Resource Persons in previous courses

Carlos Castresana Fernández is since 1989 member of the Career of Public Prosecutors in Spain, serving in the Supreme Court in Madrid. Previously he worked as a Lawyer, Investigating Judge, Court Magistrate and Special Prosecutor Against Organized Crime and Corruption. He filed in 1996 the lawsuits against the Argentinean and Chilean military Juntas initiating the Pinochet Case. Associated and Guest Professor of Criminal Law in the Universities Carlos III (Madrid) and San Francisco (California). Among other awards, he has received the National Human Rights Prize in Spain, the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Universities of Guadalajara (México) and Central (Chile), the Great Cross of the Quetzal from Guatemala, the Star of the Solidarity from Italy and the Legion of Honor from France. Between 2007 and 2010 he was the Commissioner Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) with the category of Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations.

Pablo de Greiff is the director of research at the International center for Transitional Justice in New York. Born in Colombia, he graduated from Yale University (B.A.) and from Northwestern University (Ph.D.). Before joining the ICTJ he was Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he taught ethics and political theory. He has published numerous articles and books on transitions to democracy, democratic theory, and the relationship between morality, politics, and law. He is also the editor of The Handbook of Reparations (Oxford University Press, 2006). During 2000-2001, he was Laurance S. Rockefeller Fellow at Center for Human Values, Princeton University, and held a concurrent fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has provided technical advice to UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the ICC, Truth Commissions and other bodies in Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Morocco among other countries, and is presently advising the World Bank in the production of the 2011 World Development Report. 

Mari Fitzduff is currently the Director and Professor of the  international Master’s Program in Coexistence and Conflict at Brandeis College, near Boston. Previously she was Professor of Conflict Studies, and Director of the United Nations International Conflict Research center based in Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland. From 1990 - 1997 Fitzduff was the Founding Director of the Community Relations Council, the main governmental funding and development agency for conflict resolution work in Northern Ireland. She  has also worked on programs on conflict resolution, human rights, and diversity/coexistence work in the Basque Country, the Caucasus, Sri Lanka, Middle East, Indonesia, Russia, Crimea, Cameroon, Philippines, Peru and Columbia, and is utilized as an international expert by many international organizations on international conflict such as the British Council, the Commonwealth, UNDP, UNDPA, UNDESA, World Bank, etc. She is an academic advisory expert for the Club of Madrid, and the Alliance of Civilizations, and is on the International Council on Conflict Resolution for the Carter Center. She has written extensively in the field. Her last book was a 3 vol. series on  ‘The Psychology of Solving Global Conflicts: From War to Peace’ (2006) which she co-authored with Chris Stout.

Richard J. Goldstone was a judge in South Africa for 23 years, the last nine as a Justice of the Constitutional Court. Since retiring from the bench he has taught as a visiting professor in a number of United States Law Schools. From 1994 to September he was the chief prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He was a member of the committee, chaired by Paul Volcker, appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to investigate allegations regarding the Iraq Oil for Food Program. From 1993 to 2003 he served as a member of the International Group of Advisors of the International Committee of the Red Cross. He recently led the UN Fact Finding Mission on Gaza. In May 2009, he received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Award for International Justice.

Brandon Hamber is Director of the International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), an associate site of the United Nations University based at the University of Ulster. He was born in South Africa and currently lives in Belfast. In South Africa he trained as a clinical psychologist and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Ulster. He was a Research Associate of the Belfast-based think-tank, Democratic Dialogue (2001-2006) and an Honorary Fellow at the School of Psychology at the Queen's University in Belfast (2001/2002). He co-ordinated the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in Johannesburg. He is the Chair of Healing Through Remembering and a Board member of the South African-based Khulumani Victim Support Group. He has consulted to a range of community groups, policy initiatives and government bodies, has lectured and taught widely at different Universities and has published different books.

Helen Mack (Guatemala) is the founder and president of the Myrna Mack Foundation, an organization dedicated to fight against impunity and to promote the rule of law in her country. She initiated the first judicial process against high ranking military officials of the Guatemalan Army, charging three officials with organizing the assassination of her sister, Myrna Mack, and finally achieving the conviction of the primary author of the crime. Helen Mack received the Right Livelihood Award in 1992, the Notre Dame Award by Public Service in Latin America in 2005, the Human Rights Award from the King of Spain in 2006, and several other significant recognitions. She has been Coordinator of the Justice’s Commission in Guatemala and has participated as an expert witness in cases of human rights violations before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the OAS, among other charges. Currently, she is coordinator of the Commission for the Police Reform.

Ms Yasmin Louise Sooka practised as a human rights lawyer until 1995 and has been Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa since January 2001. Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms Sooka was a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, serving first for three years as Deputy Chair to the Human Rights Violations Committee and then as the chair of the committee. During 2002 and 2004 she was appointed by the UN as an international commissioner for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Sierra Leone. She has consulted and assisted the governments of Ghana, Nepal, Afghanistan, Burundi, and Liberia in setting up truth commissions. She also serve’s on The Board of Trustee’s for Black Sash Trust, International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience,  Executive member for Niwano Peace Foundation as well as Advisory member for Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies and Institute for International Law.