Speakers FRC 2013

(In order of appearance)

Juozas Bernatonis
Juozas Bernatonis  is the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania. Mr Bernatonis is a member of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and was elected by the list of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party to his current position in 2012. He serves as a member on the Committee on Legal Affairs. Prior to his current position, he was the Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to the Republic of Estonia (2006 to 2012); Advisor of International Affairs to Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas and chief adviser to Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas (2004 to 2006); and Minister of Interior (2001 to 2003).
Opening speech by Minister Bernatonis.
Morten Kjaerum
Morten Kjaerum has served as Director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights since June 2008. Before joining the FRA, Mr Kjaerum served as the founding Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights. Over 17 years in top executive roles, Mr Kjaerum built the Institute, Denmark’s national human rights institution, into an internationally recognised institution. An expert in human rights implementation, Mr Kjaerum has been a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the President of the International Coordination Committee for National Human Rights Institutions, a network coordinating relations between the United Nations and national institutions. Mr Kaerum has written extensively on issues relating to human rights, in particular on refugee law, the prohibition against racial discrimination, and the role of national human rights institutions.
Opening speech by Morten Kjaerum
Cecilia Malmström
Cecilia Malmström  is the Commissioner of the European Commission in charge of Home Affairs. Her responsibilities include EU work on police cooperation, border control, asylum and migration. Prior to her appointment as a Commissioner, Ms Malmström served as Swedish Minister for European Union Affairs (2006 to 2010). In this capacity she coordinated the preparatory work and the implementation of the Swedish Presidency of the EU. From 1999 to 2006 Ms Malmström was a Member of the European Parliament, where among other duties she was also a Member of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights. She is a member of the Liberal Party of Sweden and was the Vice-President of the party from 2007 to 2010.
Opening speech by Commissioner Malmström
Laszlo Surjan
László Surján  is Vice President of the European Parliament, where he represents the Hungarian Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), part of the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats). He is also Member of the Bureau of the European People's Party (EPP) and is a Member of the European Parliament's Committee on Budget and Committee on Regional Development. He is also member of the Delegation for relations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo and the Intergroup for Traditional National Minorities, Constitutional Regions and Regional Languages and member of the EP Working Group on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
He is also founder of the Charta XXI Movement for Reconciliation in Central-East Europe.
 
 Alan Shatter
Alan Shatter TD  is the Irish Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, a position has held since March 2011. Alan Shatter has been a TD at the Dáil Eireann since 2007 and previously from 1981 until 2002. Before his appointment as Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Mr Shatter, in his capacity as a Fine Gael TD, published a number of bills advocating for radical legal, social and environmental reform. He has also held various positions on the Fine Gael Front Bench including Spokesperson on Justice and Law Reform, Health, Labour, Defence and Children. 
Snežana Samardžić-Marković
Snežana Samardžić-Marković is the Director General for Democracy at the Council of Europe, in charge of the organisation’s action promoting democratic governance and sustainable democratic societies. Her responsibilities include the work of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), work against discrimination and hate speech, including the Council of Europe’s ‘No hate speech campaign’. Previously, Ms Marković has held numerous positions in the Serbian Government including Minister of Youth and Sports (2007-2012) and President of the Fund for Young Talents, Assistant Minister of Defence (2005-2007) and Deputy Director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for Neighbouring Countries.
Janez Lenarčič
Ambassador Janez Lenarčič  is the Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) – the specialised institution of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), dealing with elections, human rights, and democratisation. Prior to this appointment in 2008, he served as Slovenian State Secretary for European Affairs, where he led the working group for the preparation of the Slovenian Presidency of the European Union. He was the Slovenian Ambassador to the OSCE from 2003 to 2006. In 2005, when Slovenia held the OSCE's rotating Chairmanship, he chaired the Permanent Council in Vienna, the Organization's regular political decision making body. He also served as a Diplomatic Advisor in the office of the Slovenian Prime Minister and the Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the United Nations in New York.
Christos Giakoumopoulos
Christos Giakoumopoulos  is Director of Human Rights in the Council of Europe’s Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law, a position he has held from 2011. Previously he was Director of Monitoring in the same Directorate General since 2006. Before joining the Directorate General of Human Rights, he was General Counsel and General Director for Legal and Administrative Affairs of the Council of Europe Development Bank (Paris). Since joining the Council of Europe in 1987, he has also held posts in the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, the Venice Commission and Director in the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, A. Gil Robles.
Marnix Auman
Marnix Aumanis the Head of Cyber Intelligence at the European Cybercrime Centre at Europol. His team is responsible for capturing cybercrime information from a wide range of sources and translating that into actionable intelligence for use by different stakeholders. Over the years Mr Auman has run a number of key projects for the Belgian Police and Europol, including drafting Belgium’s Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment during his time as Strategic Analysis Coordinator at Federal Police HQ in Brussels; setting up a Command and Control Centre while serving as Europol’s Operational Intelligence Coordinator; and, most recently, implementing an organisation-wide Innovation Programme at Europol. His expertise covers strategic and operational intelligence analysis, data protection and security, information handling, change management and international cooperation.

 Salla Saastamoinen
Salla Saastamoinen is the Head of Unit of Fundamental Rights and Rights of the Child in the Directorate General Justice of the European Commission. The core responsibilities of this unit include ensuring effective implementation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, promoting the fight against racism and xenophobia as well as the fight against homophobia. In this capacity, Ms Saastamoinen represents the European Commission in the Management Board of the FRA. Ms Saastamoinen has worked for the European Commission for the for the past 17 years, where she has held several positions, including the Head of Unit Civil Justice Policy
Paul Iganski
Paul Iganski, PhD is a Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the Lancaster University Law School (UK) and was formerly Head of Department of Applied Social Science at Lancaster. For well over a decade, he has specialised on hate crime. He is currently researching the management of hate speech by courts. His books include(2008), Hate Crimes Against London’s Jews(2005 with Vicky Kielinger & Susan Paterson) and the edited volumes Hate Crime: The Consequences of Hate Crime(2009) and (2002). He was principal investigator (with David Smith) for the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) (Scotland) project on the Rehabilitation of Hate Crime Offenders (2011), and principal investigator on projects recently commissioned by the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission to analyse data from the British Crime Survey and the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey on equality groups’ perceptions and experience of harassment and crime. He has also served as the project coordinator of the European Network Against Racism’s Comparative Study on Racist Violence (2010).
Alinde-Verhaag
Alinde Verhaag is the Head of the Case Analysis Unit at Eurojust. She previously worked as an analyst at Eurojust and as a legal researcher at the Dutch National Ombudsman between 2002 and 2006. The mission of the Case Analysis Unit (CA Unit) is to facilitate the judicial cooperation and coordination role of Eurojust by providing operational and case-related analysis. The Unit develops working methodologies for strategic products and monitors operational work to identify both legal obstacles and solutions to judicial cooperation and in Joint Investigation Teams (JITs).
Danutė Jočienė
Danutė Jočienė is the outgoing Lithuanian judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), where she has served from 2004 to 1 November 2013. At the ECHR she was the Vice-President of Section and Acting President for Rule 39 applications. Prior to becoming a judge at the ECtHR, Ms Jočienė worked for the Lithuanian government at the ECtHR, was a Vice-Dean, lecturer and associate professor at the Law Faculty of Vilnius University, and worked for the Lithuanian government as an expert on European law. She was awarded a doctoral degree in 1999 for her thesis on the application of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Contracting Parties and has published extensively in the field of human rights.
 
Marinos Skandamis
Marinos Skandamis is the Secretary General of Crime Policy of the Greek Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights since 2011. Prior to this appointment he served as Special Secretary of Correctional Policy and Forensic Services from 2009 to 2011. Mr Skandamis holds a PhD in Criminology. He is member of national and international organizations active in the fields of criminology and human rights protection and has authored several articles published in legal and sociology journals.
Pierre Baussand
Pierre Baussand  is the Director of Social Platform, the largest alliance of representative European federations and networks of non-governmental organisations active in the social sector. The Social Platform and its members are committed to the advancement of the principles of equality, solidarity, non-discrimination and the promotion and respect of fundamental rights for all in Europe. Prior to Social Platform, Mr Baussand managed a human rights team for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and led several human rights projects for the European Disability Forum. He also conducted field research in the Middle East on human rights and migration.
Floriane Hohnberg
Floriane Hohenberg is the Head of Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Department at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). ODIHR has published an annual report on hate crimes since 2006, containing hard data and information about the extent and types of hate crimes in the OSCE region; developments in legislation; and responses to hate crimes by governments and NGOs. ODIHR takes a comprehensive approach to understanding and addressing hate crime by providing training for police and prosecutors on the investigation and prosecution of hate crime; training for civil society organisations on monitoring hate crime; and producing guides for NGOs on monitoring hate crime and for policy makers on developing effective hate crime laws and data collection mechanisms. Before her appointment in ODIHR, Ms Hohenberg was the Head of the Representation in Germany of the French Commission for the Victims of Spoliation Resulting from Antisemitic Legislation in Force during the Occupation (2000 to 2004).
Pavel Tychtl
Pavel Tychtl is is Policy Officer at the DG Communication of the European Commission, where he has been responsible for the remembrance activities organised by the Commission since 2005 and is managing the Remembrance Action of “Europe for Citizens” programme. Previously, Mr Tychtl was Director of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) and worked with the Czech Academy of Sciences. He has also experience in the voluntary sector, where he worked as director of the Czech Organisation for Aid to Refugees. Mr Tychtl holds a degree in sociology and social history at Charles University in Prague and New School for Social Research in New York.
 
Aija Kalnaja
Aija Kalnaja is the Head of the Training Unit at the European Police College (CEPOL), which she joined in September 2011. She has 20 years of policing experience and international law enforcement expertise. Prior to joining CEPOL, Ms Kalnaja held the position of Deputy Chief of the Latvian Police, responsible for international cooperation and administrative affairs for the national police force. Between 2007 and 2011, she was Latvia’s Police Attaché to the United Kingdom, acting as a strategic advisor to the Latvian government on police matters and cooperation with the United Kingdom. Before this, from 2003, she headed the Latvian SIRENE Bureau, managing the establishment of the national bureau. Externally, Ms Kalnaja led the Latvian delegations to the Council of Europe and European Commission working groups
Karen Jochelson
Karen Jochelson is the Director of Economy and Employment Programme at the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission. She is responsible for developing and delivering the Commission’s work with the private sector in its role as an employer and as a service provider. She was the Director of Research at the Commission from 2008 to 2012 and led a human rights review which assessed the government’s compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights. Until December 2007, Ms Jochelson led the public health work programme at the King’s Fund (London). She has also published extensively on the history of sexually transmitted diseases, racism, human rights, unemployment, business, and politics in South Africa.
Françoise Tulkens
Françoise Tulkens  is a member of the FRA Scientific Committee and a former Judge at the European Court of Human Rights (1998 to 2012), where she served as Section President from January 2007 and Vice-President of the Court from February 2011. In 2012, she took up an appointment as a member of the Kosovo Human Rights Advisory Panel. Ms Tulkens holds a Doctorate in Law and is an associate Member of the Belgian Royal Academy. Previously she was Professor at the University of Louvain and has taught in Belgium as well as abroad. Ms Tulkens has authored many publications and holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Geneva, Limoges, Ottawa and Ghent.
Vytautas Leskevicius
Vytautas Leškevičius is the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania. During the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, he is responsible for shaping and implementing the European Union’s policy, as well as developing and strengthening relations with the European Union’s institutions, member states of the European Union and candidate countries. He also directed preparations for the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Mr Leškevičius has held various positions in the Lithuanian diplomatic service since 1996.
Closing speech by Vytautas Leškevičius
Giannis Ioannidis
Giannis F. Ioannidis has been the Secretary General of the Greek Ministry of Interior since August 2012. He previously served as Secretary General of Transparency and Human Rights at the Greek Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights, from February 2011 to July 2012. Mr. Ioannidis also served as Secretary General of the Hellenic Union for Human Rights, and was a member of the National Commission for Human Rights. He is an attorney at the Hellenic Supreme Court, specialized in administrative and criminal law, and has authored several articles published in legal journals and the media.
Manfred Nowak
Manfred Nowak is the Vice-Chairperson and Austrian Member of the FRA Management Board. He is also Professor of International law and Human Rights at Vienna University, Co-Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights and the chair of the independent human rights commission at the Austrian Ministry of Interior. From 2004 to 2010, he served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. Before that Mr Nowak was a judge at the Human Rights Chamber in Bosnia (1996-2003). Mr Nowak has published more than 500 books and articles on international, constitutional, administrative and human rights law, and has received numerous awards in the field of human rights.
Closing speech by Manfred Nowak

 

Moderators

Saira Khan
Saira Khan is an author, TV presenter and an experienced host of numerous high level conferences. She often discusses topics related to British Muslim integration, diversity, forced marriages, rights of the child and has hosted the documentary “Spotlight: Forced to Marry”. In her book "P.U.S.H FOR SUCCESS” she shares her secret to self-development and uses her personal challenges from her upbringing as a British Asian Muslim to illustrate how to overcome societal prejudice and achieve your life goals and ambitions. Ms Khan is the ambassador for two charities ‘Family and Parenting’ and ‘Pact Charity’.
Friso Roscam Abbing
Friso Roscam Abbing has served as Head of Communication Department at the FRA since 2009. For the last three years Mr Roscam Abbing has been the moderator of the agency’s annual Fundamental Rights Conference. Prior to this, Mr Roscam Abbing was a Member of Cabinet of the European Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot, the Commissioner for Freedom, Security and Justice. From 2004–2008, he was the spokesman of European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini, the Commissioner responsible for Freedom, Security and Justice issues. Between 2000 and 2004, he headed the EU Asylum Polices sector at the European Commission's DG Justice, Freedom and Security. Before this, he led the EU Office of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE, 1994-2000) after starting his career as Head of the Legal Department at the Dutch Refugee Council (1986-1994).