly administrative and customer oriented in different sectors, such as governmental, telecommunications, brokerage and insurances, as well as industrial, construction and mining manufacturing. She has a Masters degree in International Studies from the IUHEI, University of Geneva and a DEA (Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies) in Development Studies from the IUED, University of Geneva.
Mr Vijay Kumar Nagaraj (India) – Research Director
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 02
Prior to joining the Council Vijay Kumar Nagaraj was an Assistant Professor at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India (2005-2007). Between 2000 and 2003, he served as Director of Amnesty International’s section in India. He has also worked as a full time political activist with Mazdoor Kisan Shakthi Sangathan (MKSS), a social movement organisation working with the rural poor in Rajasthan (between 1996-1998 and 2003-2005), Oxfam (India) Society (1998-1999) and also as a Consultant with the World Commission on Dams and the National Law School of India University.
Ms Annabelle Ranasinghe (Switzerland) – Administrative Assistant
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 04
Prior to joining the Council Annabelle Ranasinghe had a long career in the airline industry as a Personal Assistant/Secretary and has many years of experience dealing with various secretarial duties and conference assistance in Geneva and world-wide. She has also worked for various international organisations in Geneva. Annabelle was educated according to the British education system in her home-country and is bilingual in English and French.
Ms Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona (Chile) – Reseach Director
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 07
Magdalena was appointed as Independent Expert on the question of human rights and extreme poverty by the United Nations Human Rights Council on 26 of March 2008. She was Co-Director of the Department of International Law and Human Rights of the United Nations affiliated University for Peace in Costa Rica prior to joining the Council. She has lectured at several universities in Latin America and worked at the Division of International Affairs of the University of Valparaíso, Chile. She has provided technical assistance and training on human rights to NGOs, IGOs and governments. Magdalena also worked as a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights, staff attorney at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, consultant to the Department of International Protection of UNHCR and more recently for the Norwegian Refugee Council in Colombia. She holds a Ph.D. in international law from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and an LL.M in human rights law from University of Essex, the United Kingdom.
Ms Sara Benito Gutiérrez (Spain) – Translation Intern
Email
Sara Benito Gutiérrez translates from French and English into Spanish and Catalan. She graduated in Translation and Interpretation Studies, specialising in scientific and technical translation, from the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. She is currently studying for a Master’s in Translation at the School of Translation and Interpretation (ETI), University of Geneva.
Mr James Douglas (United Kingdom) – Intern
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 15
Before joining the Council, James graduated with an MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and a BA in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham. He has also had spells as an intern with the Policy and Government Affairs team at Amnesty International UK and with the freedom of expression organisation Index on Censorship, and spent a period with a company engaged in working with local communities on environmental issues.
Ms Carly Teresa Nyst (Australia) – Intern
Email
Phone : +41 (0) 22 775 33 24
Carly holds Bachelor degrees in Arts (International Relations) (Hons) and Law, both from the University of Queensland, and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the College of Law, Australia. She commenced working as an articled clerk in a criminal and human rights law firm in Brisbane in 2006, and continued working at the firm as a lawyer after her admission as a legal practitioner in March 2008. During this time, she also produced a chapter of the annual Burma Human Rights Yearbook concerning internal displacement in Burma. Prior to joining the Council, Carly undertook an internship with the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute at the IBA headquarters in London.
Ms. Angela Onikepe (United States) – Intern
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 00
Prior to joining the Council, Angela worked as a federal judicial law clerk at the U.S. District Courts in Western Pennsylvania. She has also done internships with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection where she concentrated on water and drought-related issues and with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti where she focused on human rights violations in Haiti. She holds an LL.M. in Environmental Law and Policy from Newcastle University, United Kingdom, a J.D. in Law from the University of Pittsburgh, United States and an M.Sc. in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, United States.
Ms Anita Rochedy (France) – Translation Intern
Email
Anita Rochedy translates from English and Italian to French. Her previous work experience includes translation on medical history and geopolitics as well as film translation. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Multilingual Communication from the School of Translation and Interpretation (ETI), University of Geneva, where she is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Translation, specialised in economic and legal translation.
Mr Scott Jerbi (United States) – Senior Adviser, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative (EGI)
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 755 21 25
Since September 2002, Scott Jerbi has been working out of the Council’s Secretariat in Versoix. He is Senior Adviser of Realizing Rights: the Ethical Globalization Initiative, led by Mary Robinson, to whom he reports. Scott worked previously in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), where he was a speechwriter and the focal point for the development of OHCHR’s policies and activities relating to the private sector. Before joining the UN, Scott worked with the Amherst Wilder Foundation, a non-profit health and human services organisation serving low-income individuals and families in the central neighbourhoods and communities of Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA.