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 AGM PLENARY SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES Larry Cox Larry Cox serves as Senior Program Officer for the Ford Foundation's Human Rights and International Cooperation Unit. Prior to his role with the Ford Foundation, Mr. Cox was Executive Director of the Rainforest Foundation, an international organization working with indigenous peoples in the Brazilian Amazon to protect their land and rights. On staff with Amnesty International for fourteen years, Larry held a number of positions including Communications Director, Director of the Program to Abolish the Death Penalty, and Deputy Director of AIUSA. He also served as Deputy Secretary General of AI's International Secretariat in London for five years. Mr. Cox is currently pursuing an M.A. in Religion and Human Rights at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Jean Freedberg Jean Freedberg is Vice Chair of AIUSA Board of Directors and has been active with AI for twenty years. Most recently she served on staff as AIUSA Communications Director and as member of the OUTfront Steering Committee, Amnesty's Program on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Human Rights. She is Public Affairs Director for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Washington D.C., an independent non-profit organization that promotes democracy worldwide. She spent over a year in Guyana directing NDI's parliamentary and constitutional reform program. Other highlights of Jean's human rights career were working with folk legend Joan Baez as co-director of Humanitas, Ms. Baez's human rights group, as well as being her road manager. She was involved with the Human Rights Now! rock concerts for Amnesty International in the 80's and attended the 1995 Beijing Women's Conference. Born and raised in South Africa, Jean received her undergraduate degree from the University of Cape Town, and her Ph.D. in political science, with a focus in African politics, from the University of California, Berkeley. Linda Hartke Linda Hartke is presently Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International USA and also chairs its Strategic Planning Committee, while serving on the Executive Committee, Budget Committee, and Grievance Committee. In addition, Linda is a member of the Steering Committee of the Chairs' Forum for Amnesty's global movement, and in August 2001 led the AIUSA delegation to the International Council Meeting in Dakar, Senegal. Linda serves as the Coordinator of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance in Geneva, Switzerland. The Alliance is the common effort of international churches and organizations working on issues related to HIV/AIDS, global trade, and peace and conflict resolution. She previously served as Deputy Director for Programs and Operations of Church World Service (CWS) based in New York City, an ecumenical relief and development agency operating in more than eighty countries. As Country Director of their Cambodia Program based in Phnom Penh, Linda oversaw improvement projects for five provinces working for agriculture and animal health, community development, emergency response, and other quality of life concerns. Previously, Ms. Hartke served as chief of staff to U.S. Congressman Chet Atkins from 1985-1992. She received her B.A. from Smith College in 1980 with a double major in government, and religion and biblical literature. Irene Zubaida Khan Irene Khan was appointed Secretary General of Amnesty International in December 2000 and took office shortly before the 2001 International Council meeting held in Dakar, Senegal. Prior to her post at AI, Irene worked with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) since 1980. Her work at UNHCR focused on human rights protection of refugees and displaced persons, including issues relating to humanitarian and refugee law. Ms. Khan was the Deputy Director of Protection with UNHCR based in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1999, she was the Emergency Coordinator for the Republic of Macedonia where she supervised the implementation of the Humanitarian Evacuation Programme. Previously, Ms. Khan was Head of the Centre for Documentation and Research in Geneva and Chief of Mission in India where she oversaw the protection of 200,000 refugees, while promoting refugee law with legal, human rights, and academic institutions. Irene was appointed Senior Executive Officer in the Office of the High Commissioner. Ms. Khan's academic specialization is in international law and human rights. A national of Bangladesh, she studied law at the University of Manchester and Harvard Law School. After completing her studies, Irene worked for the International Commission of Jurists in Geneva. She was a founding board member of Concern Universal. Anuradha Mittal A native of India, Anuradha Mittal is Co-Director of Food First. Previously, Ms. Mittal was director for the Institute for Food and Development Policy, while coordinating Economic Human Rights: The Time Has Come!, a national campaign in the United States which organized several congressional hearings on growing hunger and poverty and the loss of family farms in the U.S. Anuradha is co-editor of the book America Needs Human Rights. Her articles and editorials on trade, women in development, and food security have appeared in national and international newspapers and journals including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Bangkok Post, The Times of India, Economic and Political Weekly, Seattle Times, and The Nation. Ms. Mittal is a jury member of the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) and is a board member of the Turning Point Project. Trained as a political scientist in India and England, she was a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and has taught at the New College of San Francisco and Dominican College of San Rafael. Prior to working in the U.S., Ms. Mittal held a position with the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA), a major development group in India. Rodolfo Montiel Flores Mexican anti-logging activists Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro Cabrera Garcia were arrested in 1999 by the Mexican army for alleged ties to guerrilla forces, illegal possession of weapons, and drug trafficking. Both men are members of the Organization of Campesino Ecologists of the Sierra de Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalan (OCESP), a local environmental organization that opposes logging in the Sierra de Petatlán. Montiel was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for his work with OCESP just a few weeks before his arrest. According to complaints made to the National Commission of Human Rights, the troops began shooting without provocation, killing a local resident. Montiel and Cabrera were taken into custody, then beaten and tortured into confessing involvement with a guerrilla group. The two men were forced to pose for a photo holding rifles used by the soldiers. They were subsequently described as members of an "ecological guerilla organization." Both men were imprisoned in the town of Iguala, where their health and safety were at risk. In April 2000, Amnesty International declared them "prisoners of conscience" demanding their immediate and unconditional release. Montiel was apparently tortured with electric shocks to his genitals and required urgent medical treatment, which Amnesty International believed the prison medical facilities were not providing. On November 8, 2001, after the prisoners spent over two years in confinement, Mexican President Vicente Fox announced their release. In his statement, he recognized the role of non-governmental organizations and international human rights treaties in influencing his decision to free the two activists on "humanitarian grounds." However the president did not officially recognize their innocence. Their torture by members of the Mexican Army has not been thoroughly investigated, nor have those responsible been brought to justice. Rodolfo and Teodoro still fear for their safety, while members of their organization have also been threatened. Jeannine Mukanirwa Jeannine Mukanirwa, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is the 2002 recipient of AIUSA's Ginetta Sagan Fund Award. Ms. Mukanirwa works for Promotion et Appui aux Initiatives Feminines (PAIF), a women's human rights organization based in Goma, DRC. With one colleague and no outside funding, she has organized women to inform them of their rights, especially their social and economic rights, and has provided concrete assistance through self-funded community-based projects. PAIF is one of the few voices in eastern Congo willing to speak out against rape and other sensitive issues by directly confronting military and civilian authorities. On account of her human rights work and involvement with the National Campaign for a Durable Peace, she was arrested several times iin 2000 and 2001. Intensified threats to her life led her to flee the DRC and to seek refuge in Canada. From Montreal, Ms. Mukanirwa continues to advocate for peace and women's rights in the DRC, especially in support of PAIF, whose offices were totally destroyed by a recent volcanic eruption. Since 2000, she is also active as the DRC representative for Women Partners for Peace in Africa. Raymond C. Offenheiser After working overseas for nearly 15 years, Raymond C. Offenheiser returned to the U.S. in November 1995 to become president of Oxfam America. Oxfam America, a Boston-based international not-for-profit agency, supports the strengthening of non-profit organizations dedicated to addressing problems of poverty and injustice around the world. In the United States, Oxfam is known for its leadership in promoting community-based self-help development, its strong human rights and advocacy voice, and its national public education program on issues of hunger and injustice. As a professional with extensive knowledge of both Latin America and Asia, Offenheiser brings expertise in rural and agricultural development, as well as hands-on experience with notable grassroots social movements and non-governmental organizations. From indigenous peoples' and rubbertappers' organizations in the Amazon Basin to the now-famous Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Raymond has worked on projects of community-based resource management, credit and enterprise development, human rights and local governance, population and reproductive health, and international security and cooperation. Prior to joining Oxfam America, he served as the Ford Foundation representative in Bangladesh and in South America. He also directed programs for the Inter-American Foundation in both Brazil and Colombia and worked in Mexico as program officer for the Save the Children Federation. In 1996, he joined the executive committee of InterAction, a 150-member alliance of major U.S. organizations working with international development and humanitarian assistance. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; an advisor to the Council on Economic Development, a board member of Grainpro, Inc., a for-profit venture capital start-up company; and serves as an advisor to several organizations including Harvard University's Asia Center, the Asia Society in New York, the Hesburgh Center for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and World Learning's Global Partnership. He is a media commentator on foreign aid, international debt, human rights, hunger, and U.S. foreign policy, as well as the field of humanitarian assistance and transnational NGO movements Born in New York, Mr. Offenheiser received a masters degree in Development Sociology from Cornell University and earned his bachelors degree from the University of Notre Dame. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife Suzanne Hill and their two children. Mary Robinson In 1990 Mary Robinson was inaugurated as the 7th president of Ireland. During this time she participated as Special Rapporteur to the Interregional Meeting organized in 1993 by the Council of Europe on the theme," Human Rights at the Dawn of the 21st Century", as part of the preparation for the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. President Robinson was the first head of state to visit Rwanda after the genocide, with two subsequent visits recently addressing, " Peace, Gender and Development." In addition, Ms. Robinson was the first head of state to visit the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In September 1997 she resigned to take up the appointment as the United States High Commissioner of Human Rights at the United Nations. As the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson continued to promote universal human rights, striving to create a world that honors and celebrates these principles. She did not seek a second term at the UN, but will continue to address these issues in her extraordinary way. Dr. William F. Schulz Dr. William F. Schulz has been Executive Director of Amnesty International USA since 1994. He travels worldwide carrying the human rights message and agenda to political leaders and youth groups, corporate executives, and grassroots communities. An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, Bill Schultz came to Amnesty after serving as president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA). As president, Dr. Schulz was involved in a variety of international and social justice causes. He led the first visit with a member of Congress to post-revolutionary Romania in 1991. That delegation was instrumental toward improving the rights of religious and ethnic minorities in Romania. In addition, Bill led fact-finding missions to the Middle East and Northern Ireland and was instrumental in his denomination's opposition to U.S. military aid to El Salvador. Throughout his career Bill Schultz has opposed the death penalty, while working for women's rights, gay and lesbian rights, and racial justice. He frequently speaks to and challenges audiences in local, national, and international forums. An expert on national and international civil and political rights, and human rights records worldwide, Bill's latest book, In Our Own Best Interests: How Defending Human Rights Benefits Us All was published in April 2001. Dr. Schulz received three advanced degrees from the Meadville/Lombard Theological School at the University of Chicago: D.Min. (ministry), D.D. (honorary), and M.A. (theology). He also received an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in sociology from Oberlin College. |
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