Patrick Costello is a political adviser to the parliamentary group of the Party of European Socialists in the European Parliament. For three years, he co-ordinated the Guatemala work of the Central America Human Rights Committee in London. He has written a number of articles and papers on Guatemala for, amongst others, UNHCR and the Institute for Latin America Studies in London.
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Samuel Kofi Woods, II is national director of the Justice and Peace Commission established in Monrovia in November 1991 by the Catholic Church of Liberia. He received the 1994 Reebok human rights award. He was evacuated from Liberia in April 1996 with assistance from numerous international organisations. He has since been prominent in initiating campaigns for the restoration of peace in Liberia.
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Max Ahmadu Sesay holds a PhD in international relations from the University of Southampton, UK (1993). He taught at the universities of Sierra Leone and Southampton in 1989/90 and 1992/93 respectively. He is a research fellow and lecturer at Staffordshire University. His research interests include war, development and regional security in Africa. He is author of several scholarly articles on Liberia and Sierra Leone.
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Charles Abiodun Alao is a lecturer at the Department of War Studies at King's College, University of London. He completed his PhD as a Ford Scholar at King's College in 1992. He is author of African Conflicts: The Future Without the Cold War (London: Brassey Publishers, 1993) and Brothers at War: Dissidence and Rebellion in Southern Africa (London: British Academic Press, 1994).
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Teresa Whitfield is a Senior Advisor and Fellow at Center on International Cooperation at New York University and Senior Adviser to the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, responsible for liaison with the United Nations.
Teresa has published widely on the dynamics of internal conflict, peacemaking and United Nations peace operations. In March 2010 she was awarded a grant by the United States Institute of Peace to research and write a book examining efforts to end the Basque conflict in Spain.
Margo Picken is a visiting fellow at LSE and an associate of its Centre for the Study of Human Rights. She directed the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Cambodia from 2001 to 2007.
She worked for the Ford Foundation from 1988 to 1995 where she was responsible for the Foundation’s international human rights program. She directed the office of Amnesty International at the United Nations in New York from 1976 to 1987.
Barney Afako is a Ugandan lawyer and expert on transitional justice who has worked in the fields of human rights and criminal justice in Uganda, Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom. Previous roles have included acting as a consultant on peace talks for civil society, the Ugandan Amnesty Commission and the government.
He is one of the leading legal analysts of the International Criminal Court investigation in northern Uganda. Barney is also a part-time immigration judge in the United Kingdom.
Emma Leslie, originally from Australia, has extensive advisory experience and has worked as a consultant, practitioner and trainer on peacebuilding in Africa, Central Asia and Asia Pacific region.
