Representatives to international organizations

United Nations

UN New York:

• Soon-Young Yoon – main representative
  Soon-Young Yoon holds a PhD in anthropology. She has worked with UNICEF in Southeast Asia and the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia in Delhi.  She is a board member of the Global Advisory Council at the Harvard AIDS Initiative and of the International Foundation for Ewha Woman’s University. She currently works as a consultant for the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative. She is ex-chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York
• Natalia Kostus
  Natalia Kostus has a master’s degree in public administration with a concentration in Nonprofit Management. She has 8 years of experience in international diplomatic and United Nations settings with primary focus on policy development, advocacy, and analysis in UN negotiations and decision‐making processes of programmes and funds. She has knowledge of institutional mandates, policies and legal instruments on sustainable development, social and economic rights, environment, and climate change. She is convener of the IAW Commission on Climate Change.
• Jessica Pierson
  Jessica Pierson holds an M.A. in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Her graduate thesis research explored abortion as a human right in the United States and the role of CEDAW cities in challenging the Hyde Amendment. As a graduate student, Jessica was as a Research Assistant at the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School where she worked on initiating local advocacy campaigns to combat religious healthcare refusals. She currently works as the Program Administrator of the Human Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School.
• Irini Sarlis
  Irini  Sarlis is an architect and a member of the UN Team
  
• Judith Gordon
  Judith Gordon is a member of the UN Team in New York, Lecturer in Psychiatry Yale University.
  

Representatives to DPI, New York

• Rahima Sajid
  Rahima Sajid graduated from the College of Staten Island with her BA in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies and Political Science, minoring in International Studies. She went on to the Baruch School of Public and International Affairs where she got her Masters in Public Administration. Currently Rahima is working as a Finance Associate with the Malala Fund. Prior to working at the Malala Fund, Rahima worked as a Development Associate at the United Nations International School. Rahima likes to write poetry in her free time.
  
• Lyna Castillo-Javier-
  Lyna has a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications/Journalism from Florida International University and a Master of Arts in Religion and Religious Education from Fordham University. She co-chairs the Metro New York Chapter’s Film Subcommittee of the U.S. National Committee for UN Women. Her focus is on education, women’s role in peace and security, peace building and humanitarian affairs.
• Uzma Gul
• Galin Dechoian

UN Geneva

• Sibylle von Heydebrand – Main representative
  English
  Dr. Sibylle von Heydebrand is a Swiss lawyer. She studied in Geneva and Basel (Switzerland) and received her PhD in Law (Dr. iur.) from the University of Basel. She is a proven expert on voting right and has a long experience as a lecturer. She is especially interested in women’s political participation. In 2016 she was the president of the 50 Years of Women’s Suffrage in the Canton of Basel City anniversary committee (Switzerland). She is a former member of the Jury of the «Emilie Louise Frey Award» for young female scientists. In 2020 she was appointed as financial internal auditor by the United Nations NGO Committee on the Status of Women in Geneva.She is committed to improving the position of women and girls in society and works to enhance the visibility of women’s societal involvement.
  
  French
  Dr. Sibylle von Heydebrand est une juriste suisse. Elle a fait ses études à Genève et Bâle (Suisse) et a obtenu son doctorat en droit (PhD in Law) de l’université de Bâle. Elle est une spécialiste reconnue du droit de vote et elle a une longue expérience en tant que chargée de cours. Elle s’intéresse particulièrement à la participation politique des femmes. En 2016, elle a été présidente du comité anniversaire des 50 ans de suffrage des femmes dans le canton de Bâle (Suisse). Elle est une ancienne membre du jury «Prix Emilie Louise Frey» pour de jeunes chercheuses scientifiques. En 2020 elle a été nommée auditeur financier interne par le Comité des ONG sur le Statut des Femmes de l’ONU à Genève.Elle s’engage à améliorer la position des femmes et filles dans la société et s’efforce d’accroître la visibilité de l’implication sociétale des femmes.
• Esther Suter
  (Rev.) Esther R. Suter, from Switzerland, worked as a trilingual secretary from 1968-1970 in Paris, then studied theology and was ordained pastor in the Reformed Church of Switzerland; 1982 delegated by Women for Peace Switzerland to the 2^nd UN-Special Session on Disarmament in New York City; in 1983 she did pastoral volunteer work in New York City “Hell’s Kitchen”. 1984 stay in Chile during military dictatorship, co-initiator of a project for street children with Servicio Paz y Justicia Chile. 1985 delegated for the 3^rd UN World Conference on Women in Nairobi as a journalist.  1995 delegated to the 4^th UN World Conference on Women in Beijing as a journalist; Vice-President of the International Association of Liberal Religious Women.
  
• Derya Akinci Briand
  Derya Akinci Briand is a lecturer teaching law and business management in a private university in Zurich, Switzerland. She is from Turkey and has been living in Switzerland since 2008. After her law studies in Northern Cyprus, she followed her career with an LL.M degree in International Business Law and European Law and a Master Degree at International Law and Comparative Law at the University of Lausanne, in Switzerland. She is still doing her PhD. She is a multicultural person and speaks several languages such as Turkish, English, French. Besides her moderate capacity in Italian and German, she is also learning Russian and Chinese. She has working experience previously in the United Nations as UNEP and ILO, where she learned well the UN system.She believes women’s rights are very important, she thinks women face difficulties worldwide.
• Camilla Wagner
  Camilla Wagner is a business journalist and editor specialized in gender equality and leadership. She is also the CEO of Klara K, an agency specializing in leadership for inclusion. Camilla has been an advocate for women’s rights in Sweden for over 20 years and she is the author of the book “19 voices about women and power.” The Swedish government has assigned Camilla as a representative at several international conferences. Her proficiency in human rights and gender equality has led to several international assignments and she holds a seat on the executive board of many NGOs. In 2020 she was elected president of the Fredrika Bremer-förbundet and is also the editor in chief of Hertha, the oldest women’s rights magazine in the world still issued.
• Laoura Maria Alipranti-Maratou
  Laoura   Alipranti – Maratou has a PhD in Sociology (University of Paris X -Nanterre).  She is an Emeritus   Research Director of the “National Centre for Social Research”/EKKE and is actually collaborating as an expert at EKKE’s “Gender Issues Research Laboratory”. She is a Visiting Professor at the Department of Psychology at the National Kapodistrian University of Athens teaching the lesson “Gender relations in contemporary society”. She has also been a Member of “EIGE-European Institute for Gender Equality” Expert Forum designated by the European Parliament (2012-2015). She is Vice-President of the Board of “Greek League of Women’s Rights”.

International Labour Organisation (ILO)- Geneva

• Lyda Verstegen

UN Vienna

• Rosy  Weiss – main representative
  Rosy Weiss is a French interpreter by education and a retired official in Austria’s Ministries for Labour, Social Affairs, Consumer Protection as well as Environment, Youth and Family, where she was responsible for international affairs. Ms. Weiss served as IAW President from 2004 to 2010 and as chairperson of the Vienna NGO Committee on the Status of Women from 2006 to 2009. She was involved in the drafting of reports of Austrian NGOs to CEDAW and the Universal Periodic Review. During Austria’s EU Presidencies she served as liaison between governments and NGOs during the negotiations at the Commission on the Status of Women in 2006 and as chair of the Regional Preparatory Conference (The Hague Forum) for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+5).
  
• Shannon von Scheele
  Shannon von Scheele has a Master’s in Public Affairs with concentrations in Policy Analysis and Economic Development. She has worked against human trafficking and forced prostitution for over 20 years beginning in 1996 as a volunteer for the non-profit H.I.P.S. (Helping Independent Prostitutes Survive) in Washington, DC. In 2005 she worked as a research assistant for the Ukrainian Parliamentary Development Project and conducted a comparative study of international measures to combat human trafficking for Ukrainian members of parliament. Since 2006, Shannon von Scheele has been active in the German non-profit Netzwerk gegen Menschenhandel, initially as a founding member of the board and since 2012 as Executive Director. She was a contributor to the book Der verdrängte Skandal: Menschenhandel in Deutschland and co-author of the German trafficking prevention program for schools Liebe ohne Zwang.
• Erica van  Engel
  Erica van Engel is the founder of Belief in Business, a boutique agency that helps female executives and entrepreneurs to build a conscious (personal) brand while growing their social impact, income, and influence. Erica is a champion for female social entrepreneurs and she loves to discuss how they are making a powerful contribution to sustainable development. She’s an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in general and female leadership in particular.  She encourages women to strive for leading positions because society will only thrive to the fullest when women have a seat at the table where decisions and policies are made. To empower other women as conscious leaders, she draws on her extensive entrepreneurial and leadership background. Erica was a board member of the Chamber of Commerce in her region for 10 years. She is now an extended board member of the International Alliance of Women and represents the IAW at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. She also holds several supervisory and advisory board positions. 

World Health Organization

• Ursula Nakamura – Stoecklin
  Ursula Nakamura-Stoecklin is a registered nurse and has received further education in health and administration. She has long experience in specialized health care. She was a general director of a residential home for the elderly.
  She is advocating for human rights and was Co-President of the Swiss Association for Women’s Rights ADF-SVF Suisse.
  
• Seema Uplekar
  Seema Uplekar has a bachelor’s degree in economics, is experienced in fund raising and was treasurer of United Nations Women’s Guild in Geneva. 
  

Nairobi -HABITAT

• Souad Houssein
  Avec une vingtaine d’années d’expérience à son actif dans le domaine du cinéma francophone du Sud, Mme Souad HOUSSEIN (France-Djibouti) conduit dans le cadre de l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) divers programmes et activités qui contribuent au développement de la cinématographie des pays du sud au profit de 37 pays issus d’Afrique, du Maghreb, du Moyen Orient, et d’Asie du Sud-est, et des Caraïbes.Dans son domaine d’activité Mme Houssein intervient tant sur l’aide à la production via le Fonds Image de la Francophonie, que le renforcement des capacités (Ateliers, Bourses d’écriture, Plateformes de coproduction), et la promotion soit le soutien aux Festivals notamment à travers le Marché du film de Cannes, Le Fespaco, et les Journées cinématographiques de Carthage, le Festival international du film francophone de Namur en passant par Vues d’Afrique.Durant sa carrière Madame HOUSSEIN a établi des partenariats fructueux avec les Festivals de Venise, Dubai, Durban, et de New York etc) et initié en 2011 un projet de fonds panafricain pour le cinéma et l’audiovisuel africain qui avait suscité beaucoup d’intérêt de pays africains ainsi que le soutien de l’UNESCO et de l’Union Africaine.Madame HOUSSEIN est titulaire d’une maîtrise en communication globale et d’un diplôme en relations internationales. Elle a occupé précédemment plusieurs fonctions dont celui de coordonnatrice de réunions aux Service des Instances à l’OIF (Sommets, Conférences Ministérielles, Conseils permanents de la Francophonie et Commission économique et politique). A Djibouti, elle a été coordonnatrice d’un programme d’alphabétisation fonctionnelle en français au sein de l’Union des Femmes Djiboutiennes (UNFD), financé par l’UNICEF.

UNESCO, Paris

• Monique Bouziz
  French Vice President of Association des femmes de l’Europe Méridionale, member of the French Coordination of the European Women’s Lobby and ‘Dialogue between Cultures’ among other Committees.
  
• Danielle Levy
  Danielle Levy is a teacher by education and has served as the translator for IAW of documents from English into French for the past two triennia. She represents IAW at UNESCO
  
• Renée Gérard
  Renée Gérard is a French citizen who worked for the United Nations on long-term assignments in different countries of Africa and Asia and also on short consultancies for UNFPA and the World Bank in Rwanda Congo. Having been granted a Fulbright scholarship she was able to study at Columbia University and spent three years in New York. Life shaped her as a citizen of the world. As a member of multidisciplinary teams (dominantly male), she became a specialist in education and community development. Her advocacy for gender-sensitive measures called attention to the need to develop specific programmes for women in development. Upon retirement she got involved as an activist  in different women’s associations : in the French association where she was the coordinator for international relations, in the French Coordination for the European Women’s Lobby, in the European Women’s Lobby where she was an administrator and cooperated closely with IAW branch in France  until she finally joined IAW as a member. In recognition of her achievements  for women’s rights the French Government decorated her with Légion d’honneur and the University Women of Europe gave her the Jans Gremmée Award She is also a defender of environment, adept at  sustainable development and belongs to Platform launched by the French  Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Women’s associations to advise on gender and climate change.
• Ida Kurth
  Ida Kurth is a biochemist and university lecturer by profession

Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Rome

1. Valeria Mangani (main representative)
   Valeria Mangani is an Italian best-selling author in Nutrition and Women’s Consciousness sectors. She published 10 books for the “Nature&Health” series, by Tecniche Nuove editor in Milan.  She also taught the “Quality of Life” master class for postgraduate students in  Occupational Medicine at La Sapienza University of Rome. She founded and directs  INNOV8 IN ITALY FUND, an incubator fostering Sustainable Fashion with innovation technologies such as block chain, luxury up-cycling, crispr and brand digitalization; with the mission to create a more sustainable planet, hence disrupting the old polluting systems for the sake of human well-being.
2. Jessika Kehl-Lauff (main representative)
   Introduced at the IAW Congress 1996 in New Delhi as the new main representative to Geneva, Jessika Kehl-Lauff (jkl) built up an IAW-team in Geneva serving Human Rights, ILO, UNCTAD, WTO and ECE. She was twice a board member of the Conference of NGOs (CONGO), a vice-president of the NGO Committee on Human Rights and a friend of the CSW Geneva till 2010.  Jkl organized IAWmeetings in 2009 in Heiden/CH and 2014 in Sion/CH. In 2015 she became IAW representative to the international institutions in Rome.
   
3. Filomena Cusano
4. Delfina Panfili , Youth Representative

Other International Bodies:

African Union

• Samira Yassni,
• Vivian Konditambe – alternate

Arab League

• Horeya Megahed
  Horeya Megahed is a member of the Hoda Charawi Association, Egypt. Dr. of Political Science with a career in academia at Cairo University, appointment to the Supreme Administrative Court of the State Council and author of numerous publications.
  

Council of Europe

• Heleen Jansen
  Heleen Jansen is a Dutch national now living in France. She worked for over 25 years as a professor of  French and teacher training in the Netherlands. She was also involved in student care and in health education. The last 15 years she has been active as author and editor-in-chief of new educational methods and materials. Part of these activities always has been the development of materials for European projects, mostly centred on democratic citizenship and human rights education.She is vice-chairman of the Dutch section of the AEDE, the European Teachers Association. As a representative of the AEDE in the ONG conference of the Council of Europe, she has been an active member of the working group ‘Gender Perspectives in Democratic and Political Processes’ chaired by Anje Wiersinga.
• Anje Wiersinga
  Anje Wiersinga is a medical doctor and has rich and varied international experiences. She is Convener of the Commission on Democracy
• Monique Bouchet
• Renée Gérard
  Renée Gérard is a French citizen who worked for the United Nations on long-term assignments in different countries of Africa and Asia and also on short consultancies for UNFPA and the World Bank in Rwanda Congo. Having been granted a Fulbright scholarship she was able to study at Columbia University and spent three years in New York. Life shaped her as a citizen of the world. As a member of multidisciplinary teams (dominantly male), she became a specialist in education and community development. Her advocacy for gender-sensitive measures called attention to the need to develop specific programmes for women in development. Upon retirement she got involved as an activist  in different women’s associations : in the French association where she was the coordinator for international relations, in the French Coordination for the European Women’s Lobby, in the European Women’s Lobby where she was an administrator and cooperated closely with IAW branch in France  until she finally joined IAW as a member.In recognition of her achievements  for women’s rights the French Government decorated her with Légion d’honneur and the University Women of Europe gave her the Jans Gremmée Award She is also a defender of environment, adept at  sustainable development and belongs to Platform launched by the French  Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Women’s associations to advise on gender and climate change.

European Women’s Lobby

• Marion Böker
  Marion Böker is a Member of the Deutscher Frauenring, owner of boeker-consult, a consultancy for Human Rights and Gender Issues. 
  
• Lea Börgerding – alternate
• Irene Smeraidou

International Criminal Court

• Maitre Paulette Oyane Ondo
  Paulette Oyane Ondo est avocate au Barreau du Gabon. Elle est défenseuse des droits de l’Homme et Experte auprès de l’Union Africaine en droits de l’homme, démocratie, élection et gouvernance. Elle a créé la première ONG de défense des droits de l’Homme au Gabon: Le centre pour la promotion de la démocratie et de la défense des droits de l’homme (CDDH).En 2013 elle a reçu le prix des droits de l’homme pour l’Afrique centrale du Réseau Panafricains des Défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme.

EWL Observatory on violence against women

• Jocelynne Scutt
  Dr Jocelynne A. Scutt is a barrister and Human Rights Lawyer, County
  Councillor for Cambridgeshire, Visiting Professor at the University of
  Buckingham and author.
  

 Washington Working Group on the International Criminal Court

• Susanne Riveles
  Peace Activist, specialist in and lecturer on African affairs.