Chair, Board of Directors

Dr. Rahma Bourqia, Morocco

Rahma Bourqia is president of University Hassan II Mahommedia. The first woman appointed to the presidency of a Moroccan university after a long academic career as a professor of sociology and anthropology, dean of a school of humanities. Bourqia has written books and many articles on Moroccan society, culture, women, youth and values. She is an expert on women's rights in Morocco and the Arab World. As a member of the committee created to discuss the status of women in Morocco, Bourqia had a part and contributed in the adoption of the country's New Family Law in 2003 which recognized the equality between men and women. She has been actively involved in the reform of higher education in Morocco. She has been active in breaking traditional cultural, social and gender roles throughout her professional career and her commitment to the change and to the development. Bourqia has a strong track record of working for reform and was nominated by Moroccan civil society. Dr. Bourqia is also a member of the Morocco's High Council for Education.

 Vice Chairman, Board of Directos

Dr. Cornelio Sommaruga, Switzerland

 Treasurer & Chair of Finance Committee

Kamel Abu Jaber, Jordan

Dr. Kamel S. Abu Jaber has been president of the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy since 1997. Formerly, he served as minister of the economy (1973), as a senator in the Jordan upper house of parliament (1993-1997), and as minister of foreign affairs for Jordan (1991-1993). Abu Jaber has held the posts of professor of political science (1971, 1979-1980, 1985), dean of the faculty of economics and commerce (1972-1979) and director of the Strategic Studies Centre at the University of Jordan; he also served as associate professor of political science at Smith College (USA, 1967-1969) and as visiting professor at Emory University, the Carter Centre (Atlanta, USA, 1989). Abu Jaber holds a PhD in political science from the University of Syracuse (USA, 1965). He is the author of numerous papers and publications, including The Palestinians: People of the Olive Tree (1993), Political Parties and Elections in Israel (1985), The Israeli Political System (1973), The United States of America and Israel (1971) and The Arab Ba'ath Socialist Party (1966).

 Members

Bakhtiar Amin, Iraq

Bakhtiar Amin was born in Kirkuk. He has served as 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. The IAJ called for the establishment of an International Ad Hoc Tribunal to investigate the Iraqi leadership's crimes against humanity, crimes of war and genocide. He was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and has a master's degree in international relations. He pursued doctoral studies in geopolitics and studied journalism in Sweden. He has two decades' experience in the field of international human rights and humanitarian work. He has worked extensively on issues involving minorities, indigenous peoples, women's rights, land mines, the International Criminal Court, freedom of expression, liberating prisoners and conflict resolution. He has participated in fact-finding missions in Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Kurdistan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, among others. 

Chief Judge Robert Henry, USA 

In a public service career spanning nearly three decades, Judge Robert H. Henry has been honored to serve in each branch of government.  From 1976 to 1986, he was a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives; in 1986 and again in 1990, he was elected Attorney General of Oklahoma.  He held the positions of Dean and Professor of Law at the Oklahoma City University School of Law from 1991 until 1994.  In 1994, President Clinton appointed him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 1994, and he became Chief Judge on January 1, 2008.

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, serving Oklahoma since 1982.   He currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the National State Attorneys General Program, on the Advisory Board for the Judicial Outreach Program of the American Society of International Law, on the Board of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative and is currently Chair of its Middle East/North Africa (MENA) Council.  He also serves as Chair of the University of Oklahoma’s International Programs Center Board of Visitors and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  He served on the Committee on Codes of Conduct of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 2004-2005.  In 2005, the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist named Judge Henry Chair of the International Judicial Relations Committee, which he chaired through April 2008, and on which he currently serves as a  member. 

Andreu Claret Serra, Spain

Claret is the Executive Director of the Anna Lindh Foundation, which promotes dialogue between the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region. He started working as a journalist, in Spain, when there was no freedom of speech and writing. He has been the director of the Spanish news agency (EFE) for sub-Saharan Africa and Central America. Andreu Claret returned to Spain as the chief of EFE News Agency in Barcelona (1992-2000). As an expert on international affairs, he has published analysis in the most important Spanish newspapers and in international magazines. His fields of knowledge are the challenges of developing countries, relations between the West and the Arab and Muslim world, Spanish foreign policy in the Mediterranean space, and interaction between cultures, civilisations and the role of civil societies.

In 2000, he was appointed as director of the Catalan Institute of the Mediterranean (ICM), a think tank dealing with political, social and cultural challenges of the Mediterranean area. Under Claret's direction, the ICM became the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed, a larger institution participated by local and national public institutions, and backed by some of the largest Spanish companies. Claret was IEMed's director till December 2005. IEMed became one of the leading institutions for cultural dialogue and cooperation between Europe and the southern Mediterranean countries. Its activities were focused on the relations with Arab countries, Turkey and Israel.

Sabine Gürtner, Germany 

Zahira Kamal, Palestine

Ms. Zahira Kamal is the Director of Palestinian women Research and Documentation Center (UNESCO project). She was appointed as the first Minister of Women's Affairs in November 2003. During the period 1996-2003, Ms. Kamal was the General Director of the Gender Planning and Development Directorate at the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation. She worked at UNDP from 1993 to 1995 as Director of the Women in Development Program. She also taught in Ramallah Women College for twenty two years teaching physics and methods of teaching science. She obtained a B.Sc. in Physics from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt in 1968 and High Diploma in education from Jordan University in 1978.

She has been and still politically and social and women activist, she was a member of the advisory committee to the Palestinian negotiation team for peace negotiation. She has been founding member and is currently a Board member of several Palestinian women's NGOs, such as Women Center for legal Aid and Counseling, Women Studies Center, Jerusalem Link. Moreover, she is one of the founders of the International Women Commission for Just Peace between Palestinians and Israelis. She was rewarded with an honor citizenship by the city of Bologna –Italy and Los Anglos in USA, and the prize of freedom and human rights in Bern-Switzerland.

Ms. Kamal has written a number of articles and studies on Palestinian women, women's empowerment, peace and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, women and citizenship, enhancing the role of women machineries.

 President

 Mrs. Nabila Hamza 

Mrs Nabila Hamza is the President of the Foundation For the Future (FFF), an independent and multilateral institution aiming to promote Democracy, Human Rights, active citizenship and good governance throughout the support and assistance to Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in the broader Middle East and North Africa [MENA] region.

Prior to that, Mrs. Hamza has been the Executive Director of the Arab women Center for Training and research (CAWTAR), a regional center based in Tunisia and funded by UNDP, UNFPA and IPPF. She has worked as Expert in the League of Arab States for 10 years.

She held various leading positions in the Public Sector in Tunisia and worked as a consultant for UNDP, UNFPA, the European Commission, 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 has been nominated as member of the High National Commission in charge of elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and Member of the National Commission for Equal opportunities in TUNISIA.

Ms Hamza is a well known researcher in social and political science and a recognized gender expert. She holds an MA in Sociology and an MS in International Relations and Political Sciences from the University of Sorbonne, 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 to the elaboration of the first Arab Human Development Report, issued by UNDP.

Moreover, Mrs Hamza has been 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.
 

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