Ritva Halila, M.D., Ph.D. is a member of the Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO) and a member of the Bureau of the CDBIO. She has been elected Chair of the CD-BIO in November 2020. In her previous work as the general secretary of the National Advisory Board on Social Welfare and Health Care Ethics she has been involved in medical ethics issues with special emphasis on end-of-life situations, medical research ethics and patients´ rights, especially children´s rights. During the last four years the National Advisory Board on Health Care Ethics has published papers and opinions on wide variety of issues in health care, social care, and health care reform in Finland. English translations of publications and opinions can be found at http://www.etene.fi/en. From the beginning of 2018 she works in the group of Children and Adolescents in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

• From 5 September 2019 - Minister of Health
• Since 2013 - Deputy of the Republic (XVII and XVIII Legislature)
• Since 2017 - National Secretary of the Article One Party
• 2013-2015 - Head of the Democratic Party (PD) group in the Chamber of Deputies
• 2009-2010 - Councillor of the Municipality of Potenza
• 2007 - National President of the Youth Left
• 2004 - Barilla Spa -Internship in the Human Resources Area
• 2004-2009 - Municipal Councillor, Municipality of Potenza; President of the Social Services-Health Commission
• 2006 - Doctorate in Mediterranean European History; University of Basilicata
• 2005 - Summer School –International Economics; London School of Economics
• 2001 - Degree in Political Science-Rating: 110/110 with honours; University Luiss "Guido Carli" Rome
• 2000 - 2001 - Erasmus at the University of Copenhagen
• 1997 - Scientific high school diploma-Vote: 60/60; Liceo 'Galileo Galilei' Potenza

After graduating in economics and social sciences from L. Bocconi University in Milan (1988), he became a researcher at IEFE (Institute for the Economics of Energy Sources, 1987-1990) and later a researcher at IRER (Research Institute of the Lombardy Region, 1990-1996). He has written for a number of daily newspapers, such as Il Sole24Ore, Corriere Economia and Il Foglio; he has also created and presented columns on economic issues for Radio Radicale.

He served as national Secretary (1994-1997) and Treasurer (1994-1996) of the Club Pannella-Reformers movement, and an executive of Lista Pannella (1997-1999).

In October 2005 he founded the “Riformatori Liberali” party, of which he became Chair.

Elected to the European Parliament between 1999 and 2004, he served as a Member of the Italian Parliament between 2006 and 2013 and Senator between 2013 and 2018.

A member of the Radical Party for 30 years, from January 2019 to March 2021 he served as Secretary of Più Europa, the movement he helped found together with Emma Bonino.

He previously held the position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2014 to 2018.

Director of Human Rights of the Council of Europe since July 2018. Responsible for the departments in charge of supervising the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, social rights and the implementation of the European Social Charter, intergovernmental co-operation in the fields of human rights and Bioethics as well as Council of Europe's activities concerning the independence and functioning of judicial systems.

Previously served as Deputy Secretary of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe between 2010 and 2018, with particular responsibility for political and human rights issues, having held various positions in the human rights field since 1989.

Caroline Costongs is Director of EuroHealthNet, the European Partnership for improving health, social equity and wellbeing, based in Brussels. Caroline leads a multi-disciplinary team working on European Union and (sub)national policy, advocacy, research and capacity building addressing health inequalities and the social determinants of health. She oversees EuroHealthNet’s Framework Agreement with the European Commission, in the context of the European Social Innovation programme (EaSI) and related to the implementation of the European Pillar on Social Rights (2022-2026). She also leads on activities taking forward EuroHealthNet’s MoU with WHO Europe (2021-2026). Caroline is active in various EU and WHO fora, as well as in Advisory Boards of European projects and is a member of the ICC - International Council for the European Public Health Conference.  

Sir Michael Marmot has been Professor of Epidemiology at University College London since 1985. He is the author of The Health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world (Bloomsbury: 2015), and Status Syndrome: how your place on the social gradient directly affects your health (Bloomsbury: 2004). Professor Marmot is the Advisor to the WHO Director-General, on social determinants of health, in the new WHO Division of Healthier Populations; Distinguished Visiting Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong (2019-), and co-Director of the of the CUHK Institute of Health Equity. He is the recipient of the WHO Global Hero Award; the Harvard Lown Professorship (2014-2017); the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health (2015), and 19 honorary doctorates. Marmot has led research groups on health inequalities for nearly 50 years. He chaired the Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, set up in 2015 by the World Health Organization’s Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO/ WHO) and chaired the Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH), which was set up by the World Health Organization in 2005, and produced the report entitled: ‘Closing the Gap in a Generation’ in August 2008. At the request of the British Government, he conducted the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England post 2010, which published its report 'Fair Society, Healthy Lives' in February 2010. This was followed by the European Review of Social Determinants of Health and the Health Divide, for WHO EURO in 2014; Health Equity in England: Marmot Review 10 Years On, in 2020; Build Back Fairer: the COVID-19 Marmot Review in 2021; and the Report of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, for WHO EMRO, also in 2021.

Professor Marmot also chaired the Expert Panel for the WCRF/AICR 2007 Second Expert Report on Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective; the Breast Screening Review for the NHS National Cancer Action Team, and was a member of The Lancet-University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health. Early in his career, he set up and led a number of longitudinal cohort studies on the social gradient in health in the UCL Department of Epidemiology & Public Health (where he was head of department for 25 years): the Whitehall II Studies of British Civil Servants, investigating explanations for the striking inverse social gradient in morbidity and mortality; the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), and several international research efforts on the social determinants of health. He served as President of the British Medical Association (BMA) in 2010-2011, and as President of the World Medical Association in 2015. He is President of the British Lung Foundation. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology; a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences; an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years and in 2000 he was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities. Professor Marmot is a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Armando De Negri Filho. Born in Porto Alegre – Brasil, 1962. Brazilian /Italian.

Academic background:

• Medical Doctor – Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul – Brasil. 1990.
• on Preventive Medicine – Health Policy and Systems Area. 2016.
• MPH Master on Public Health - Global Health and Diplomacy on Health Area. National School of Public Health - FIOCRUZ – Rio de Janeiro – Brasil. 2014.
• Master on Clinical Management and Medical Coordination. Institute Carlos III – Madrid – Spain. 2015.
• MSc Master on Epidemiology. Federal University of Pelotas – Brasil. 1995.
• Emergency Medicine Specialist. ABRAMEDE / AMB Brasil. 2018.

Professional Experience:

• International Specialist, Advisor on Health Systems and Services of the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization. Mexico City Office. Since December 2021.
• Senior Researcher of the ‘’Centre of International Relationships on Health’’, CRIS - FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Since March 2021.
• Independent Specialist Member of the Expert Mechanism to the Right to Development - United Nations Human Rights Council. (2020-2021).
• Short listed for the position of Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health - United Nations Human Rights Council (2014).
• Social Policy Advisor, Government of the City of Asuncion – Capital of the Republic of Paraguay (2018 – 2019).
• Founder and Coordinator of the Innovations Laboratory on Health Planning, Management, Evaluation and Regulation of Health Policies, Systems, Networks and Servicers – LIGRESS of the Hospital do Coracao – HCor, Sao Paulo / Brasil (2009 – 2017).
• Health and Social Policies and Systems Advisor of the Governments of Venezuela (2001 – 2008), Bogota – Colombia (2004 – 2011) and Paraguay (2007 – 2008).
• Advisor of the Equity Observatory of the Council for Economic and Social Development of the Presidency of the Republic of Brasil, Brasilia (2006 – 2009).
• Health Planning and Strategic Projects Director of the City of Porto Alegre – Brasil (1993 – 1997, 2001 – 2003).

Activism:

• Member of the Steering Committees of the Geneva Hub for Global Health – G2H2; of the Sustainable Health Equity Movement – SHEM; the Agora of the Earth Inhabitants. Since 2021.
• Coordinator of the Executive Committee of the World Social Forum on Health and Social Security (2007 – 2021).
• General Coordinator of the Brazilian Cooperation Network on Emergencies – RBCE (1995 – 2005, 2007 – 2021).
• Vice President of the Brazilian Centre for Health Studies – CEBES (2000 – 2002).
• General Coordinator of the Latin American Association of Social Medicine – ALAMES (2002 – 2004).
• General Coordinator of the International Society for Equity on Health – ISEqH – (2004 – 2006).
• Biomedical Sciences Secretary (1987 – 1988) and International Relationships Secretary (1988 – 1989) of the National Union of Students – UNE, Brasil.
• President of the National Executive Board of the Medical Students of Brasil (1986 - 1988).

President of the Italian National Institute of Health appointed in 2019. Full Professor of Hygiene and Public Health at the University of Udine Medical School. Member and speaker of the national Scientific Technical Committee (STC) with the role of advising and supporting the coordination activities to overcome the epidemiological emergency due to the spread of Coronavirus, member of the EU Scientific Advice Platform on Covid-19 and co-chair of the Global Health Summit Scientific Panel.

He is actively engaged, at national and international level, on Public Health issues related to quality in healthcare, clinical risk management and patient safety, infection prevention and control, antimicrobial resistance, best practices in public health and development of social networks to support health. Constants, of his commitment, are the use of multi-sectoral knowledge to acquire and integrate different points of view, change in organizations to meet the needs of the community and individuals, with specific reference to health promotion and prevention.

Giuseppe Palmisano (PhD in International l Law, University of Milan), former President and currently General Rapporteur of the European Committee of Social Rights, is Professor of International Law and International Human Rights Law at the University of Roma Tre, where is also member of the Executive Board of the International Research Centre on “Law and Globalization”. 

He started his professional career as an assistant to the Special Rapporteur on State responsibility at the International Law Commission of the United Nations. From 2004 to 2008, he was the Director of the Department of legal and political studies at the University of Camerino (Italy), and from 2012 to 2018 the Director of the Institute for International Legal Studies of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR). In 2018-2019, he was the Vice-President of the Italian Society of International Law and EU Law.

He is member of the Advisory Boards of the following legal journals: “Diritto pubblico comparato ed europeo”, “La Comunità internazionale”, “Jura Gentium”, “Rivista di diritto dell'integrazione e unificazione del diritto in Eurasia e in America Latina”.

His research activity, documented by more than 70 works, focuses on human rights, European protection of social rights, self-determination of peoples, State responsibility and dispute settlement in International Law.

Nicola Magrini is a medical doctor with a specialty in Clinical Pharmacology, has 20 years experience in drug evaluation and pharmaceutical policies.

For 15 years Director of the NHS Centre for drug information and guideline development (NHS CeVEAS – Centre for the evaluation of the effectiveness of Health care, Modena. Italy) and then at WHO Geneva as Secretary of the Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines from 2014 to 2020.

He started his career in academia in drug information programs and pharmacoepidemiology in Italy where and was the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Based Research Synthesis and Guideline Development from 2008 until 2014. He has a special interest in research ethics and active participation in clinical trials.

He is currently (from March 2020) Director General of AIFA, the Italian Medicines Agency.

Miguel Cabral is a Public Health Medical Doctor and a Health Authority in the Public Health Unit of Maia/Valongo, Portugal. He has done his Public Health Residency in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley Region, where a considerable migrant community and a shortage of healthcare professionals contribute to challenges in the provision of equitable healthcare. He is doing a Specialization Course in Hospital Administration at NOVA University's National Public Health School. He has extensive experience in NGO work, both nationally and internationally, and has been from 2017 to 2021 the Vice-President of the Human Rights Thematic Committee of the Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe (CINGO) and the representative of CINGO to DH-Bio in the last year of his term. He is currently part of the board of the (Portuguese) Doctors' Association for the Right to Health (AMPDS)."

Niall Crowley is an independent equality and human rights expert, working with a range of European institutions, including the Council of Europe and the European Commission, and in a range of European jurisdictions. He has worked extensively with Equinet, the European network of equality bodies, providing expert support in the development of Equinet Perspectives that draw policy and practice learning from the work of equality bodies, including one on the topic of equality, diversity and non-discrimination in healthcare, and one of the topic of equality in the time of COVID-19. Prior to working as an independent expert, he was chief executive officer of the Equality Authority in Ireland for ten years from its establishment in 1999. This was the national equality body with a broad mandate covering nine grounds.

• Master’s degree in Law, University of Naples, 1983
• Admitted to the Bar, session of 1985
• Official of the Banking Supervision Authority, Bank of Italy, 1985-1991
• MCJ degree (Master of Comparative Jurisprudence), Law School, University of Texas, Austin, United States of America, 1987
• Graduate degree in Political Science, University of Macerata, Italy, 1988
• Post-Graduate degree in Commercial Law, University Federico II, Naples, 1991
• Expert at the Chair of Private Law, University Federico II, Naples, since 1991
• Judge, Tribunal of Naples, 1991-2012
• Cooperation with Italy’s High Council for the Judiciary (CSM) in the field of initial and permanent training of judges (1996-2012), and Member of its Scientific Committee for Judicial Training (1998-2001)
• Judicial expert in a number of programmes of multilateral international co-operation, 1999-2019
• Member (2000-2018), Vice-President (2004-2005), President (2006-2007) of the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE) within the Council of Europe, Strasbourg
• Member (2012-2019), Member of the Executive Committee (2017-2019), European Law Institute (ELI), Vienna, Austria
• Member of the Board of Directors of the Italian School for the Judiciary, 2012-2015
• Justice, Civil Chamber specialising in Tax Law, (2012-2016), Civil Chamber specialising in Property, Wills, Contracts and Supervision on Professionals and Financial Activities (2016-2019), Supreme Court of Cassation, Rome
• Contact Person within the Italian judiciary for the EU Commission, 2013-2019
• Judge of the European Court of Human Rights since 5 May 2019.

Ass. Prof. JUDr. Tomáš Doležal, Ph.D., LL.M., is a leading legal scholar in medical and civil law. He is Head of the Department of Civil Law and Head of the Research Unit for Medical Law and Bioethics at the Institute of State and Law, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and lecturer at the Institute of Medical Law and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine. He is a Bureau member of the Council of Europe Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO) and Head of the Czech Unit of UNESCO International Network in Bioethics. He collaborates with the Association of General Practitioners, especially during public consultations on medical legislation.

He is the author of many publications, including the monographs The Doctor-Patient Relationship in Private Law, Protection of patients' rights, and Causation the Civil Law.

Anne Marie CHAVANON currently chairs the Environmental and Health crisis Committee of the Conference of INGOs of the Council of Europe. She is a Council member of the International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP), an NGO created by Ebenezer Howard to bring health and well-being, in particular to deprived people through planning and development. She is Vice-President of its French chapter, delegate to the Council of Europe and to several United Nations organizations and programs

In recent years, as chair of the Committee on Sustainable Territorial development, then the committee on Democracy, Social Cohesion and Global Challenges, and as coordinator of a social and territorial cohesion experts group at the Conference of INGOS, she strengthened the involvement of these entities in the struggle for the right to health for all, particularly the most vulnerable ones. She has always ensured that health is at the center of all the subjects and all the questions dealt with, from the climate to social cohesion and particularly, today, under the pressure of the crises that are shaking the Member states of the Council of the 'Europe

Previously, she served as an councillor to French ministers, and to local and regional authorities, and for many years to parliamentarians, in particular to the President of the Social Affairs Committee of the French Senate, in charge of health issues,

Tigran Karapetyan is the Head of Transversal Challenges and Multilateral Projects Division of the Council of Europe’s Department for the Implementation of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Co-operation Standards. He works in the CoE since 2013. He is an experienced lawyer with considerable experience in leading projects in the field of Human Rights, Rule of Law, Good Governance and Democracy. Prior to joining the Council of Europe, Mr Karapetyan lead the democratisation and good governance programming for the OSCE in Ukraine and before that served as a legal and project management expert on electoral and democracy issues for various international organisations. He also has significant experience as an in-house lawyer and a legal consultant in the commercial sector.

Nicola Daniele Cangemi was born in Messina, Italy, on 6 December 1972. Married, two children. Since September 2021 he is the Head of the Department for Human Rights, Justice and Legal Cooperation Standard-setting activities at the Directorate General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe. He holds a degree in Political Science from the LUISS University, Rome, and a Master’s degree from the College of Europe, Bruges. Working for the Council of Europe since 2001, he served as legal advisor, as Deputy Head of the Counter-terrorism task force, and as Head of the Human Rights Law and Policy Division, at the time of the elaboration of the ground-breaking Committee of Ministers’ recommendations on the promotion of human rights of older persons on combating discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity, and of the working party which elaborated the draft legal instruments for the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights. Between 2014 and September 2021 he worked for the Directorate General of Democracy, first as Special Coordinator and then as Head of the Human Dignity and Gender Equality Department, supervising the Council of Europe work in the areas of Gender Equality, Violence against Women and Trafficking in Human Beings. In his current functions, he supervises the Organisation’s standard setting work in the areas of Human Rights, Justice and Legal Cooperation, including the secretariat of the Steering Committee for Human Rights, of the European Committee of Legal Cooperation and of the Consultative Councils for Judges and Prosecutors.

Selin Sayek Böke graduated from the Economics Department of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University in 1993. She got her M.A. and Ph.D from Duke University in 1996 and 1999, respectively. After working as an Economist at IMF, she held faculty positions at Bentley College between 1999-2001 as Assistant Professor, at Georgetown University in 2003 as adjunct professor, at Bilkent University between 2003-2014 as Associate Professor. She chaired the Department of Economics at Bilkent University from 2011 until she left academia to stand for parliamentary elections in 2015.

She was elected to the Party Assembly of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) of Turkey in 2014 and has been reelected up to date and is currently a Member of the Party Assembly. She served as the Deputy Chair responsible for Economic Policy from 2014 through 2017, served as the Party Spokesperson from 2016 through 2017, and since 2020 is the Secretary General of CHP. She has been elected as Member of Parliament, representing İzmir in both 2015 and 2018 parliamentary elections and is currently a Member of the Turkish Parliament.

She is currently a member of the national delegation of Turkey at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, where she serves as the First Vice Chairperson of the Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group and the Chairperson for the Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development Committee.

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• Reports submitted by the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development to the Assembly on the theme of Social Resilience and Health Equity (2012 – 2021)

Education

• Graduated in Law at University of Naples, Federico II (1994).
• Master degree in Organization and Working of Public Administrations at The Sapienza University of Rome (2006).
• Executive Master in Public Administrations Management at Bocconi University of Milano (2014).

Employment

• In 1998 he began his career as labour inspector at Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, responsible for the labour relations and workers protection, especially regarding discrimination in the work place and in child labour.
• In 2001 he became head of the Office for youth policies and international mobility until 2007, and after head of the Office for policies for people with disabilities until 2009.
• He then became Deputy Head of the Legislative Office at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy until 2014.
• In September 2014 became Director General for social economy and corporate social responsibility, until 2016.

Current position

• Director General for working conditions and industrial relations at Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.
• Chair of the Management Board of the National Labour Inspectorate.

• 2020- : Vice-President European Committee of Social Rights
• 2013-: Honorary State Councilor
• 2013 – 2020: General Rapporteur of the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR)
  • Activities and responsibility: Development, drafting and follow-up of Committee decisions and conclusions (reporting and collective complaints procedures)
• 1992- 2013: State Councilor
  • Activities and responsibilities: Advising the government on the drafting of social legislation and regulations; Rapporteur on public law disputes presented in cassation

Married, three children. She is Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnologies of the University of Perugia. She is President of the Intercourse Council for Degree and Master's Courses in the Chemical Area since November, 2021.

She is the author of more than 110 papers on Physical Chemistry published in international scientific journals, and more than a hundred contributions to national and international conference proceedings. She is also involved in scientific aspects related to bioethics issues, and governance aspects of Biotechnology and Life Sciences.

Among the national and international institutional appointments: since 2006, she is member of the National Bioethics Committee. She has been scientific adviser to the Ministers Maurizio Sacconi (Work, Health and Social Politics) and Beatrice Lorenzin (Health). She is a member of the Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health (CDBIO), and she is a member of the Bureau since November 2020.

She is a columnist for the newspaper Avvenire. She was honored with the Order of “Merit of the Italian Republic” by Presidential Decree on December 27, 2013.