After obtaining his BA in Sociology and Political Science from the University of Jordan, he worked as social worker and researcher at the Ministry of Social Development.  He then moved to the Ministry of Education, where he was an educational counsellor and assumed the post of director and a writer.

A pioneer in voluntary and social work in Jordan, in particular in the province of Irbid, he founded, in 1992, the Family Childhood Protection Society with a group of fellow activists. He focuses on the issues of refugees, human rights, drugs, child labour, street children, AIDS and violence, family, media, youth creativity and ways of solving the economic and social problems of young people., serving  in several  networks, community committees and charities which seek to develop and empower all segments of society. He also contributes to several jordanian newspapers and websites.

Ruba Al-Sharif is the space manager of the Daring Hub, for I-Dare For Sustainable Development, whose goal is to create the culture of innovative, creative & initiative attitudes among youth about positively transforming realities.

She holds a bachelor in interior design and is fond of every form of art, crafts and creativity. She pursued this passion through her work as a designer consultant in a private company and as kindergarten teacher, at the beginning of her career.

Osama Aljaber currently works at the Regional Hub of Arab States (UNDP), in the governance cluster. He coordinates the activities to support the Regional Electoral programme in the Arab region, to improve accountability, participation, and representation, as well as contributes towards enhancing knowledge, awareness and capacity on electoral processes.

He is one of the founders of Activista Network in Jordan, where he is responsible for designing and implementing campaigns and rights-based activities in Middle Eastern and Northern Africa region (MENA).

Over the past three years, Osama Aljaber worked in the development and emergency fields through different social, political and economic projects targeting youth, women and refugees in Jordan and the MENA region, with ActionAid and ACTED organisations. Osama is a member of many regional and international youth networks such as Y-Peer Network, Euro-Med Women Network and Swedish Institute Alumni.

Elena Anchevska is a feminist and gender specialist. She works at the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) as a research officer in the Gender Mainstreaming team. She is involved in EIGE’s work on gender-sensitive measures for the integration of newly-arrived third country nationals through education.

Before joining EIGE, Elena Anchevska worked as a project officer in a regional project for UN Women on promoting gender-responsive policies and budgets in South-East Europe (SEE). She has also worked for several think-tanks in the SEE region, and as a consultant for international governmental and non-governmental organisations. Her research background and expertise focuses on gender equality policies and intersectionality.

She holds as a Master’s Degree in Critical Gender Studies from the Central European University in Budapest, and a Master’s degree in Human Rights and Democracy from the University of Bologna and the University of Sarajevo.

Presentation: Gender-sensitive measures for the integration of third country nationals through education

Amel Boucetta has been passionately engaged in civil society since 2007 starting with the Algerian Scout Organization. After participating in Women2Women International Leadership Program, she developed a great interest for Human rights.

In 2016, Amel Boucetta started working as the national coordinator and a trainer in Dallil Mentoring Project, which focuses on engaging active youth of many local associations in mentoring teenagers for the aim of building resilience.

Ms Boucetta joined Green Tea, a national association for Health Promotion and Humanitarian Aids, as the coordinator of the Health Access Project for refugees and asylum seekers in partnership with UNHCR since August 2017.

A career diplomat, ambassador in charge of policy planning, specialising in strategic and security issues. Assigned as a diplomat in several countries and member of a delegation to international conferences in relation to non-Aligned movement human rights, environment and fight against terrorism, Mr Boukrif holds a PhD, is a university lecturer and author of several publications.

He participated in drafting African convention on terrorism and United Nations resolutions on the global fight against the terrorist threat. He was a panellist in Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) seminars on kidnapping for ransom and foreign fighters, as well as in United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification conferences on the security borders.

He was a keynote speaker at OSCE meetings on security days and radicalisation. He is also a focal point for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations and keynote speaker on tolerance and fight against radicalisation.

Özge Burak is a feminist activist and studied social science with the main focus on gender studies. She is a member of the Women’s Solidarity Foundation (KADAV) in Turkey and especially involved in working with refugee women. KADAV is an independent feminist women’s organisation and was born out of a solidarity practice in 1999. Since then KADAV is a part of the feminist movement in Turkey and works in the areas of violence against women, women’s employment and labour, imprisoned women and LGBTI+ as well as migrant and refugee women, dedicated to expose and fight multiple and intersecting discrimination against all women. She is organising and running field activities with refugee and migrant women in the fields of sexual and gender-based violence and empowerment and supports survivors of violence with the overall aim to create a bridge between humanitarianism and feminism and to enhance self-organising of and solidarity between women.

Presentation: Combatting Violence against Refugee and Migrant Women in Turkey

Theodora Cadbury is one of the founding organisers of Xenia, a London-based grassroots organisation bringing together migrant and British women for activities that enable language practice and meaningful two-way social integration. With her dedicated team, she has grown Xenia from a one-off experiment into a shareable community model that can be used anywhere to promote more inclusive and connected communities.

A lifelong feminist, Ms Cadbury's Masters in Sociology focussed on gender and sexuality. She has been working to build capacity and empowerment within communities for over a decade, including as an informal educator, event coordinator, volunteer manager and youth playworker. Her passion is for the powerful potential of connections between people to activate sustainable social change.

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.

Dusica Davidovic is a member of the Nis City Parliament and was part of the Nis City Council in charge of social policy issues from 2008-2012. Member of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, since 2006, she is part of the Current Affairs Committee and was a Congress Rapporteur for Children in the One in Five Campaign to stop sexual violence against children. She was also responsible for the implementation of the campaign in Serbia and the Balkans region.

She has participated in the Committee of Experts on Rights of People with Disabilities as well as at the meetings of the Summit for Roma.

Emellin de Oliveira is a Researcher at CEDIS (Research Center on Law and Society), a Ph.D. Candidate on EU Migration Law at Nova School of Law (Lisbon, Portugal) and a Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) Research Fellow.

Holding a Master’s Degree in International Migration and a Bachelor’s in Law, she took part in many Conferences and Seminars on Migration Issues and, currently, coordinates with Professor Dr. Ana Rita Gil “the Brief Courses on Immigration, Asylum and Citizenship Law” at JURISNOVA (the Association of the NOVA School of Law). Along with her Academic experience, she has practised Law in Brazil and Portugal in the field of Migration Law, contributing to several Associations and Civil Entities both in training and in legal advice on issues related to Immigration and Asylum.

A Moroccan diplomat, Mr El Khissassi served as political, economic, communications and civil society advisor in embassies in Africa and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Morocco.

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, Mr 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.

Ms Zainab Fasiki is a Moroccan comic artist, gender equality activist, a mechanical engineer and an entrepreneur. She is the founder of the collective “WOMEN POWER” that aims to encourage Moroccan girls to become successful artists and entrepreneurs through events in Moroccan cities, and founded the website www.hshouma.com, a project that aims to break Moroccan taboos through events and comic books, working on ending patriarchy, racism, gender-based violence through her art and projects.

Zainab's work for the UNHCR Morocco

Cette vidéo raconte l'histoire de Patricia, réfugiée originaire de la Côte d'Ivoire qui a été victime de persécutions.
Production : UNHCR Maroc
Dessin : Zineb El Fasiki

Mrs. Romualda Fernandes is presently a management board member at the Portuguese High Commission for Migration, the Public Institute responsible for the integration of migrant and Roma communities. She holds an Undergraduate and a Master’s Degree in Law from Université Paris VIII in Saint Denis, and a Post-graduate certification in International Law from the Institute of Higher International Studies (IHEI), University Paris II Panthéon-Assas.

After receiving equivalence of her Law Degree by the University of Lisbon, she attended the Special Course for Training Judges and Public Prosecutors at the Centre for Judicial Studies in Portugal. She initiated her professional activities in 1984 in Guinea-Bissau, where she worked as a Prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General and Member of the Higher Council of the Judiciary with disciplinary and inspection duties, as well as providing legal consultation on the reform of the judicial system.

In Portugal, she has worked as special adviser in government cabinets, the Municipal Assembly of Lisbon and as a consultant for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Presentation: Role of national strategy and cooperation(s) for effective implementation of laws and policies

Professor Spyridon Flogaitis is an attorney-at-law at the Supreme Court and the Council of State and a Senior Partner at the law firm “Flogaitis-Sioutis & Associates”. He has served as member or president in several committees, namely the Committee for the Competences of Local Government. Mr Flogaitis is a member of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal and the Director of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO), after having served as Minister of Interior of the Hellenic Republic. He is the author of several books.

Naela Gabr is a career diplomat, having been Ambassador to Pretoria, Botswana, Lesotho from, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations office in Geneva and its specialised agencies and the Conference on Disarmament and WTO, Assistant Foreign Minister for Multilateral Affairs and as Chairperson of Egyptian National Coordinating Committee on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Persons.

Ms Gabr is a CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women) expert and Chairperson of the committee's working group on rural women as well as a lecturer, research and thesis supervisor on Human rights, Women's rights and Human Trafficking. Ms Gabr is a member of the board for the Joint Program of Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA) and CMC Finland on Capacity Building on Gender Mainstreaming and UN Security Council resolution 1325 in North African Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Architecture.

Maria Gavouneli is Associate Professor of International Law, Faculty of Law & Athens Public International Law Center-Athens PIL, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens as well as an Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London and a visiting professor and lecturer in several universities and research institutions, including Fulbright Visiting Scholar 2018-2019 at the University of California Berkeley.

She is the Vice-chair of the Greek National Commission for Human Rights; Head of the Greek delegation at the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions and the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) at the Council of Europe and member of the Expert Group on Corruption of the European Commission.

Cécile Gréboval has devoted her professional career to the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights at the European and international level. She has been working in the Gender Equality Division of the Council of Europe since September 2015. She previously worked for 18 years for the Brussels-based European Women’s Lobby, the largest European umbrella network of women’s associations, including for three years as Secretary General.

Prior to joining the Council of Europe, Ms Gréboval also worked as an independent consultant for different international organisations, including UN Women and the European Commission on topics related to human rights and gender equality.

Presentation: Work of the Council of Europe on protecting the human rights of migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women and girls

Maysoon Khaled, a young Jordanian-Palestinian filmmaker, born in 1991. She is a Palestinian refugee from Talibia Camp and the founder of Falak.

Falak is a creative space that brings together individuals/artists, who are passionate about art, be it painting, recycling, photography, filmmaking, music or dance It was established in April 2016 to create a community of empowered, cultured and free women artists.

Jouda Jouini joined Skills to Succeed program (a 7 million Euros Economic Development Program funded by the Austrian Oil&Gas company OMV and implemented by Hilfswerk Austria International) in July 2014 as a Monitoring & Evaluation Consultant, where she provided oversight for program planning, evaluation, and performance monitoring.

Ms Jouini has sound knowledge of program designing, implementation, and monitoring and is experienced in dealing with internal and external stakeholders through a driven communication plan, being a certified trainer in Proposal Writing/ Project Cycle Management and Project’s Monitoring & Evaluation.

Vaia Kaltsi holds a Bachelor’s and Master degree in Social & Cultural Anthropology and post graduate studies in Education and Pedagogy.

During her seven-year professional experience in social inclusion, humanitarian aid and SGBV programs in local and international NGOs and Greek State agencies and her six-year voluntary work as a mental health rights activist, she has participated in numerous programs addressed to people coming from various sociocultural and political contexts, asylum seekers, refugees, immigrants that have experienced trauma, violence, exclusion and multiple human rights violations.

Currently, she works at the Centre for Research on Women's Issues 'Diotima' as the Team Leader of the Sexual and Gender-based Violence case management team in the Urban area of Athens, Greece.

Presentation: Integrated support to GBV survivors: The case of CRWI DIOTIMA's Urban Athens Intervention

Markos Karavias is Director of the Asylum Service of the Hellenic Republic.. Prior to the Service, he worked as an Assistant Professor in International Law at the Universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Amsterdam.

He has acted as a Special Adviser to the Minister for the Environment, Energy and Climate Change of the Hellenic Republic, as well as a Member of the Asylum Appeals Committees of the Hellenic Republic under Presidential Decree 114/2010.

He has published in numerous peer-reviewed journals on questions of international law, including refugee and human rights law.

Siham Kawar holds a Higher Diploma in diagnosis and treatment of Learning Disabilities, in Resource Rooms Teachers Training for Learning Disabilities, in Counseling from the Faculty of Graduate Studie and a B.A. in Philosophy and Sociology - Lebanon.

She was elected member of Al-Fuheis Municipal Council (from 2007 until now, three consecutive times) and is a lecturer and trainer in mediation and conflict resolution as well as a learning Disabilities Advisor.

Fatema Khafagy worked for fifteen years heading UNICEF Gender Program in Egypt and headed UNIFEM regional office in Jordan in 1997. She established and headed from 2001 until 2005 the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality office at the National Council of Women in Egypt.

She works as senior gender expert for the EU, UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women, DFID, GIZ and other donor agencies in Egypt, Syria, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

She is a board member of the Alliance of Arab Women, a founding and board member of the Arab Women Network for Parity and Equality and Vice President of the Egyptian Feminist Union. She was a member of the fact-finding commission established by the interim President of Egypt in 2013.

She gathered information and evidence for the violent events against women and children that accompanied the June 30, 2013 revolution and its repercussions identifying perpetrators, and examining previous investigations and other incidents into which no investigations took place.

Under the patronage of the European Commission Representation in Italy, Provincia di Roma and Atelier, “Strane straniere”(strange strangers) is the only Italian practice identified in the framework of CSO WINS project by The Euro-Mediterranean Women Foundation.

Ms Mariani is the author and co-producer of the documentary film based on this project, which has been produced by the Italian Ministry of Culture and Rai Cinema. She is also the author and director of “Aida’s spares” and was a finalist at the Cinema film documentary Solinas Prix 2015.

Salome Mbugua was born in Kenya and has lived in Ireland since 1994. She is the founder, former CEO and currently the Honorary President of AkiDwA – the African and migrant Women’s Network Ireland. With a strong background in social work, international development and philosophy, Salome has over twenty years’ experience of working with under-represented groups in Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ireland.

She currently works with Wezesha, the African diaspora led development organisation she co-founded in 2010. The organisation works with African women and children that are affected or are likely to be affected by conflict, war, violence and poverty.

Salome Mbugua has been involved in the development of several policies and strategies with various Irish government departments and units on migrants’ integration, including the Department of Justice and Equality, the Department on development of policy on sexual harassment and GBV on women seeking asylum, the Department of Foreign Affairs on the national action plan on Women Peace and Security, Resolution 1325 and the Health Services Executive on intercultural health.

Christina Moreno is the founder and CEO of She Matters. An international lawyer and communications professional by training, she works toward the social and economic empowerment of refugee and migrant women and girls, offering them the support they need to inform their own solutions and drive their own development.

Ms Moreno recently worked as a legal associate and head of communications at an international legal partnership, which specialises in on the ground international humanitarian law and human rights issues in conflict-affected and high-risk areas of the world. She was also previously with HiiL Innovating Justice where she worked to improve access to justice across the globe.

Lora Pappa, after graduating in International Studies (IUHEI) at the University of Geneva, worked for a Greek NGO, Greek Council for Refugees and after the National Youth Foundation, a specialised agency of the Greek Ministry of Education. She was engaged as a Consultant to the UNHCR and, in parallel, Advisor to the Greek Ministry of Interior for the first months of the organisation of the Global Forum on Migration and Development.

She piloted and established the first Reception Centre for Unaccompanied Minors in Crete (Greece). In 2010, she initiated the opening of a similar Centre for Unaccompanied Girls and Single Mothers in Athens. In 2010, Lora Pappa founded the NGO METAdrasi - Action for Migration and Development, whose main focus has been community interpretation and the care of unaccompanied minors. Today METAdrasi is recognised as the primary resource for community interpretation for asylum seekers, refugees and migrants in Greece, as its services are based on standardised codes of conduct and operating rules.

In 2015 she was awarded with the North-South prize of the Council of Europe in recognition of her commitment in the promotion of human rights and democracy.

Presentation

Zoya Rouhana is the director and founding member of KAFA (Enough) Violence and Exploitation, whose aim is to put an end to women and children exploitation and all kinds of gender based violence.

Her humanitarian mission to protect families and society consist of advocating for the adoption of laws to protect women from family violence. She is currently working with the Internal Security Forces, to develop training for security force members to sensitize them on the importance of protecting the family unit and women from violence.

Prior to KAFA, Ms Rouhana was the General Coordinator of the Lebanese Council to Resist Violence against Women and The Arab Women's Court (an Arab Network to Resist Violence against Women), Secretary of Women's Affairs in the Secours Populaire Libanais and a member of the Executive Committee of the League of Lebanese Women's Rights.

Mohab Saber is an art manager, producer and curator with a decade of experience in the MENA and Euro Mediterranean region. Mr Saber has a long commitment to the non-profit cultural sector, with an intensive focus on performing arts training, production and research.

He is the Executive director of ElMadina for Performing and Digital Arts: a cultural institution based in Alexandria, Egypt since 2000, a board member of Calypso for Arts & Culture, an international NGO based in Brussels, member of the UNESCO U40 network, Tandem and Robert Bosch networks for art managers.

He has many publications on art in public spaces, urbanization and creative industries.

Mr Hy Shelow has more than 24 years of experience working for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He began with UNHCR in Hong Kong. Subsequently, he was posted in Poland, Georgia, Switzerland, East Timor, Canada, South Sudan, the Regional Office in the South Caucasus for Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Mr Shelow has been deployed on numerous shorter humanitarian response missions in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. He currently serves as Deputy Director and Head of the UNHCR Middle East and North Africa Protection Service at the MENA Director’s Office in Amman, Jordan.

Mr Shelow holds a Juris Doctorate, a Master of International Law Degree, a Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Affairs, as well as two Bachelor of Arts Degrees, in Anthropology and Asian Studies.

Speech

Randa Siniora is a human rights and women’s rights defender for over thirty years. She is currently the General Director of the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC) in Jerusalem. Randa’s work has focused on advocacy and networking for progressive change in civil society organisations, UN agencies, and governments at national, regional and international levels. She began her career as a legal researcher and coordinator of the women’s rights programme at Al-Haq, where she later served as director from 2001-2005.

She has also worked as a human rights specialist with good governance organisations in the occupied Palestinian territory and was Head of the Advocacy and Networking Department at WCLAC from 1997-2001.

Before leading WCLAC, she served as the senior Executive Director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights in Palestine.

Lambrini Styiou is a Researcher at the DAISSy team, Hellenic Open University, currently working for the WEMIN (Migrant Women Empowerment and Integration) project, with an expertise in migration studies and research. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology and in the field of migration studies and a Master’s degree in Migration and Ethnic Studies.

As an anthropologist she has participated in research projects with a focus on migration, and she has conducted ethnographic research in Greece and Albania. Her research interests and work concern the study of migration with a focus on issues of gender, transnationalism, politics of identity, music expression, subjectivity and imagination and of post-socialist Albania.

She has also worked for the Asylum Service of the Hellenic Republic.

Malak Swed is the coordinator of the “Paving the Way” project as well as a member of the board of the TAMAS coalition of Syrian civil society organisations. She has taken part in several conferences and training courses on the role of women in peace building processes.

Prior to working for the Madani organisation, she conducted a research on violence against women for the Syrian Association of Family Affairs, and also worked as a theatre critique and journalist in several magazines, and programme producer for a TV channel.

Diana Tudorancea moved to Malta from Romania, her home country, with the sole ambition of discovering her place in the humanitarian world. She pursued a Master of Arts in Transcultural Counselling, a crossroads degree between sociology and psychology.

Since then, Ms Tudorancea has worked with vulnerable groups both in the government and in the NGO sector, as a researcher, project manager and counsellor.

As a Mental Health Officer for Migrant Women Association Malta, she has had the chance to start piloting a mental health program for women at risk of gender based violence, and gain access to open centres where we seek to provide basic support to those most in need.

Inkeri von Hase works as Policy Specialist, Gender and Migration for UN Women. This includes servicing the Expert Working Group on addressing women’s human rights in the Global Compact for Migration (GCM). As Programme Analyst for UN Women in New York, Inkeri managed the implementation and finalization of a joint European Union – UN Women programme on promoting and protecting migrant women workers’ labor and human rights.

Prior, Inkeri worked for UNAIDS in Windhoek/ Namibia providing substantive advisory support on gender programming to government, UN agencies and civil society. Before that she worked as Gender Consultant at the SADC Parliamentary Forum in Windhoek managing a multi-country programme on women’s equal participation in political decision making in the SADC Region.

Inkeri holds a Master’s degree in Gender, Development and Globalisation from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Anna Zobnina has over ten years of experience in the area of intersectional feminist analysis of violence & discrimination against women, with a specific focus on migrant women, sexual exploitation and care economy. She currently works on strategic advocacy and strengthening the inclusion of migrant women voices in the EU decision making across areas such as access to labour and justice, sexual and reproductive rights and civic participation.

She is a specialist on the specific challenges and risks for refugees and refugee women in their countries of origin, in transit and upon arrival, the EU legal framework and the Istanbul Convention, and analyses the need for gender mainstreaming in emergencies, asylum procedures and integration policies.

Anna Zobnina, European Network of Migrant Women from Council of Europe on Vimeo.