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).

Ms Axelle Devun (France) – Communications and IT Officer
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) – Outreach and Publications Coordinator
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.

Ms Sabrina Lambat (Switzerland) – Accountant
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
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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.

Ms Kimberly Fraser (Australia) – Intern
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 24
Kimberly Fraser comes to the Council from Mauritius where she completed an internship with the local section of Amnesty International. She also recently attended an intensive programme in International Human Rights Law at Oxford University. Kimberly holds an Honours degree in Social Science with a major in Anthropology from James Cook University in Australia where her research focused on cultural rights and the protection of displaced people groups.

Ms Magdalena Piskunowicz (Poland) – Intern
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 24
Magdalena Piskunowicz recently graduated from the University of Sussex (UK) with an Master’s degree in Law. Most of her research was focused on international law and human rights with a special interest in corporate social responsibility and ‘horizontal human rights’ theory. She also holds a degree in law from the University of Gdańsk in Poland where her research focused on the right to privacy. Before joining the ICHRP Magdalena completed an internship at the United Nations Secretariat (NY, USA) at the Financing for Development Office, DESA.

Ms Gabrielle Rivier (Switzerland) – Translation intern
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Gabrielle Rivier is a freelance translator. She graduated at the Ecole de Traduction et d’Interprétation, University of Geneva. As she is much interested in human sciences, she decided to become a specialist in the religious field and she took a Master degree in theology. She has experienced translation in the private and public sectors.

Ms Katarzyna Snyder (Poland) – Intern
Email
Phone: +41 (0) 22 775 33 00
Katarzyna Snyder holds a Master’s degree in international relations from the University of Warsaw and another in human rights law from the Central European University. She was also a visiting scholar at the Columbia Law School in New York. Katarzyna worked on human rights issues in Kenya and in Rwanda as well as at the Open Society Justice Initiative in New York. She was the adaptation and human rights officer with the Team of Experts of the Polish Climate Ambassador to the 14th United Nations Climate Change Conference. Most recently she was involved with the Warsaw based Center for International Relations as the Climate and Energy Program Officer.

Mr Stephen Humphreys (Ireland) – Consultant
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Stephen Humphreys is a lecturer in public international law at the London School of Economics. Prior to that he was a Research Director at the International Council. Before joining the Council he 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.

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.