Honorary Chair of the Board of Directors
Cornelio Sommaruga, Switzerland

A prominent Swiss humanitarian, lawyer and diplomat, Dr. Sommaruga is best known for being the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 1987 to 1999. Currently Dr. Sommaruga is the honorary President of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, as well as the honorary President of Initiatives of Change International in Caux (Switzerland).

Moreover, Dr. Sommaruga served as the Undersecretary of State at the Office of Foreign Economic Affairs from 1984 to 1986.

Bakhtiar Amin previously served as the Minister of Human Rights of Iraq and Executive Director of the International Alliance for Justice (IAJ), which coordinates a network of 275 international non-governmental organizations from more than 120 countries. He has 20 years of experience in the field of international human rights and humanitarian work and has worked extensively on issues involving minorities, indigenous peoples, women's rights, land mines, the International Criminal Court, freedom of expression, and conflict resolution.

Dr. Abu Jaber has been the President of the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy since 1997. Formerly, he served as Minister of the Economy, Senator and Minister of Foreign Affairs for Jordan. Dr. Abu Jaber previously held the positions of Professor of Political Science, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce, and Director of the Strategic Studies Centre at the University of Jordan.

Abdul Hassan Buhussain served as the Chief Executive Director of the Bahraini Civil Service Bureau until 1996. Prior to this, he was the Undersecretary for the Ministry of Information, and then a Member and Second Deputy of the appointed Shura Council. He was a Member of Directors of Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), as well as Board Chairman and Managing Director of BAI, Bahrain Atomizer International (BAI). He now provides management consultancy services to private companies in Bahrain.

Senior Partner of Hassan & Hassan (Advocates) in Pakistan and currently the President of the Pakistan Environmental Law Association, Parvez Hassan has been actively involved in promoting and defending the rule of law in Pakistan throughout his career. He led the nation-wide lawyers’ movement in 1983 against General Zia ul Haq. He is also the founder of the Dr. Parvez Hassan Environmental Law Centre at the University Law College (Punjab University) and a co-founder of the Asia-Pacific Centre of Environmental Law in Singapore.

Sabine Gürtner worked as a research analyst for several years with Infratest, a social and economic research institute in Germany. In 2003 she followed a call to establish and to coordinate an NGO-Network and Think Tank “WOMNET” to address and to promote women’s and human rights, global governance, social development perspectives and the participation of civil society organizations in international processes through capacity-building, policy dialogue, networking, analysis, and research.

Chief Judge Robert H. Henry held the positions of Dean and Professor of Law at the Oklahoma City University School of Law, and since 1994, he has served in the US Court of Appeals. Judge Henry is a member of the Board of Directors for the VERA Institute of Justice and is a Life Member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. He currently serves on the Board of various prominent Law institutions, including the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative, chairing their Middle East/North Africa Council.  He has recently been appointed President of Oklahoma City University.

Executive Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, which promotes dialogue between countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region, Andreu Claret Serra is an international affairs expert. He previously served as the director of the Spanish News Agency (EFE) for sub-Saharan Africa and Central America. His interests include the challenges of developing countries, relations between the West and the Arab world, Spanish foreign policy in the Mediterranean region, as well as the interaction between cultures and civilizations and the role of civil societies.

As the Chairperson for Sisters Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF) in Sana’a, Yemen, Amal Basha is an active member of Yemeni Civil Society and has written a number of papers on gender, human rights, justice and citizenship. She holds a master’s degree in International Development and Gender from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex.

Director of the Palestinian Women Research and Documentation Center (UNESCO project), Zahira Kamal was appointed the first Minister of Women's Affairs of the Palestinian Authority in November 2003. She previously served as the Director General of the Gender Planning and Development Directorate at the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. She has also worked at UNDP as the Director of the Women in Development Program and is one of the founders of the International Women Commission for Just Peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

An internationally renowned expert on peace, justice and human security, Dr Rama Mani  is a Councilor of the World Future Council as well as a Senior Research Associate of the University of Oxford’s Centre for International Studies. She was the Director of the Carnegie Corporation-funded multi-disciplinary project on, and co-editor with Professor Thomas Weiss of, Responsibility to Protect: Cultural Perspectives in the Global South (Routledge, 2011). She also authored Beyond Retribution: Seeking Justice in the Shadows of War (Polity/Blackwell, 2002, 2007), and numerous academic articles on peace and security.

A French national and Indian Overseas Citizen, she holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Cambridge, an M.A. in International Affairs from Johns Hopkins University’s Bologna Centre, and B.A. in Political Science & French Literature from Bryn Mawr College, USA.

Mrs. Nabila Hamza is the President of the Foundation for the Future, (FFF) an independent, international nonprofit organization established in 2005. She has dedicated herself fully to the mission and detailed activities of this important organization, with a firm devotion to support the civil society initiatives in their efforts to promote democracy and human rights in the BMENA region. The Foundation for the Future remains profoundly committed to enhancing and strengthening Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in their efforts to advance democracy building and Human Rights protection.  Thus, in recognition of her significant role in the Foundation’s continuing efforts to support civil society initiatives, the Arab Pioneer and Innovators Forum granted an award to honor Ms. Nabila Hamza in November 2009. This award promoted the dissemination of information on the Foundation’s achievements as a reliable and credible partner to civil society organizations for the promotion of human rights and democracy in the region.

Prior to her work at the Foundation for the Future, Mrs. Hamza served as the Executive Director of the Center of Arab Women for Training and Research (CAWTAR), a regional center based in Tunisia and funded by UNDP, UNFPA and IPPF. She has worked as an Expert in the Arab League for 10 years.

Mrs. Hamza held various prominent positions in the Public Sector in Tunisia and worked as a consultant for UNDP, UNFPA, the European Commission, and the Economic and Social Commission for Eastern Asia (ESCWA). She has been the Coordinator of many regional programs, such as the Regional Program for "Combating violence against women" (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI)). She was also nominated to be a member of the High National Commission in charge of the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and Member of the National Commission for equal opportunities in Tunisia. Mrs. Hamza joined the CIVICUS Board of Directors in October 2011. CIVICUS is an international alliance of members and partners which constitutes an influential network of organisations at the local, national, regional and international levels, and spans the spectrum of civil society.

Mrs. Hamza is a well-known and respected researcher in social and political science and is an expert on gender issues. She holds an MA in International Relations and Political Science from the University of Sorbonne in Paris. She has published and contributed to a wide range of books and articles on public policies, social development, good governance, gender issues, poverty alleviation, and employment in the Arab region. She participated in the elaboration of the first Arab Human Development Report, issued by UNDP.

In November 2011 the Arab-European Center of Human Rights and International Law honored Mrs. Hamza by its 2011 “Arab Human Rights Award” for her dedicated efforts towards enhancing the principles of Human Rights.

Moreover, Mrs. Hamza has been a founding member of several women's rights and development associations through which she acquired a wide knowledge of civil society organizations in the Arab countries.