Helen Clark

Former Prime Minister of New Zealand New Zealand

Helen Clark is a respected global leader in sustainable development, gender equality and international co-operation. She served three successive terms as Prime Minister of New Zealand between 1999 and 2008. While in government, she led policy debate on a wide range of economic, social, environmental and cultural issues, including sustainability and climate change.

She then became the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator for two terms from 2009 to 2017, the first woman to lead the organisation. She was also the Chair of the United Nations Development Group, a committee consisting of the Heads of all UN funds, programmes and departments working on development issues.

In 2019 Helen Clark became patron of The Helen Clark Foundation. She is an active member of various international organisations.

Sophia Tesfamariam Yohannes

Ambassador Permanent Mission of Eritrea to the UN Eritrea

Sophia Tesfamariam Yohannes, the new Permanent Representative of Eritrea to the United Nations, presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres today.

Before her latest appointment, Ms. Tesfamariam was Executive Director of the United States Foundation for the Horn of Africa in Washington, D.C., beginning in 2005.  Between 1998 and 2005 she worked in the administration division of the Boeing Company in Leesburg, Virginia, United States.  She was a credentialing specialist for PHP Healthcare in Reston, Virginia, from 1989 until 1998.

Ms. Tesfamariam was co-editor of Diaspora, a monthly digital and print magazine providing news and analysis tailored to the global African diaspora communities with a focus on women and youth in development.  She has considerable global experience in social development, having conducted more than 100 seminars and workshops for women and young people in the United States, Europe and Africa.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in management from Western International University in Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States.

Born in Asmara, Eritrea, on 25 May 1960, Ms. Tesfamariam is married and has three children.

Prof. Diana de la Rua Eugenio

President Respuesta para la Paz “Answer for Peace” Argentina

Diana de la Rúa Eugenio, Mediator, is the President of ‘Respuesta para la Paz’ – Answer for Peace – an Argentinean non-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) and the former Secretary General of the Consejo Latino Americano de Investigación para la Paz – CLAIP (Latin American Peace Research Association).
She is full profesor of Negotiation at a Posgrade at the Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero, City of Buenos Aires (UNTreF) and provides training courses throughout Argentina on;negotiation, mediation, specialising in complex community mediation, consensus building and facilitation. Diana is also a part-time, multi-party community mediator at the Buenos Aires Ombudsman´s Office.
She has been a Board Member of the International Peace Research Association Foundation (IPRAF) since 2006 and is a former Delegate Representative for Latin America at IPRA’s International Board Meeting.
Diana co-founded the Commissions “First Nation” and “Peace and Citizenship” for the Civil Society Advisory Council within the National Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Argentina.
She has studied negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution at the University of Buenos Aires, Harvard Law School, FLASCO, Transcend (Galtung) and various other Argentinean institutions and has been invited to present workshops on these topics at global events and conferences all over the world.

Dr. Henelito A. Sevilla, Jr.

Dean and Professor Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman Philippines

Dr. Henelito A. Sevilla, Jr. is currently the Dean of the University of the Philippines Asian Center and Professor of Asian and Philippine Studies of the same institution where he also serves as its West Asia Studies Coordinator since 2008. He earned his PhD in International Relations at the Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Iran where he specialized foreign policy, political economy, resource competition, Filipino migration and Muslim concerns in the global south.  He has researched and published numerous articles in International Relations, Philippine Foreign Policy, and the Middle East both in local and international peer reviewed journals. He has also represented the Philippines in various academic fora and conferences abroad and has consulted regularly by media and think tanks.

He served as the founding president of the Philippine-Middle East Studies Association (PMESA) as well as one of the board of advisors for the Philippines International Studies Organization (PHISO) among others.

Ovais Sultan Khan

Independent Human Rights Activist India

Ovais Sultan Khan is an independent human rights activist. He is also a consultant in policy and research. He has worked independently and with leading policy-makers and planners, politicians, intellectuals, academics and activists in a number of national and international institutions, think-tanks, government-bodies and civil society on politics, knowledge, wisdom, alternatives, democratic governance, religious minorities, gender, religion, tradition and culture for more than a decade.

In 2017, Ovais was appointed as an advisor of the Delhi Minorities Commission, quasi-judicial body under the Government of Delhi. As an advisor, he have had the honour of Chairing its panel documenting the Legal Status of Religious Spaces in and around West Delhi, in 2019; and heading another of its panel to probe an alleged terror-funding case, in 2018.

Previously, Ovais was on the board of ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy), a socio-cultural organisation from 2016-2018, and headed the organisation for a year and half as Managing Trustee.

Ovais also had privilege of working with the South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy (SADED), at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) as its Programme Secretary.

Currently, Ovais is the trustee with the Future Council, which is a Delhi-based think tank, advocating human rights, justice, democracy, non-violence and well-being. He is also advisor on human rights and Islamophobia at Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, which is the oldest and largest organisation of Indian Muslims.