Resource Persons 2012

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.

Dr. Pilar Riaño-Alcalá  (PhD in Anthropology) is an associate professor at the School of Social Work and faculty fellow in residence at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia, Canada. She is also a researcher with the Colombian Commission of Historical Memory working for the last four years in documenting emblematic cases of war related violence (gender violence, forced displacement, massacres, land grabbing). Pilar has led the development of a methodological strategy and resource material for the documentation of historical memory in zones of armed conflict and from a victim-centred perspective. She has trained memory workers, researchers and academics on these methodologies in Colombia, Uganda and Canada. Pilar’s scholarly work is primarily concerned with three broad themes: the lived experience of violence and displacement, the politics of memory and witnessing, and the ethnography of social repair.

Dr. Serge Rumin, a French national, is specialized in change management in complex environment. He has worked extensively in post-conflict contexts focusing on institutional reform within the security and judiciary sectors for the last 18 years. He undertook consultancies and research with various bilateral and multilateral agencies and NGOs in various post-conflict areas including the Balkans, Middle East, North, East and Central Africa, Afghanistan, East-Timor and Haiti. Mr. Rumin, who earns a PhD in sociology and a Master in International Law, teaches at the University of Law and Political Science in Aix-en-Provence and the Management School of Marseille on change management and post-conflict reconstruction.

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.