Participant Biographies
EŞREF AKSU is Lecturer in International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Prior to joining academia, Aksu served with the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in Bosnia & Herzegovina, and subsequently was an external relations officer with the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD). His research and teaching areas are global governance, normative international relations theory, and foreign policy analysis. Aksu’s major publications include: Eşref Aksu (ed.), Early Notions of Global Governance: Selected Eighteenth-Century Proposals for ‘Perpetual Peace’ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2008); Eşref Aksu, “Locating Cosmopolitan Democracy in the Theory-Praxis Nexus”, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political, 32:3 (2007), 275-294; Eşref Aksu, The United Nations, Intra-state Peacekeeping and Normative Change (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003); and Eşref Aksu and Joseph A. Camilleri (eds), Democratizing Global Governance (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).
VICTOR FERNANDEZ works at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva, where he has headed one of the units of the Communications Section since 2006. From 2003 to 2006, he was in charge of the Press Office at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile, and before that he worked for the UN Department of Public Information both in Geneva and New York, where he joined the United Nations in 1996. He has worked as a journalist in the private sector in Spain and the USA. He holds a higher degree in Communications Sciences from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense, and an M.A. in International Relations from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), Monterey, California. He speaks Spanish, English, and French.
KIRSTEN J. FISHER is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Her dissertation entitled “Justifying International Criminal Law” is a multi-disciplinary approach to examining the normative foundation of international prosecution for serious human rights abuses. She has participated in academic programmes, symposia and conferences in Canada, the US, the Hague and the UK on topics ranging from transitional justice and international criminal law to international security. Her publications include articles in The Canadian Journal of Political Science and Contemporary Political Theory. She is the recipient of a number of esteemed Canadian awards including a SSHRC CGS doctoral scholarship and a Canadian Consortium on Human Security Fellowship. The latter allowed her to pursue original research in Uganda in 2007, evaluating judgment and punishment in traditional mechanisms of justice. In September 2008, Ms. Fisher will begin a post-doctoral research fellowship at McGill University, Canada.
JOLYON (JO) FORD is a Lecturer in the College of Law, the Australian National University (ANU) and a PhD scholar at the ANU Centre for International Governance & Justice. Before beginning doctoral studies in 2008, Jo was the Human Rights Officer in the Commonwealth Secretariat, London (2005-7) and has worked in a variety of other fields. Jo was born and educated in Zimbabwe and is a graduate of the University of Natal, South Africa and the University of Cambridge.
JEROME C. GLENN co-founded and directs the Millennium Project, the leading global participatory think tank supported by international organizations, governments, corporations, and NGOs, which has produced the internationally recognized State of the Future annual reports for the past ten years. He has also been the executive director of the American Council for the United Nations University since 1988, which represents the UNU in Washington, D.C. Mr. Glenn has 37 years experience in futures research for government, international organizations, and private industry in science & technology policy, economics, education, defense, space, forecasting methodology, international telecommunications, and decision support systems with the Millennium Project, Committee for the Future, Hudson Institute, his own firm (the Future Options Room), and as an independent consultant.
JULIA HARFENSTELLER has studied political science and international law in Granada, Spain and Berlin, Germany. Currently, she is writing her dissertation thesis on the UN Concept of Peace and studying for a Master’s degree in Philosophy of Science at the Technical University Berlin. In 2007, she was visiting research scholar at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, the Graduate Center, CUNY, New York. She is Co-chair of the UN Studies Association and an ACUNS member.
WARDA HENNING is a lawyer at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs in New York. She graduated from Harvard Law School as a Fulbright Scholar and from the University of Amsterdam Law School with a degree in international law. Prior to the UN, Warda was an associate in international arbitration and litigation at the Covington & Burling Law Firm in Washington, D.C. and at Clifford Chance LLP in New York City. She also worked at the UN High Commission for Refugees in New Delhi, India; the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania; the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica; and the University of Amsterdam where she worked for Professor André Nollkaemper, Director of the International Law Department.
JABIN T JACOB is Research Fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS), a New Delhi-based think-tank on security and international affairs. His areas of interest include East Asian political economy, centre-province relations in China, China’s relations with India, the US and Japan and Chinese worldviews. Jabin completed his PhD thesis on inter-province relations in China and their transnational linkages from the Centre for East Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.
BASILIO G. MONTEIRO is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Mass Communication at St. John’s University, NY, USA. His areas of specialization and research are in International Communication, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Development, Media and Public Policy, New Media and Issues of Governance, Media and Culture, and Theology of Communication.
MARKUS PALLEK, a national of Germany, is a Legal Officer with the Office of the Under-Secretary-General (OUSG) in the Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) of the United Nations Secretariat in New York. He is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars and is also admitted to practice law in Germany. He is Ancien Elève de l’Ecole Nationale d’Administration (Promotion René Cassin) in Paris and Strasbourg/France and holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from that school. Moreover, he earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from New York University - School of Law and a doctorate in law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Würzburg/Germany. In addition to directly assisting the Legal Counsel of the United Nations, Mr. Nicolas Michel, he is working on “transitional justice” and on UN-ICC cooperation issues and advises on the interpretation of rules of procedure of UN principal and subsidiary organs and UN conferences.
MICHAEL PLATZER served 34 years in the United Nations Secretariat in a variety of capacities, in Human Rights, the Office of the Secretary-General, the Department of Technical Cooperation, Habitat, UNDP, Peacebuilding, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. In the last Office, he was head of the Rule of Law Section and Criminal Justice Reform Unit. Dr. Platzer is currently involved with the Austrian United Nations Association and with the Academic Council on the United Nations System, pursuing a variety of experimental teaching ideas. He has written on this in "For the Rule of Law: Criminal Justice Teaching and Training @cross the World," edited by K. Aromaa & S. Redo (Helsinki-Seoul 2008). Dr. Platzer has also written on the Secretaries-General of the United Nations, human rights, the rule of law, HIV/AIDS, development, the environment, maritime law, peacebuilding, and ethnic minorities. His recent research has been on foreigners in prison, carried out for the Austrian Ministry of Justice and the Institute of Criminology of the University of Vienna. He is the founder of the United Nations Society of Writers and first editor of its literary magazine. He organized an extremely successful real/virtual colloquium on "The United Nations and New Media" (Wels, Austria, 16 November 2007) and the new technologies that can be used for networking, research, human rights, peacebuilding, societal development, and communicating with youth. This was a contribution-in-kind to the ACUNS' objectives. He has also written and produced two short films on prisoners' rights and victims' rights. He studied theology at the Union Theological Seminary (New York, USA). Mr. Platzer received a Doctor of Law from Cornell University and a PhD from Columbia University.
MIROSLAV POLZER is head of the Austrian Science and Research Liaison Office in Ljubljana. Dr. Polzer holds a Masters of Business Administration and a PhD in economics. He wrote his PhD thesis at the University of Graz (Austria) on the interdependency of social, economic and environmental problems in Calcutta/Kolkata (India). His special research interests are in the field of sustainable socio-economic development, intercultural dialogue, (global) governance of science and technology systems and information society technologies. He recently contributed to the Global Research Initiative for Achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals, developed with the UNESCO office in Venice and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World TWAS in Trieste; the Global Challenges World Cup - Climate Protection World Cup initiative for innovative management of civil society knowledge; and the Global Philanthropists as Partners for a Knowledge Based Response to Climate Change initiative, organised in cooperation with European Foundation Centre.
KAROLINE SCHMID has been working with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago since July 2002. Until June 2007 she held the position of the Population Affairs Officer, with responsibilities for all work program aspects related to population and development in the Caribbean, with a particular focus on demographic ageing and migration in the region. In July 2007 she took up the position of Social Affairs Officer, covering a wider range of issues related to social development. Prior to her transfer to Port of Spain, she served in the United Nations Population Division and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in New York and was posted with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Albania. Apart form her experience within the United Nations system she worked in academia (research & lecturing) and in the private sector in various capacities. Ms. Schmid holds a diploma and a Ph. D. in sociology and demography.
OKOLO BENNETH SIMON is a doctoral fellow at the Centre for Africa’s International Relations at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. His thesis topic is: The Principle of the Responsibility to Protect: the Darfur Conflict as a Test of its Applicability. Okolo worked as a lawyer and security analyst in Nigeria where he served in various departments in the government’s civil service. He is also involved in peace education particularly for the youth in Nigeria. His research interests are in the areas of human security, civilian protection and conflict resolution. Apart from his LL.B degree in Law, he also holds a BL (Law), Masters in Law (LLM) and Masters (MA) in International Relations.
ANDREW SOLOMON has served as Director of Programs for the American Society of International Law (ASIL) since December 2004. He also heads up ASIL’s efforts to facilitate transnational judicial dialogues on judicial independence, efficiency, and integrity. Immediately prior to joining the ASIL staff, Andrew served as Co-Director of the Rule of Law Research Office at the American Bar Association's Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (ABA/CEELI) where he managed and implemented tools for assessing judicial and legal reform as well as compliance with international treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. He has also worked for the legal departments of the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and the UNHCR's Washington Office on rule of law, refugee assistance, and human rights issues. In addition, Andrew has served as an OSCE election observer and legal analyst in more than a dozen countries in Europe and Eurasia since the mid-1990s. Andrew is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the American University’s Washington College of Law. He received a JD from the Catholic University of America Law School; an MA in international affairs from American University; and a BA in political science from Temple University. Before attending law school, Andrew spent five years at the Brookings Institution as program coordinator and a research assistant in the Foreign Policy Studies program, where he specialized in political and economic reform and conflict mitigation in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
YASUHIRO UEKI currently serves as Information Officer in the Department of Public Information (DPI) of the United Nations Secretariat based in New York, dealing with Palestine, decolonization, human rights, rule of law, democracy and peacekeeping. Yasuhiro served as UN Spokesman in Iraq, Aceh/Indonesia and East Timor, and as Acting Director of the UN Information Center in Zimbabwe and Acting Chief of the Peace and Security Section in DPI. Yasuhiro also worked in the Office of the Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General and has a Ph.D. in International Relations from Columbia University. Among Yasuhiro’s publications are “United Nations Inspections in Iraq,” “Perspectives on Security Council Reform” and “Japan’s UN Diplomacy”.
SHER VERICK worked for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia since May 2005. Since August 2007, he is an Economic Affairs Officer in the African Centre for Gender and Social Development in ECA. Mr. Verick studied at the National Centre of Development Studies, Australian National University, in Canberra, Australia, where he received a Master of Economics of Development. From 1999 to 2000 he worked as a research assistant at the University of Manchester, UK. After completing his doctorate in economics at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) and the University of Bonn in 2004, he worked as a research fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. Mr. Verick is currently the Youth Focal Point in ECA, working on a range of youth issues in the African context. In addition, he contributes to ECA’s activities in the areas of employment, migration, education and human and social development in general. He is married with two children.
JURE VIDMAR studied international relations, political science and law at the universities of Ljubljana (Slovenia), Salzburg (Austria), Oklahoma (USA) and Nottingham (UK). He holds an LL.M. in public international law from the University of Nottingham and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Salzburg. Currently he is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Law, University of Nottingham, where he is also a tutor in public international law and in law of the European Union for LL.B. students. His research interests lie within general international law, human rights and democratisation theory. Vidmar’s book, Democratic Transition and Democratic Consolidation in Slovenia has recently been published by Peter Lang Publishing Company.