Mrs Agadi, is a manager of cooperation and partnerships in the General Secretariat at the Ministry of Youth and Sports. She is an environmental and civil engineer with extensive China and West Africa business experience in construction, energy and sustainable building services. She headed up the Green Building function at a multinational engineering services company leading its sales expansion efforts in Morocco and the rest of the African continent.

Mrs Agadi is an active member of Moroccan civic society. She is President of the FSTM Alumni Association which organized the Young African Leaders and entrepreneurs Conference in November 2017 in Morocco. This event was a meeting of startups, incubators and investors created as an exchange network between young talent, entrepreneurs and African leaders seeking to share innovative approaches and to develop their capacity to deal between cultures and companies with the government and civil society.

Nazim Ahmad is the Diplomatic Representative of the Ismaili Imamat to the Portuguese Republic, as well as Senior Official of the Ismaili Imamat - Head of Department for Portugal & other Lusophone Countries Affairs. In parallel with his career as a businessman and general manager of several companies since 1965, Nazim Ahmad held various positions at the Ismaili National Council for Portugal since 1979, having been President of the National Council from 1990 to 1997. Between 1997 and 2006 he was President of the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) Portugal.
Nazim Ahmad developed his activity within the diplomatic arena in Portugal and Mozambique, collaborating closely with the governments and diplomatic corps in both countries. In this capacity, he is also responsible for the oversight of the activities of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) agencies in Portugal, Mozambique and other Lusophone countries.
He was a member of the Commission for Religious Freedom (2004 to 2016), member of the administration board of the Observatory of the Portuguese Language (2010 to 2013), member of the General Council of the Faculty of Human and Social Sciences of the NOVA University (2013 to 2017).
On June 10, 2004, on the occasion of the celebrations of Portugal’s National Day, he was awarded the title of Comendador da Ordem do Mérito (Commander of the Order of Merit).

Ali Altiok is an independent researcher on Youth, Peace and Security. He is currently workin as a research consultant for the Office of the United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth to co-author a policy paper on youth participation in peace processes. For the last two years, he worked as a consultant and member of the joint Secretariat (United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office and United Nations Population Fund), providing research and other support for the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security, mandated by the United Nations Security Council under the Resolution 2250. He previously worked as a research intern at the Berghof Foundation and Step for Peace Foundation in Germany.

Ali holds a master’s in Political, Legal and Economic Philosophy from the University of Bern and a postgraduate master’s in Peace and Security Studies from the University of Hamburg. His main area of interest is youth agency in peacebuilding processes. He has field research experience in Turkey and Sri Lanka. Ali is a team member of European Youth Advocacy Team of the United Network of Young Peacebuilders (UNOY). Currently residing in New York, 31 year old Ali was born and raised in Turkey.

AMBROSINI, Mohamed

Mohamed Ambrosini is the coordinator of the Italian Network “Youth, Peace and Security” which is working to push the Italian Institutions towards the implementation of the 2250 resolution.

Mohamed is also national secretary of the “Education Groups” of the Italian NGO “Un ponte per…”focusing his work on Peace Education building bridges between Iraqi and the Italian schools.

In the last two years, he was also managing different sport activities for social cohesion, in Italy and abroad. In Iraq, in the framework of the ICSSI ( Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative), he organized the “Football Tournament for Social Cohesion” in a Syrian Refugee Camp in the North of Iraq and “Basket Beats Borders”: an exchange between young Palestinian girls from a Lebanese refugee camp and young girls from different Italian Basketball teams.

Since 2018, he represents Un ponte per… in the national board of “Saltamuri”, a network of 100 Italian associations working to bring education in the Italian political agenda as the key to decrease the uprising of hate speech and intolerance.

Thomas Andersson has been a regional and local political councillor in Sweden since 1998. He has been working with youth, healtcare, public transport and regional developement.

Since 2015 he is elected as member of the Congress in the Council of Europé where he is the vice president for the ILDG political Group and also apointed as special envoy in the Congress from the interregional organisation AER, gathering 150 European regions in wider Europe.

Andersson will be rapporteur about the partnership between the civil society and the local and regional level. He has a long experience working with democracy and youth participation.

Luka Božović (born in SFRY in 1989) is currently engaged as Project Coordinator at Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. He has 10 years’ experience in intercultural exchange in the Western Balkans as well as human rights and transitional justice issues in Serbian and the region. He coordinates the project «Kosovo and Serbia: Intercultural Icebreakers» that brings together young journalists and artists from Serbia and Kosovo and creates new ties and narratives. As a civil society activist, he had an opportunity to work and cooperate with youth from the region of Western Balkans on numerous issues. As a trainer for the past 9 years, he worked with more than 200 different groups of young people all over the region and Europe. Along with his work on connecting two societies, he is also a consultant on Local Self Governance program of NDI Serbia.

José Caroço has served as a Portuguese diplomat for over 27 years, working in Europe, Africa and the Americas acquiring a large experience both in bilateral and multilateral international affairs.

As of September 2018 and after serving as Consul-General of Portugal in Boston (USA) , he was appointed as executive director of the North-South Centre.

Young professional graduated in Law, with a Master Degree in Peace Studies and professional experience accrued in the Gender issues, Child Protection and Migration sectors. Professional experience accrued in Myanmar with Terre Des Hommes Italia and volunteer experiences in India, Albania, Ethiopia, Kenya and Italy.

Interested in Gender and Peace Studies.

Member of the Italian association Centro Studi Difesa Civile (CSDC) and of the Italian network Youth, Peace and Security.

A Moroccan Diplomat, Dr. Abdelkader EL KHISSASSI served as political, economic, communications and civil society advisor in Moroccan embassies in Africa and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Morocco.

Doctor in Contemporary History of International Relations, specialized in the Euromed Relations (University of Strasbourg), he was an assistant professor at the University of Strasbourg and a professor of European Law at the Higher Education Institute By Alternation – Strasbourg.

In 2016, Dr El Khissassi published « The challenges of Euro-Mediterranean relations between the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the setbacks of the Arab Spring », Europeans Academic Publishing.

Mohammed Ahmed GAIN is currently a professor at the National School of Trade and Management, University of IBNO TOFAIL, Kenitra. He taught and lectured at different faculties and schools.

Mr Gain is also the president of the African Institute for Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation, an independent organisation based in Rabat, Morocco and works on enhancing peace in African countries, through leading training workshops, seminars and research projects.

He served as a consultant for various research organisations and research centres. Mr Gain leads training workshops on human rights protection, mediation and conflict transformation and contributes to the crafting of reports that cover areas related to these spheres of interest. He is a regular speaker and conference panellist in areas related to human rights, peacebuilding and security in North and West Africa.

An independent researcher, consultant and trainer on Youth, Peace & Security, with an expertise in youth participation in peace processes, Irena has worked for the last three years in Myanmar. She is currently co-organising an international Symposium and co-authoring a policy paper on youth participation in peace processes, as a consultant for United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth.

She has researched and published several seminal reports on youth, peace and security in Myanmar, including: ‘The Youth Space of Dialogue and Mediation’ on behalf of the Berghof Foundation, featured as a Thematic Paper in Global Progress Study on UNSCR 2250 (The Missing Peace); the Paung Sie Facility (PSF) report, assessing the state of youth participation in peacebuilding and the peace process in Myanmar, key barriers, and recommendations. She was a trainer, researcher and analyst for Nonviolent Peaceforce, to assess youth engagement in civilian protection and ceasefire monitoring.

While with Search for Common Ground, Irena led the design and implementation of a youth-led participatory action research that assessed social cohesion in urban areas. She has furthermore designed and facilitated over a dozen various trainings and workshops with youth and non-youth stakeholders, focused on dialogue, conflict transformation, and peacebuilding, as well as awareness raising of UNSCR 2250.

Originally from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Irena is 29 years old and holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and Conflict Management from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University.

Matjaž Gruden is Director of Democratic Participation at the Council of Europe. He previously served as Director of Policy Planning, Deputy Director of the Private Office of the Secretary General and political adviser. Prior to his career at the Council of Europe, he was a diplomat at the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted in Brussels. He holds a law degree from the Law Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, as well as a post-graduate degree in EU law from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

Benedikt Hielscher works with the Department of Peace Operations of the Romanian Peace Institute PATRIR in the Peacebuilding and Mediation Support Programme. His work is focussed on the wider Middle East and North Africa where he has worked with Libyan tribal and community leaders, civil society, women’s organisations, and youth to strengthen sub-national mediation and peace processes. In Sudan he has worked with the UNAMID peacekeeping mission in Darfur and the Sudanese Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Commission to build up local and national capacities for stabilisation, post-war recovery and peace consolidation. In addition to his work in the MENA region, he has engaged with youth groups from Europe as a trainer and practitioner of conflict transformation and peace advocacy. It is in this capacity that he acts as focal point between PATRIR and the United Network of Young Peacebuilders. As a member of the European Youth Advocacy Team he is working to advance the implementation of European policies and legislation to support youth peacebuilding efforts in Europe and globally.

Tina Hočevar is responsible for Council of Europe relations and working with youth initiatives and youth civil society organisations in the framework of Europe-Africa and EuroMediterannean youth cooperation. That includes Network of Universities on Youth and Global Citizenship, EuroMed Youth Network, Africa-Europe Youth Summit and its follow up, Young Mediterranean Voices+, Euro-Arab Youth Forum and cooperation with the OECD MENA programme on inclusion of young people in public life and decision making. The European Youth Forum (YFJ) together with their members have been extensively involved in the process of adoption both the UNSCR2250 and the UNSCR2419 along with the follow-up work that include the adoption of National action plans on the UNSCR2250.

Originally from Slovenia, Tina is 29 years old and holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a Master's degree in Security studies from the University of Ljubljana.

Peter Holicza is currently the lead researcher of the Society, Informatics and Business Research Group at Óbuda University in Budapest. His doctoral research focuses on the security aspects of international mobility supported by the New National Excellency Program of Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities in 2017-18. He manages international development projects and mobility programmes in both the higher education and business sphere. As an external consultant, he is involved in Erasmus+ policy making (i.e. European Commission – The Erasmus+ Generation Declaration) and the Hungarian delegate to youth, peace and security related consultations on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2250.

Founder and current president of Free Sight Association and an active member in national, regional and international women and youth rights networks, Arbia Jebali is a Tunisian human rights activist and a student of a Master degree on International Relations.

She founded the following national networks: Tunisian Women, Peace and Security (TWPS) and KAEDAT : means Young Women Leaders or Tunisian Leaders for Human Security; and Tunisian Leaders for human security: Youth peace-builders network.

She is a trainer on dialogue facilitation, conflict resolution, the theory of change, gender equality and non-violent communication and has been a speaker in several national, regional, and international conferences on Youth rights, Women rights, Prevention from radicalisation and violent extremism.

Dragana Jovanovska is part of Center for Intercultural Dialogue (CID) from Macedonia, a youth-led organisation working with young people from different ethnic, religious and cultural background in a post-conflict community.
She is working as the Executive director of the organization, and they are running an open youth centre MultiKulti (MultiКулти) in Kumanovo, working on the topics of intercultural dialogue, human rights education and youth participation by using integrated education.

Dragana is an experienced educator working with non-formal education with young people and adults on a local, national and international level, and is part of different international youth networks and platforms, such as YEU International, SCI International, the National Youth Council of Macedonia, SALTO, etc.

With her focus being on inclusion, youth participation, human rights education and prevention, Dragana has been involved with the United Network of Young Peacebuilders, as well in the consultative process for the creation of the SCR2250 Progress study on Youth, Peace and Security.

Hadil is a Project Coordinator working with Peaceful Change initiative (PCi) for Libya. With PCi, Hadil works on building social peace and local development across more than 17 different communities in the country, in addition to conducting conflict analysis and conflict sensitivity reviews in its areas of work.

She worked with Libya's' National Dialogue Preparatory Commission as a Multimedia Coordinator, and prior to that as a Political Affairs officer with the United Nations Support Mission to Libya on promoting inclusive politics and a participatory post-conflict transitional process. Additionally, Hadil an active member in youth activities and networks locally, regionally and internationally and holds a BSc in International Business Management.

Ahmed Magdy is a 27 years old physician from Egypt. He has been actively working for civil society organisations since 2009, holding several positions such as local coordinator at My university to Y-PEER International Coordinator on Capacity Building 2015-2017. He is also a UNFPA international Fellow 2016-2017. Currently, he acts as a consultant on safe spaces in humanitarian settings project for the UNFPA in Egypt. His experiences with Y-PEER, UNFPA and several international organisations allowed him to advocate, mobilise and build capacities of young people all over the world.

His main areas of expertise are violence – in particular, Gender-Based Violence and Sexual and reproductive health and rights - humanitarian settings and peace and conflict management. He like put all his experience and capacities in the support of dialogue and constructive thinking among different people.

George Melashvili is the founder of the Europe-Georgia Institute (EGI) – an independent, non-partisan think tank in Georgia – and the head of the Youth Initiative – a youth civil movement under the patronage of the President of Georgia.

During the 2016 election campaign, the EGI led the unprecedented campaign “Your Voice, Our Future”, uniting Georgian youth to realize the importance of their vote. He also was a lecturer at the School of Diplomacy of the Free University and is the winner of the MLOW contest held by the United Nations Academic Impact and ELS Inc.

Chair of the North-South Centre’s Executive Committee, Ambassador Manuel Montobbio is a Spanish diplomat since 1987. With an extensive academic background, after studying Law and Economics at the University of Barcelona, he postgraduate in Advanced European Studies at the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium) and got a PhD in Political Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Appointed in July 2018 Ambassador Permanent Representative of Spain to the Council of Europe, he has been Ambassador of Spain in Andorra and the first resident Ambassador of Spain in Albania; and has been posted at the Embassies of Spain in San Salvador, Jakarta, Mexico and Guatemala. He has held, among other positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, those of Ambassador ad Large, responsible of the Action Plan for the promotion of Spanish presence in International Organization, Ambassador ad Large for the Universal Forum of Cultures Barcelona 2004, Director of the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Director of the Planning and Evaluation Office of the Secretary of State for Cooperation and Executive Adviser at the Policy Planning Office. His career has been specially related to the construction of peace and peace processes, development cooperation, political affairs and international relations, and European construction and international organizations.

He has also carried out an academic, research and literary career. Author of different books and several publications on peace processes, international and intercultural relations, political transitions and compared politics, he has been Professor and lectured postgraduate courses at different universities, as well as a member of the academic and advisory councils of different institutions.

Since 2009, Ben has coordinated EPLO’s working group on funding for peacebuilding. He has also been closely involved in managing the Civil Society Dialogue Network project and has worked extensively on EPLO’s fundraising and communications activities. He was acting director from February to April 2015 and from November 2015 to April 2016.

Prior to joining EPLO, Ben spent four years as a project and programme manager at a Brussels-based consultancy where he worked on various aspects EU development policy.

Ben has an MA in European Institutions and Policy-making from Lancaster University (UK) and an MA in Modern European Languages and European Union Studies from the University of Edinburgh (UK).

A passionate entrepreneur who worked with youth from a very young age, Dr Thabet holds a PhD in Behavioral Modification, and an MA degree in Creativity and Talent Development, and a BA in Political Science. Because of his proven track record, and high-quality services, Dr Thabet was selected to become Secretary General of the Ministry of Youth in Jordan. Prior to that, he established his business Challenger Team which is driven by his belief that true leadership is lifting one’s vision to higher standards. His mission focused on investing in individual personalities and capacities to support them to access and ignite their highest potential. His extensive experience in dealing with human resources of different levels and ages empowered his role in building youth capacities, thereby inspiring individuals to develop their roles in their communities as active, responsible leaders in both Jordan and GCC. He has created and developed unique practical training curriculums that were recognized by the private and governmental institutions in the region and introduced one of a kind initiative to equip youth with life skills, foster their leadership skills, unleash their potentials, become good citizens to serve their communities and the globe while taking pride of their identities and cultures. Dr Thabet vision has reached youth in many countries around the world including Kuwait, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, UAE, KSA, Sudan, Tanzania, Libya, Cyprus, USA, UK and the Netherlands.

Judith Pallarés Cortés is an Andorran Member of Parliament and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE ) since 2015. She is the vice-president of the subcommittee of Education, Youth and Sport and member of the Committee of Migrations, Refugees and Displaced persons. She is a political scientist by training, with a university degree from the University of Barcelona.

Prior to her career in politics, she worked as a project manager for a private company. She also was a co-founder of a local NGO, in Andorra, and was a fundraising volunteer for an NGO, in Barcelona, dedicated to cooperation and development in Balkans.

At this time, she is the rapporteur for the motion “Strengthening the role of young people in the prevention and resolution of conflict” for PACE.

Mr Prelis has over twenty years’ experience working with youth movements and youth-focused organisations in conflict and transition environments in over 35 countries throughout the world. 6yrs ago he co-founded and has been co-chairing the first UN-CSO-Donor working group on Youth and Peacebuilding (Global Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security) that helped successfully advocate for the historic UN Security Council Resolution 2250 (in 2015) on Youth, Peace and Security. As a result of the Working Group’s advocacy, a second Security Council Resolution (Res 2419) was unanimously adopted in June 2018.

Prior to joining SFCG, Mr Prelis was the founding director of the Peacebuilding & Development Institute at American University. Over eleven years at the university resulted in the co-development over 100 training curricula exploring the nexus of peacebuilding with development.

Mr Prelis has served as an adviser to governments and governmental agencies in over a dozen countries. In June 2017, Mr Prelis received the distinguished Luxembourg Peace Prize for his Outstanding Achievements in Peace Support.

Mr Prelis obtained his Master’s Degree in International Peace & Conflict Resolution with a Concentration in International Law from American University in Washington, DC.

Teresa Ribeiro was appointed as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in November 2015. Until that date and since 2013 she had held the position of Deputy Secretary-General for Energy at the Union for the Mediterranean, in Barcelona. She was also Secretary of State for European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Portugal between 2008 and 2009.

Throughout her career, Teresa Ribeiro has held different positions in media and international relations Portuguese institutions, with extensive experience working with the EU. Teresa Ribeiro was also Administrator at AICEP (Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade of Portugal), Director-General at the Institute for Communication and Media and Director of International Affairs at the same Institute.

Karim Saafi is co-chairperson of ADYFE a platform engaging 112 African Diaspora Youth Organisations, from 31 countries of the Council of Europe, on the major societal themes such as development and peace through the perspectives of entrepreneurship, employability and civic engagement.

ADYFE takes on to turn policies and recommendations to action, thus have developed different project like an annual forum on Entrepreneurship in partnership with UNIDO, an artistic incubator in Molenbeek in partnership with local authorities and the #DiasporaVote initiative in partnership with the European Parliament, etc.

Luay Shabaneh, currently serves as the Arab States Regional Director of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund starting May 2016. A native of Palestine, he has held a number of high-profile national and international public service positions over the last two decades in the area of official statistics, population census, population and development, monitoring and evaluation, programme management and advocacy within the UN System, in government and in the multilateral arena.
He served as chief statistician of Palestine from 2005 until he started his UN career in 2009 with both UNDP/UNCT and UNFPA in Iraq, and the Regional Office for the Arab States since 2015 as the Regional Adviser for Population Data and Policies in ASRO. Within the Arab region, he served as chair or member of several regional professional and research committees. Such as the Chair of the Statistical Committee of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Arab regional statistical forum and as a member of the board of the Arab Institute for Training and Research in Statistics.
Prior to that, Luay Shabaneh started his professional career at Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) in 1994 – 2005 he crowned his career there to be the second President of PCBS.
Luay holds a PhD in Applied Social Statistics from Lancaster University, UK, a Master’s Degree in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Jordan and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Baghdad University.

Verena holds a PhD in political science and, after working with civil society/NGOs in Vienna and London, joined the Council of Europe in 1989 when the Organisation expanded rapidly, both with regard to member States and to new standards. She is responsible for the programming, resource mobilisation and decentralised implementation of/for Council of Europe cooperation and technical assistance. She strongly believes that the Organisation’s standards and policies on human rights, the rule of law and participation are as relevant today as they were when the Council of Europe was founded in 1949.

Jarle Aarbakke Tollaksen (29 years), works as a political advisor on international affairs in the Norwegian Children and Youth Council. Mr Tollaksen holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of Oslo, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the same institution. Mr Tollaksen served as Vice-President of the Young Norwegian Christian Democrats from 2016 to 2018.

In 2016, Mr Tollaksen served as the Norwegian Youth Delegate on Human Rights to the UN General Assembly.

Within the Youth Cooperation programme, Graziano Tullio coordinates the training courses’ scheme on global education, the events of the “network of Universities on Youth and Global Citizenship” and other capacity building and networking initiatives which facilitate young people and youth organizations’ involvement in decision and policy-making processes.

Graziano Tullio contributed to shaping the concept and the programme of the Lisbon Forum 2018 and will develop its follow-up phases.

Graziano holds a master’s degree in International Relations and another one in Communication for international institutions; he has more than 15 years’ experience in the public and NGOs sectors in the field of peace and human rights and has extensively worked as trainer in Europe, Asia and Middle East covering topics related to inclusion, intercultural dialogue and democratic participation.

Carly Walker-Dawson is currently the Secretary-General of IFM-SEI, the global umbrella organisation for progressive, non-formal education child and youth movements. Carly also sits on the Advisory Council on Youth of the Council of Europe - the co-management body for the youth department - elected on for the 2018-19 mandate. Within this body, she is responsible for the work with the North-South Centre and the inclusion of young people with disabilities, as well as sitting on the Programming Committee on Youth.

Carly has a strong footing in the youth political sector; she has been politically active on a global level from the age of 15. Prior to leading IFM-SEI, she worked for the International Union of Socialist Youth and Girlguiding UK focusing on international programmes and projects. Besides this, she is a former Vice Chair of British Youth Council and has been working as an educator and trainer on an international level for over ten years, specialising in the topics feminism and LGBTQI.