ANNA AAGENES - Amnesty International USA

BRIAN EVANSBrian Evans is the Acting Director of Amnesty International USA’s Death Penalty AbolitionCampaign. Prior to moving to Washington, DC, in 2006, he was a founding member of the TexasMoratorium Network and a member of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty,organizations working to stop executions in the state of Texas. He has a Master’s degree in MiddleEast Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and also served for 8 years as Bahrain, Omanand Saudi Arabia Country Specialist for Amnesty International USA.BECKY FARRARBecky Farrar is an AIUSA Legislative Coordinator who is committed to advancing human rightsgenerally and to Amnesty’s role in doing so. She does not have a single issue focus but works onboth traditional Amnesty work (prisoners of conscience, individuals at risk) and full spectrumrights (demand dignity). She enjoys being involved in both strategic thinking (brainstorming,giving input) and logistical planning (events, rallies, embassy visits).Becky has been extensively involved in building a stronger AI presence in DC. She works closelywith the local group and fellow volunteer leaders and volunteers to brainstorm, plan and produceevents, as well as networking with coalition partners (American Association for the Advancementof Science, Reporters without Borders, Cartoonists Rights’ Network International). Becky likesAmnesty’s shared leadership model and enjoys working with Amnesty staff and fellow memberson projects.Becky is a lawyer. Prior to law school, she worked in human resources and ran small businesses,including as publisher and editor of a magazine. For the past two years, Becky has been Co-Chairof the American Bar Association’s International Human Rights Committee for the Section ofInternational Law.

BENNETT FREEMANBennett Freeman is the Senior Vice President of Sustainability Research and Policy. He leadsCalvert's Sustainability Research Department and oversees its company research and analysis aswell as its policy and advocacy work. From 2003 until early 2006, he led Burson-Marsteller'sGlobal Corporate Responsibility practice advising multinationals on policy development,stakeholder engagement and communications strategies related to human rights, labor rights andsustainable development. During the Clinton Administration he served in three positions as apresidential appointee in the State Department, most recently as Deputy Assistant Secretary forDemocracy, Human Rights and Labor from 1999 to early 2001. In that capacity, he led thedevelopment of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, the first human rightsstandard forged by governments, companies and NGOs for the extractive sectors. Earlier in hiscareer he was Manager-Corporate Affairs for General Electric and a presidential campaign aide toformer Vice President Walter Mondale. Mr. Freeman serves on the Boards of Oxfam America, theInstitute for Business and Human Rights, the Revenue Watch Institute, the Global NetworkInitiative (GNI), the Genocide Intervention Network and EG Justice. From 2006-09 he served onthe Board of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) representing Oxfam. He is amember of the Council on Foreign Relations as well as a frequent speaker and mediacommentator on sustainable investment, corporate responsibility, human rights and U.S. foreignpolicy. Mr. Freeman received an MA in Modern History from the University of Oxford, where hestudied as an English Speaking Union Churchill Scholar at Balliol College, and an AB in Historyfrom the University of California at Berkeley.COLIN GODDARDColin Goddard’s whole life changed after surviving the Virginia Tech massacre on April 16, 2007.Born in Nairobi, Kenya, to English and American parents working in international development,Goddard grew up in Somalia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the United States. He completed highschool in Cairo, Egypt, and returned to the US to graduate with a BA in International Studies fromVirginia Tech in 2008.thWhile in his 4 year at Virginia Tech, Goddard was shot four times and was one of seven people,out of a classroom of seventeen, to survive the shooting. He still has three of the four bullets inhis body as well as a titanium rod implanted in his left femur.Now an activist at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Goddard uses his experience toeducate others about the realities of gun violence and the problems in U.S. gun laws. The story ofhow he became involved in gun violence prevention is documented in the short film, Living for 32.Goddard appears in numerous media interviews, engagement events, and spends time lobbyingin Congress and state legislatures. He also uses the film to share his story in an effort to educate,advocate, and mobilize Americans to get involved in preventing gun violence. Goddard now livesand works in Washington, D.C.

CURT GOERINGCurt Goering is the Executive Director of The Center for Victims of Torture. He oversees aninternational staff with offices in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Washington D.C. and healing projectsin Africa and the Middle East. CVT provides comprehensive care for victims of governmentsponsored torture, conducts research and training, and undertakes policy efforts to commit theU.S. and other institutions to work against torture and aid torture survivors.Mr. Goering began at CVT in May 2012. Prior to that, he was the Chief Operating Officer atAmnesty International USA, where he had worked for nearly 30 years. As COO, he managed thelargest branch of the organization, and his tenure saw significant expansion in revenues, advocacyprograms and membership. In addition to directing the day to day operations, he was involved instrategy development, public policy and planning, financial oversight and external relations. Hechaired a global policy team based on five continents, leading to new research and advocacypolicies. His experience gave him deep knowledge of international human rights andhumanitarian issues.Over his professional career, Goering led a dozen Amnesty International missions includingAfghanistan, Bosnia, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Mongolia, Taiwan, Turkey, and Tanzania.In addition to his positions with Amnesty as a researcher, advocacy director for Europe and theMiddle East, Senior Deputy Executive Director and COO, he served as an interim Head of the Gazaoffice for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2009 and 2010.CLEMENTINA MURCIA GONZÁLEZClementina Murcia González is a 68 year old mother searching for two of her sons. Jorge OrlandoFúnez Murci was 17 years old when he left Honduras in 1987. Fifteen years later, her younger sonAlmagro Orlando Fúnez Murcia, left home for the U.S when he was 23 years old. After five yearswithout any news from him, the young man called her from the southern region in Mexico askingher to send him some money. A few days later she received a call from a stranger that said thathis son was at the Mexico-U.S. border but couldn’t continue in his journey to the U.S. because hedidn’t have any money. She was not able to speak with her son but told the stranger to tell herson to come back home. She never heard from him again. Clementina has participated in a tour ofMexico with mothers of disappeared migrants from other countries in Central America that aresearching for their loved ones. “It is horrible to live without a son at home, because to go into hisbedroom where he use to sleep and see it empty is horrible”

MAYOR VINCENT C. GRAYVincent C. Gray was sworn in on January 2, 2011 as the sixth elected Mayor of the District ofColumbia. He was overwhelmingly elected on November 2, 2010, garnering nearly 75 percent ofthe vote. During his campaign, he pledged to help unite the District by focusing on job creationand economic development, a collaborative approach to school reform, safer streets in allneighborhoods and restoring fiscal responsibility to city government.The Gray Administration is moving forward in accomplishing the Mayor’s four top priorities:ensuring a quality public education for all District children, creating jobs and providing economicdevelopment opportunities for District residents, making sure residents are and feel safe nomatter what neighborhood in which they live, and ensuring that the city is fiscally sound. MayorGray also is focused on achieving autonomy and full democracy for District of Columbia taxpayers,and improving health outcomes.His dedication to children and their families has been the hallmark of his service in both citygovernment and the non-profit sector. His lifetime of public service to the District can be bestsummed up by a singular governing philosophy—that the District of Columbia works best as "OneCity."SARAH HAGERSarah Hager is the Chair of the AIUSA Southern Africa Co-Group. Sarah Hager is a volunteer leaderat Amnesty International USA, serving as Chair of the Southern Africa Co-Group where she guidesthe efforts of Country Specialists monitoring human rights in twelve countries. She has alsoserved as a Board member with Calling All Crows, an organization dedicated to empoweringwomen, where she directed the development of their advocacy campaign. Additionally, Sarahwas a consultant with IDP Action, leading the US-based lobbying effort for ratification of theAfrican Union's newly signed Internally Displaced Person's Convention, and volunteered as astatement taker with the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Diaspora project.Sarah provided crisis intervention and trauma therapy counseling services to rape survivors forseven years before returning to graduate school. Sarah also worked in South Africa at the LegalAid Board where she assisted with criminal defense and appellate cases as well as civil litigationchallenging violations of constitutional rights. Ms. Hager has a Master's degree in Clinical ForensicPsychology from Drexel University and a law degree from Northwestern University. She currentlypractices law at BuckleySandler LLP in Washington DC.

DELPHINE HALGANDDelphine Halgand has been working as the Director of the Washington DC office for ReportersWithout Borders since December 2011. She runs the US activities for the organization andadvocates for journalists, bloggers and media rights worldwide. Acting as RWB’s spokesperson inthe US, Delphine regularly appears on American (PBS, Wall Street Journal, ), foreign media (AlJazeera, NTN24, ) and lectures at conferences in US universities (Harvard University, UCLA, ) onpress freedom violation issues. Previously, she served as Press attaché in charge of outreach atthe French Embassy to the US. Since graduating from Sciences Po Paris with an M.A. inJournalism, Delphine has worked as an economics correspondent for various French media (LeMonde, Les Echos, L’Express,.), focusing mainly on international politics and macroeconomicissues.SHAHRAM HASHEMIShahram Hashemi is currently the Executive Director of the Student World Assembly and AIUSABoard Member since June 2007. He earned his Masters in Human Rights and EconomicDevelopment from Columbia University and BA in Finance from Adelphi University’s HonorCollege. Mr. Hashemi has been involved in human rights activism for over a decade, working withvarious human rights organizations. In addition to his human rights work, he also has extensiveauditing, financial, and budgeting experience through his work with Bank of New York and variousinstitutions within the City University of New York. Mr. Hashemi currently serves as ExecutiveDirector of the Student World Assembly, an international grassroots network of student activists.Student World Assembly is currently the largest student organization dedicated to democraticvalues, human rights, and youth leadership.Mr. Hashemi is the recipient of the former Mayor of New York City, F.H. LaGuardia MemorialAssociation Award for his service in the 9/11 rescue efforts. He currently resides in the Woodsideneighborhood of New York City.

MATTHEW HAWTHORNEMatthew Hawthorne is the Director of Policy for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture(NRCAT). Matt graduated from Brandeis University with degrees in politics and chemistry. Postgraduation, he worked on constituent casework for Senator Conrad. He then moved toWashington, D.C., where he began working on civil liberties issues for Senator Dorgan. After hisstint in Senator Dorgan’s office, he took some time to travel in southeast Asia, and then he joinedNRCAT as the Director for Policy Coordination. NRCAT is a membership organization of religiousorganizations committed to ending torture that is sponsored or enabled by the United States.Since its formation on January 16, 2006, more than 300 religious organizations have joined andover 65,000 individual people of faith have participated in its activities. Members includerepresentatives from the Baha’i, Buddhist, Catholic, evangelical Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim,Orthodox Christian, mainline Protestant, Quaker, Sikh and Unitarian Universalist communities.Members include national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations andcongregations.MARGARET HUANGMargaret Huang, an experienced advocate for racial justice and human rights in the UnitedStates, is the Executive Director of the Rights Working Group (RWG). The RWG coalition wasformed in the aftermath of 9/11 to restore civil liberties and human rights protections that havebeen eroded by national security policies. As a national coalition of more than 320 civil liberties,immigrant rights and human rights organizations, RWG seeks to ensure that the rights ofeveryone in the United States are respected regardless of citizenship or immigration status, race,national origin, religion or ethnicity. In 2009, RWG launched a campaign, Racial Profiling: Facethe Truth, working with member organizations and allies around the country to enact legislationand win policy reforms that would ban racial and religious profiling by law enforcement agencies.Ms. Huang sits on the Steering Committee of the Human Rights at Home Campaign, which seeksto promote a domestic human rights agenda in the U.S. She serves on the Board of Directors forthe US Human Rights Network, a coalition of more than two hundred and fifty organizationalmembers dedicated to promoting U.S. government accountability to human rights standards.Ms. Huang's previous work experience includes serving as Director of the U.S. Program at GlobalRights, as Program Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights, as ProgramManager at The Asia Foundation, and as Committee Staff for the U.S. Senate Foreign RelationsCommittee. Ms. Huang received a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University, and aB.S.F.S. from Georgetown University.

FARIDA GHULAM ISMAILFarida Ghulam Ismail is a member of the Bahrain Women's Union and a leader of the DemocraticAction Society (Waad), a center-left group with some following among Sunnis in Bahrain. Herhusband Ebrahim Sharif, general secretary of Waad, was jailed by the monarchy and is an AmnestyInternational prisoner of conscience.FRANK JANNUZIFrank Jannuzi serves as Deputy Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, and head of theWashington, D.C. office. Mr. Jannuzi is an international affairs policy and political expert who mostrecently served Chairman John Kerry as Policy Director for East Asian and Pacific Affairs for theDemocratic staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His Senate service included work onhuman rights legislation (JADE Act on Burma, North Korea Human Rights Act, Tibet Policy Act) aswell as field investigations into human rights and security conditions in numerous East Asianhotspots, including China (especially Tibet), Burma, Cambodia, Southern Thailand, Vietnam,Mindanao, and North Korea.Prior to joining the staff of the SFRC, Mr. Jannuzi worked as the East Asia regional political-militaryanalyst for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), U.S. Department of State. His portfolio atINR included China’s defense modernization, the Korean Peninsula, insurgencies and civil wars inSoutheast Asia, and territorial disputes in the South China Sea and Kuril Islands. In 1990, he workedas a refugee officer on the Thai-Cambodia border, and returned as an electoral officer forCambodia’s UN-run elections in May, 1993. Mr. Jannuzi was the founding editor-in-chief ofPeacekeeping Perspectives, the State Department’s classified journal on multilateral peacekeepingand humanitarian operations. Mr. Jannuzi holds a BA in history from Yale University and a MPPwith a concentration in international affairs and security from the John F. Kennedy School ofGovernment, Harvard University. In 2006, He conducted an International Affairs Fellowship inJapan, sponsored by Hitachi, Ltd., at the Institute for International Policy Studies and KeioUniversity. He lives in Baltimore with his wife, Dr. Jennifer Martin, and their daughters Zoe andCamille.ZEKE JOHNSONZeke Johnson is the Director of Amnesty International USA's Security with Human RightsCampaign. The campaign's goals are to close Guantanamo by ending indefinite detention andmilitary commissions; ensure that no person is wrongfully killed with drones or other weapons;and ensure that torture is never again used by or on behalf of the U.S. government. Join theSecurity with Human Rights Campaign at www.amnestyusa.org/security and follow Zeke on Twitter@ZekeJohnsonAi.

ESTHER KIOBELEsther Kiobel is a U.S. resident and the wife of deceased Dr. Barinem Kiobel. She filed a lawsuitalong with other Ogoni asylees against Shell corporation in 2002. Her lawsuit was filed under theAlien Tort Statute (ATS), a 200-year-old law that has been interpreted by the Supreme Court toallow federal lawsuits for modern-day egregious international law violations. The Ogoni plaintiffsallege that Shell planned, conspired, and facilitated the Nigerian government's extrajudicialexecutions, crimes against humanity, and torture against the Ogoni people. Shell argues thatcorporations cannot be sued under the ATS.HTAY KYWEHtay Kywe is a pioneer of the 1988 nationwide pro-democracy uprising and active organizer duringthe 1988 protests and a spokesperson for his fellow students. He co-founded student groups andlater served as a catalyst for the country wide demonstrations against the military junta. He ledthe Rangoon Arts & Science University student demonstrations and the “Red Bridge” protests – alsoknown as “March Affairs”. As joint-secretary of the Progressive Students Organization (Ta-Ta-Pha inBurmese), he helped convene the Rangoon Arts & Science University boycott of the government-ledBurmese Socialist Programme Party (BSPP). On March 22, 1988, he was arrested in Henzada cityand released on July 7, 1988. He then co-founded the All Burma Students Democratic MovementOrganization ABSDMO (Ma-Ka-Da in Burmese) and served as deputy chair. The organization wasformed to facilitate country-wide boycotts and to organize the formation of the “Four Eights” of the(8-8-88) general strike committee. As one of the leading members of the ABSDMO’s 119-memberorganizing committee, he acted as the key figure in opposing military rule. On July 15, 1991, HtayKywe was arrested by the military government, from his home in Rangoon. Then, on December 30,1991, he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Although on this date Htay Kywe’s prison termexpired, the military regime continued to hold him under 10(a) of the State Protection Act 1975, atthe Tharawaddy prison. While he was in the

She has been published in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, The New Statesman, The Daily Star, Le monde diplomatique, and has appeared on CNN, NPR, and Al Jazeera. Since November 2004, she has authored an award -winning blog now known as Gaza Mom. A running t