FOUNDING MEMBERS

Abdulrahman Al Naimi

A Qatari history professor at the University of Doha, Dr Al Nuaimi has participated in the creation of a number of humanitarian and human rights organisations as well as research institutes in the Arab World.

Rachid Mesli

A criminal Lawyer in Algeria, Rachid defended before the courts the rights of dozens of individuals often subjected to unfair trials in the crisis that broke out following the halting of the legislative elections process in the country in January 1992. On 31 July 1996 he was kidnapped by security forces and detained for three years following repeated beatings, death threats and a trial which Amnesty International said had "clearly violated international standards for fair trial". Higher courts repeatedly overturned the accusations and sentences against Rachid, but he remained in detention until July 1999 when he was finally released. Fearing for the safety of his family, Rachid moved to Geneva in the year 2000 and founded Alkarama in 2004.

Abbas Aroua

Holder of a PhD in Medical Physics from the Medical Faculty of Lausanne, Dr Aroua is a renowned Algerian expert on humanitarian, human rights, conflict resolution and dialogue among civilisations having contributed to numerous works, conferences and publications on these subjects. He is also a founding member of the Hoggar Institute and the Cordoba Foundation of Geneva.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Khalifa Mohamed Rabaan – President

A Qatari businessman, Mr Al Rabaan is active in a number of humanitarian, charity and human rights organisations.

Abbas Aroua – Council Secretary

Ahcene Kerkadi

A dentist by trade, Dr Kerkadi is Swiss of Algerian origin and was elected to the municipality of his hometown in Algeria in 1990. Holding political refugee status in Switzerland since 1994, he has been active in a number of human rights initiatives and organisations, including Amnesty's Swiss section.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The new statutes of the Foundation, as approved by the Swiss Federal Supervisory Board for Foundations in August 2014, institute an Advisory Committee. The Committee, comprised of recognised experts in human rights or the Arab world, will advise the Foundation on its global strategy and issues related to ethical standards and good governance. Its members are :

• Maha Azzam is a leading policy expert on the Middle East and political Islam. She is Egyptian and holds a DPhil from Oxford University. She was an Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House (2002-2015) and an advisor on the MENA panel at the British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Previously, Maha Azzam was Head of the Programme on Security and Development in Muslim States run by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies. She is now Head of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council, a broad platform that promotes a democratic and civil state in Egypt.
• François Burgat is a French political scientist and Senior Research Fellow at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. He has held the position of Head of the French Institute of the Near East and is currently Director of Research at the Institut de recherches et d’études sur le monde arabe et musulman (IREMAM) in Aix-en-Provence. He has lived in the Arab World for over 18 years: as Professor of Law at the University of Constantine, Algeria (1973-1980), at the Centre d’études et de documentation économiques, juridiques et sociales (CEDEJ) in Cairo (1989-1993), then as the director of the French Centre for Archaeology and Social Sciences in Sana'a, Yemen (1997-2003).
• Richard Falk is an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University. He is the author or co-author of 20 books and the editor or co-editor of another 20 volumes. In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed Prof. Falk to a six-year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. In December 2008, Richard Falk travelled with a team of UN colleagues to Israel in an official visit in his capacity as UN Special Rapporteur. He was detained for 24 hours in Ben Gurion Airport and then expelled and banned from entry in the country.
• Mutaz Qafisheh is a Palestinian and French practicing international lawyer and currently the Dean of the College of Law and Political Science at Hebron University, Palestine. He holds a PhD in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, and has worked with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Beirut and Ramallah. Dean Qafisheh wrote and edited six books and some 50 articles and has taught Law at Al-Quds and Birzeit universities. He is a PhD supervisor at the University of Exeter, UK.

STAFF

Mourad Dhina – Executive Director

Dr Mourad Dhina joined Alkarama in 2007 to lead the growth and professionalization of the organisation when Alkarama registered as a Foundation under Swiss law. Prior to joining Alkarama, Mourad worked as a Research Scientist at ETH-Zürich and CERN-Geneva. In the 1990s, Mourad joined a number of efforts to ensure the respect of human rights in Algeria, working with various political actors to push for the establishment of the rule of law, including through the organisation of conferences on the subject and the publication of victims' testimonies. Mourad holds a PhD in Particle Physics from MIT (USA).

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Tel: +41 22 734 10 07 ext. 830
Skype: alkarama.md

Youssouf Coulibaly – Finance and Administration Officer

Youssouf joined Alkarama in 2011 as an administration and events assistant, and has been working as Alkarama's Finance and Administration Officer since 2012. Prior to joining Alkarama, Youssouf worked at the Arab European University in Damascus and held a number of other positions in Syria between 2006 and 2010. He holds a BA in Inter-Cultural Mediation and Social Science from the Higher Institute of Arabic Literature and Islamic Studies in Damascus. Youssouf is from Cote d'Ivoire and speaks Arabic, English and French.

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Tel: +41 22 734 10 07 ext. 835
Fax: +41 22 734 10 34
Skype: yussuf.coulibaly

Legal Department

Rachid Mesli – Legal Director

Rachid founded Alkarama in 2004 and currently heads the Legal Department, supervising the work of the regional legal officers and establishing the Foundation's strategy for our work on each country with the United Nations human rights protection mechanisms.

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Tel: +41 22 734 10 07 ext. 820
Skype: rachid2454

Inès Osman – Coordinator of the Legal Department & Regional Legal Officer, Mashreq

Inès joined Alkarama in 2013 as Regional Legal Officer on North Africa, and now coordinates the Legal Department. She also leads the organisation's work and strategy on the Mashreq. Prior to this, Inès undertook an internship with Alkarama in 2011, and worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. She holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Geneva and an LLM in International Law from Leiden University, where she wrote her thesis on the Politicisation of the ICC through the referral of the Libyan situation by the UN Security Council. Inès comes from France; she speaks English and French.

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Tel: +41 22 734 10 07 (ext. 825)
Skype: ines.alk
Twitter: @Ines_Osman

Saadeddine Shatila – Lebanon Country Representative

Saadeddine joined Alkarama in 2007 as Alkarama's Country Representative in Lebanon. Saadeddine heads the Lebanon office and is responsible for investigating and documenting human rights violations in Lebanon and neighbouring countries. Prior to joining Alkarama, Saadeddine trained in a Beirut law firm from 2005 to 2007. He holds a BA in Law Studies from the Lebanese University in 2003 and a diploma in "Capacity Building for NGOs Program" from the Lebanese American University in 2016. He is a Lebanese citizen and speaks Arabic and English.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Mob: +961 3 217 949
Tel/Fax: +961 1 427 907
Skype: alkarama-beirut
Twitter: @saadeddine

Elisa Volpi Spagnolini- Human Rights Officer

Elisa joined Alkarama in 2014 and currently works as Human Rights Officer for the Mashreq countries. She is responsible for treating cases of serious human rights violations in the Arab Mashreq countrires in order to provide information to the UN human rights protection mechanisms. Prior to joining Alkarama Elisa worked with the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) and at the International Commission against Death Penalty. Elisa holds an LLM from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights as well as a BA and MA in International Relations from Turin University and SciencePo Bordeaux. Elisa is Italian native speaker and is fluent in English French and Spanish and is currently learning Arabic.

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Tel/Fax: +961 1 427 907
Skype: elisa.volpi.alk
Twitter:@Elis_eins

Radidja Nemar – Regional Legal Officer, North Africa

Radidja Nemar joined Alkarama in 2014 and leads the organisation's work and strategy on the Maghreb. She holds two BA (Law and in Philosophy) from Toulouse University, a MA in International Law from Aix-en-Provence University, a MA in International Affairs from Sciences-Po, and is currently finishing her PhD on The Interplay Between Human Rights Law and Humanitarian Law During Post-Conflict Transitional Periods, for which she undertook visiting research stints at Oxford and Yale Law School as a Fulbright Scholar. French born Algerian, Radidja speaks Arabic, English and French.

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Tel: +41 22 734 10 07 (ext. 825)
Skype: radidja.alkarama
Twitter: @RadidjaN

Ahmed Kaaniche – Tunisia Country Representative

Ahmed joined Alkarama in 2016 as Alkarama’s country representative in Tunisia. He is responsible for investigating and documenting human rights violations in Tunisia and in neighbouring countries. After he obtained his masters in translation, Ahmed graduated in international humanitarian law and applied human rights law from the University of Aix-Marseille III in France, at the Institute of International Humanitarian Studies, and also obtained a certificate of legal, political and social culture. After the Tunisian revolution, he has worked with Human Rights Watch for three years as a research assistant and Tunisia Office administrator. Ahmed is Tunisian and speaks Arabic, English and French.

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Skype: ahmed.kaani
Twitter: @kaanicah

Nile region (Egypt, Djibouti, Sudan)

Simone Di Stefano – Regional Legal Officer

Simone joined Alkarama in 2016 and is responsible for the organisation's work and strategy on the Nile. Prior to joining Alkarama, Simone worked as an Arabic-speaking delegate for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and researched, lived and worked in several Arabic countries. He holds a Bachelor and a MA in Languages, Cultures and Institutions of the Near and Middle East from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy, and a second MA in Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Human Rights and Islamic Law, from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Simone is a Swiss citizen and speaks Arabic, English, French and Italian.

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Tel: +41 22 734 10 07 (ext. 815)
Skype: sdist_alk
Twitter: @sim_sds

Julia Legner - Regional Legal Officer

Julia leads the organisation's work and strategy on the Gulf. Prior to joining Alkarama, Julia has worked for the International Labour Organization on fair labour migration in the Asia-Middle East corridor. Julia holds a BA in International Relations and Arabic from Westminster University and a MA in Middle Eastern Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Julia comes from Germany and speaks Arabic, English and German..

Tel: +41 22 734 10 07 (ext. 815)
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Skype: julia.alkarama
Twitter: @JuliaLegner

Michelle Wazan – Human Rights Officer
Michelle joined Alkarama in 2016 and is responsible for documenting cases of human rights violations to submit to the UN human rights mechanisms. Prior to joining Alkarama, she studied political sciences and international law in Beirut and in France. She is Lebanese and American and speaks Arabic, English and French.
Tel/Fax: +961 1 427 907
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Skype : michelle.alkarama
Twitter : @Michwaz1

Mohamed Ahmady – Yemen Country Representative

Mohamed joined Alkarama in 2007 and works as Alkarama's Legal Researcher in Yemen. Mohamed is responsible for investigating and documenting human rights violations in Yemen and in neighbouring countries. Prior to joining Alkarama, Mohamed worked as a journalist and editor with a number of Yemeni newspapers and online publications since 2001. He continues to write for the Yemeni Newspaper Al Ghad, and is regularly quoted as a source by Yemeni, Arab and international media outlets including the New York Times and the Washington Post. He holds a B.A. from the University of Ibb in Yemen, is a Yemeni citizen and is fluent in Arabic.

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Skype: ahmadyyem2012
Twitter: @alahmadiyem

Media Department

Hassan Nouhaili - Arabic Media Editor

Hassan joined Alkarama in 2008 as an administrative assistant, dealing with complaints and communicating with the victims' families. Since 2011, Hassan works as Alkarama's Arabic Media Editor, dealing with the Arabic media and translating content. Prior to joining Alkarama, Hassan held various positions working with Permanent Missions to the UN. Hassan is Moroccan and Swiss and speaks fluent Arabic, French and English.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel: +41 22 734 10 08
Skype: alkarama.geneva

Iman Taha - Translation Officer

Iman is a Lebanese sworn translator since 2003. Before joining Alkaram team, Iman translated for many Lebanese media institutions, companies, educational establishments and NGOs. She graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in Languages and Translation in 2001 and then she earned her Multimedia diploma in 2014. Meanwhile, Iman is preparing her Master 2 thesis in Computational Linguistics at the Lebanese University. Iman speaks Arabic, English and French.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel: ++961 1 427 907
Skype: iman.alkarama