The Board is the highest authority of the Foundation and is in charge of:
- All decisions on grants
- The implementation of the objectives and statutes of the Foundation.
The Board meets twice a year to develop an effective strategy to support human rights defenders and organisations in the South-Mediterranean region.
The Board consists of twelve members who provide broad representation in the decision-making while ensuring transparency and efficiency of the operations.
The Board members fulfil their functions on a voluntary basis and are nominated for a six-year term, renewable.
Current Members
President |
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| Driss El Yazami
Former Chairman of the National Human Rights Council in Morocco, former Member of the Moroccan Truth and Reconciliation Commission, member of the board of the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration in France, Morocco. |
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Vice-President |
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| Christine M. Merkel
Head of Department for Culture and Communication (Memory of the World), German Commission for UNESCO, Germany. |
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Treasurer |
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| Kamel Jendoubi
Chairperson of the UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen, former Minister in charge of relations with Constitutional Bodies, Civil Society and Human Rights, former President of the Independent Higher Electoral Commission (ISIE), member of the executive council of the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), Tunisia. |
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Ordinary Members |
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| Hanny Megally
Member of the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, Senior Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation focusing on violent extremism, human rights and rule of law, former Chief for Asia, Pacific, Middle East and North Africa at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), former Member of the Board of the Arab Human Rights Fund (AHRF), Egypt. |
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| Bassma Kodmani
Academic Researcher, Co-founder and former Executive Director of Arab Reform Initiative (ARI), Associate Professor of International Relations at Paris University 1 – Pantheon Sorbonne and Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, Syria. |
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| Khémaïs Chammari
Former Tunisian Ambassador to UNESCO, former member of the Tunisian Parliament, Nuremberg Human Rights Prize Winner, Tunisia. |
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| Bahey El Din Hassan
Co-founder and Director of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), recipient of the Annual Journalism Award from the Egyptian Press Syndicate in 1987 and Human Rights Watch’s Annual Award of Human Rights Monitor in 1993, Egypt. |
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| Leila Rhiwi
Representative UN Women Multi-Country Office for the Maghreb, Morocco. |
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| Lynn Welchman
Professor of Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London), Advisory Board Member of the Arab Regional Office of the Open Society Foundations, member of the Board at the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights, member of the Founding Editorial Board, Muslim World Journal of Human Rights, United Kingdom. |
| Souhayr Belhassan
Journalist and former President of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), laureate of the Lysistrata Prize for the Promotion of Peaceful Conflict Resolution through Mediation, Tunisia. |
| Marc Schade-Poulsen
PhD, Visiting Researcher at Roskilde University, former Executive Director of EuroMed Rights – the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network, Denmark. |
| Habib Nassar
Lawyer and Director of Policy and Research at Impunity Watch, former Acting Executive Director and Director for the Middle East and North Africa at PILnet: The Global Network for Public Interest Law, Lebanon. |