Chiara Adamo is currently Acting Director for Human Development, Migration, Governance and Peace directorate in DG International Cooperation and Development (DG INTPA) in the European Commission. Chiara has more than 20 years of European Commission's experience, working on human rights and democracy, migration and human development related policies, particularly equality policies, both within and outside the EU. She is also the head of the "Human Rights, Gender and Democratic Governance" unit in DG INTPA. Before joining the European Commission, she studied International and Diplomatic Relations in Gorizia (Italy) and specialised in European Law in Rome and at the College of Europe, Bruges. She also previously worked for civil society organisations and local administrations on development cooperation and in the European Parliament.

Michelle Bachelet is the current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Ms. Bachelet was elected President of Chile on two occasions (2006 – 2010 and 2014 – 2018). She was the first female president of Chile. She also served as Health Minister (2000-2002) as well as Chile’s and Latin America’s first female Defense Minister (2002 – 2004). During her presidential tenures, she promoted the rights of all but particularly those of the most vulnerable. Among her many achievements, education and tax reforms, and the creation of the National Institute for Human Rights and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights stand out. So do the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, the adoption of quotas to increase women’s political participation, and the approval of Civil Union Act legislation, granting rights to same sex couples and thus, advancing LGBT rights.

Since the early 1990s, Ms. Bachelet has worked closely with many international organizations. In 2010 she chaired the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group, a joint International Labor Organization (ILO) and World Health Organization (WHO) initiative, which sought to promote social policies to stimulate economic growth and social cohesion. In 2011, she was named the first Director of UN Women, an organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of women and girls internationally. Economic empowerment and ending violence against women were two of her priorities during her tenure. She has recently pledged to be a Gender Champion, committing to advance gender equality in OHCHR and in international fora.

Delphine Borione is the Ambassador for Human Rights responsible for international issues relating to the Holocaust, looted property and remembrance since February 2021. She is a graduate from the French National School of Public Administration (ENA), and the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). Throughout her career, she held numerous bilateral and multilateral positions in the areas of sustainable development, economic, cultural and educational cooperation. From 2017 to 2020, Delphine Borione was Ambassador, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations Organizations in Rome (FAO, WFP and IFAD). Previously, she has held positions as Senior Deputy Secretary-General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in charge of social and civil affairs; Director of Cultural Cooperation and French Language Promotion at the French Foreign Ministry; Ambassador of France to Kosovo; Cultural Counsellor and head of the Cooperation and Cultural Action Service of the French Embassy in Italy. She was tasked with preparing the G8 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and for the Presidency of the Republic under Jacques Chirac, to whom she was also Adviser on Multilateral Affairs. She has worked for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the UN World Food Programme. She was a key negotiator of the UNFCCC on climate change in 1992. She is a Chevalier in the Legion of Honour of the French Republic and Commander in the Order of Agricultural Merit. In addition to French, she speaks English, Italian, German and Spanish.

Former Ambassador of Morocco to Sweden and Latvia, Vice President and Secretary General of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, she was the first woman to chair a human rights organization in Morocco (OMDH). Member of the Consultative Commission for the reform of the Constitution 2011, the Commission on International Humanitarian Law 2006-2012, the MENA Regional Forum for the ratification of the OPCAT, the African Forum for Civilian Oversight of Police and against Violence, the International NGO Committee for the reform of the League of Arab States, the Working Group of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, Ms. Bouayach was also Deputy Secretary General of the Steering Committee in charge of the elaboration of the Moroccan Plan of Action for Democracy and Human Rights. She is the recipient of several national and international awards, a member of the Nelson Mandela Prize Jury, and was chosen among five eminent women human rights defenders advocating for a more egalitarian post-covid world by the OHCHR. She was decorated by His Majesty King Mohammed and designated Officer of the Legion of Honor of the French Republic.

Valérie Cabanes is an international lawyer, specialized in human rights and humanitarian law. After two decades spent in international solidarity NGOs, she has been working since 2012 for the recognition of the crime of ecocide and the rights of Nature. She is an expert for the Stop Ecocide Foundation, the United Nations “Harmony with Nature” initiative and the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature. She co-founded and is Honorary President of “Notre Affaire à Tous”. She has written two books: Homo Natura, en harmonie avec le vivant (Buchet/Chastel, 2017), Un nouveau droit pour la Terre. Pour en finir avec l'écocide (Seuil, 2016, republished by Points, 2021) and has collaborated on numerous collective books.

Rituparna Chatterjee is an award-winning editor and columnist with over twenty years of experience reporting from the Indian subcontinent on gender and civil rights, feminist movements, politics, and culture. She is a safe workplaces and sexual harassment prevention campaigner, specialising in sexual harassment laws. She was one of the founding editors of HuffPost in India, works as Deputy Asia Editor at The Independent, is the current India representative at Reporters Without Borders and has worked across multiple media platforms.

She was named by Forbes in their 2019 list as one of their Women Power — Trailblazers and awarded the REX Karmaveer Global Fellowship and Karmaveer Chakra gold medal instituted by iCONGO in Partnership with the United Nations for her work with sexual violence survivors and as a changemaker. She runs an online platform to chronicle India's crisis of sexual violence that amplifies a spectrum of voices. She also runs an online platform that promotes women's equitable stake in media employment.

Olivier De Schutter is a professor at UCLouvain (Belgium) and at SciencesPo (Paris). He has been the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty since May 2020. He was a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2015-2020) and UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. He has chaired the Advisory Council on Policy Coherence for Development and the Federal Institute for Human Rights.

Ahmed is currently the President of Solidarité Laïque Méditerranée, and pilots the program "SOYONS ACTIVES/ACTIFS", which brings together 80 associations from Tunisia and France. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015 within the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet (LTDH, UGTT, UTICA, Lawyers). He is also a member of the Scientific Committee of the Arab Institute for Human Rights which works notably on the national dialogue for the reform of the educational system. He was a member of the Steering Committee of the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights (2000-2016) and Vice President in charge of training. Ahmed Galai holds a master's degree in press and information sciences (1978) and a post-graduate degree in education sciences (1997) with a specialization in school and university information and guidance.

Philippe Jahshan holds a master's degree in modern literature and is a graduate of Science Po Paris. For 15 years, he held several positions in NGOs, first as a project manager, then as a geographical manager and finally as a director. At the same time, Philippe Jahshan has held various mandates in civil society groups committed to international solidarity: Secretary of the Euromed France Network between 2005 and 2007, he chaired the F3E between 2010 and 2012. He was also elected administrator of Coordination SUD in 2010, which he represented in Brussels, with European networks and institutions until 2013.

In 2015, he was elected to the presidency of Coordination SUD and appointed in November 2015, member of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (EESC) on behalf of Coordination SUD. During his mandate at the EESC, he was the rapporteur of an advisory opinion to the government on French development policy in the context of the 2030 Agenda. Philippe Jahshan also sat on the National Council for Development and International Solidarity between 2015 and 2020, on behalf of French NGOs, where he actively contributed to the work on the new law on solidarity development. He was an administrator of AFD between 2015 and 2019.

In October 2016, he was elected President of the Mouvement Associatif where he represented Coordination SUD, and in 2018 submitted a report to the Prime Minister on the policy of support for civil society from which the Government retained 15 measures to support civil society organizations. In this capacity, he sat on the Higher Council for the Social and Solidarity Economy and the French Chamber of the Social and Solidarity Economy until March 2021. He joined AFD in January 2021, at the end of his mandates, where he was appointed Director of the Strategy, Forecasting and Institutional Relations Department.

Yacouba KEBE has been working in the strategic communication sector for about ten years in Mali. After his training in French literature and then in Marketing-Communication, he worked in one of the first strategic communication agencies in Mali, before holding positions in the Malian high administration.

Today, Mr. KEBE is the Associate Manager of a media and audiovisual group. He is an editorialist and coordinates the editorial staff of several newspapers. Presenter of two television programs broadcast in Mali and in Africa, he animates and moderates ceremonies covering several subjects.

Florence Laufer studied human geography at the University of Geneva, with a focus on cultural and migration geography. She has worked at the Swiss Protestant Aid in Lausanne, at the United Nations in New York and at the Cordoba Peace Institute in Geneva. She has led programs in development cooperation, conflict transformation and the integration of cultural and religious diversity. In August 2009, she became the director of Prison Insider, a trilingual platform for the production and dissemination of information on prisons around the world. Since December 2020, she has been vice-president of the Human Rights Platform.

Axel Marx is Deputy Director Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, University of Leuven. His research interests include voluntary sustainability standards, business and human rights, global governance and EU trade policy. He has worked as an expert for inter alia the European Parliament, the European Commission, International Labour Organization, United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards and several governments and private organizations. On human rights he has published inter alia in ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, World Trade Review, European Yearbook on Human Rights, Business and Politics, Global Policy and International Labour Review.

Cheikh Fall MBAYE is an Advisor in the Organization and Methods Office of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal. Before that, he was Director of the Promotion of Good Governance between 2016 and 2021. In this capacity, he was responsible for the design and implementation of the policy promoting good governance within the administration and society. He led several important processes including Senegal's accession to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and the development of Senegal's OGP National Action Plan; the adoption of the Access to Information Act; and the establishment of the Multi-Stakeholder Budget Monitoring Framework (MSBF). He has also worked for the Ministry of African Integration and the Ministry of National Education. He holds a Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures Spécialisées (DESS) in Administration of Education and Training Systems from the University of Montreal and a Master's degree in National Security from the Centre for Advanced Studies on Defence and Security in Dakar.

Achille Mbembe is an intellectual who has been described as one of the fathers of postcolonial studies. He is known for his critical stance on neoliberalism and the mechanisms of domination in today’s societies. More recently, he has focused on discussions concerning the relations between Africa and France. Thus, after an invitation from the Elysée Palace, he accepted the task of writing a report for rebuilding these dynamics. It is through these seven months of work all across the African continent with key civilian figures that he also became the architect of the New Africa-France Summit which took place in October 2021.

Alexandra Meierhans is the Programme Manager for UNDP’s Global Programme on Rule of Law and Human Rights. She has experience in rule of law, security and human rights programming in conflict affected contexts; war crimes/transitional justice issues; social cohesion and preventing violent extremism programming.
Ms. Meierhans was previously working for UNDP’s Istanbul Regional Hub where she was actively involved in initiating and coordinating UNDP’s Regional War Crimes Project (Western Balkans), as well as the EU funded Western Balkans Counter Terrorism Initiative. Prior to that she was with UNDP Kosovo working on transitional justice and social cohesion. Before joining UNDP, she was engaged with the International Organization for Migration, as well as several civil society organizations. She holds a Master’s in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute/Institut de Hautes Études Internationales et du Développement in Geneva.

Alice Mogwe has been a human rights activist since the 1990s. Her academic background is in law, public policy, African studies and mediation. She founded and directs DITSHWANELO – the Botswana Centre for Human Rights and was elected president of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) in 2019, federating 192 local human rights member organizations across 117 countries. Her work has included active engagement domestically, regionally and internationally with civil society, governments and regional and international human rights bodies. Her leadership style is based on the respect of the dignity, equality and human rights of every person.

Iara Pietricovsky de Oliveira holds a Master in Political Science and Bachelor in Anthropology. Feminist and Human Rights Activist, she has been working on issues related to indigenous peoples and environment. She is currentlu Co-director of the Institute of Socio-economic Studies (INESC), an NGO based in Brasília, Co-director of the Brazilian Association of NGOs, based in São Paulo and president of the International Forum of NGO Platforms – FORUS.

A lifelong activist, Dominique Potier has evolved in the associative movement, at the school of a rural youth movement. As a farmer, he created an organic and educational cooperative with 4 partners.

Mayor of Lay Saint Rémy, and President of the Community of Communes of Toulois, he was elected deputy in 2012 and chose to resign from his local mandates to devote himself fully to his new mission.

At the national level, beyond the issues of agro-ecological transition, Dominique Potier is committed to the issues of international regulations. He was rapporteur for the bill on international solidarity policy in 2014, and the bill known as "Sapin 2". Finally, he was the rapporteur for the bill on the duty of vigilance of multinational businesses. Adopted - after a collective fight - in February 2017, this pioneering law is now being emulated around the world and is on the way to becoming a European directive.

Felix Ries works as an adviser for the Global Programme Human Mobility in the Context of Climate Change at the German development agency GIZ. He has been working as an expert on climate change adaptation for the International Climate Initiative (IKI) before, where he was responsible for a large portfolio of projects on ecosystem-based adaptation, adaptation finance, and adaptation in urban areas. He started his work for GIZ in Fiji, where he worked on supporting adaptation to climate change in the pacific island region. He holds a degree in Social Anthropology and Socio-economics of Rural Development.

An expert in economics and international financial institutions, Rémy Rioux has held high-level positions in a career totally devoted to development and Africa. After serving as chief of staff of the French Economy and Finance Minister, he was appointed Deputy Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development and coordinated the finance agenda of the Paris Agreement. Mr Rioux has headed the AFD since 2016. In 2017, he also became Chairman of the International Development Finance Club (IDFC) and organized the Finance in Common Summit (FICS) in 2020

Anaïs Schill is a French and German lawyer and holds a Master's degree in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from the University of Paris II and an LL.M. from the Humboldt University of Berlin. She taught public law at the University and was then appointed as an associate judge at the National Asylum Court by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She joined the French Advisory Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) in 2019 where she coordinates the working groups on Business and Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.

Laurène Seca graduated from ESSEC in 2017 and obtained a master's degree in political philosophy from Sorbonne University in 2018. She participated in a three-month microcredit mission in Vietnam and completed an internship with Jumia Mozambique before becoming an independent consultant for AFD for two years. Passionate about development and environmental justice issues, Laurène is undertaking a PhD in political theory since 2021 on the differentiated vulnerability of countries regarding the impacts of climate change and related public policies. Her thesis associates Sorbonne University, Paris School of Economics and AFD.

Kristin Sjöblom is a Senior Manager ESG Affairs at Swedfund International AB and the team-lead for the ESG group at the Impact & ESG Department. Kristin has a broad knowledge and experience from many sustainability areas including environment, labor, social and human rights. Kristin works currently with investments in the Energy and Climate area including forestry. Prior to Swedfund where she started 2011, Kristin worked as Sustainability Manager for a large International manufacturing company. Kristin hold a MSc. Degree in Chemical and Environmental Engineering, introductory courses in human rights laws and various trainings in the social field.

Francis von Hildebrand is the Chief Executive Director of Gaia Amazonas (Fundación Gaia Amazonas), a Colombian NGO whose mission is to protect the Amazon, biocultural diversity, and socio-environmental resilience while actively partnering and collaborating with indigenous peoples’ processes and organizations. Francis has led Gaia Amazonas as its Director and CEO since 2012 and previously worked for a decade in the organization as a researcher advancing development and conservation projects in Amazonia with indigenous communities in Colombia and in transfrontier projects. Francis is a professional in Development Studies and is an expert in local development strategies, local governance, and inter-cultural environmental management with a strong emphasis on community-based research and participation.

Elin Wrzoncki is Department Director for Human Rights and Business at the Danish Institute for Human Rights since June 2020. Between 2014 and 2020 she was Programme Manager of the Business & Accountability Programme. Elin has extensive experience with the intersection between business and human rights and in working directly with various actors including business actors, NHRIs and civil society. Amongst other projects she has developed a blended learning programme for NHRIs on business and human rights, she has also supported the development of tools and methods for state actors on the implementation of business and human rights standards in particular through National Action Plans. She led DIHR’s contribution to the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business and in particular worked on a Sector-Wide Impact Assessment of the mining sector. Before joining DIHR in 2014, she was the Head of the Globalization and Human Rights Desk at the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), where she was in particular supporting national human rights NGOs to document business impacts on human rights and advocating for corporate accountability. She holds a Master’s Degree in Political Sciences from Sciences-Po in Paris (1999) and from Uppsala University in Sweden (2000).