Nominations Human Rights Tulip 2020

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Madi Jobarteh

Madi Jobarteh is the current and first country representative for Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) in the Gambia since 2018. Before then and until now he has been an active voice within the Gambian civil society where he was the head of programs at The Association of NGOs in the Gambia (TANGO), the main civil society coalition in the country for a decade. Madi is deeply interested in policy, governance and development issues and has been an activist for human rights and democracy in the Gambia over the past two decades. Not only has he spearheaded or got involved with various organizations, movements and activities in promotion of human rights, democracy and good governance, but he has also done extensive work with women, young people, persons with disabilities and people living with HV/AIDS for social and economic justice and equality. He has also conducted human rights training for security officers, policy and lawmakers and traditional authorities including working with communities as well as collaborated with regional and international organizations to promote good governance in Africa. He has also been deeply involved with efforts to combat corruption, the promotion of media freedom and making public institutions become more efficient, transparent and responsive. His involvement in an array of policy, governance and development issues indicates his passion and commitment to the empowerment of citizens to be the architects of their own destiny and the promotion of accountability within the state and society.  

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Debbie Stothard

During her 38-year career, Debbie Stothard, has worked with diverse communities and activists to engage states, IGOs and other stakeholders throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas on human rights and justice. Her work is focused on the thematic priorities of business and human rights, atrocity prevention, and women’s leadership.

Accordingly, she has either facilitated or been a resource person at nearly 300 training events in the past 15 years. Most of these were grassroots-oriented workshops delivered in the field, focused on human rights advocacy, economic literacy and business and human rights, and transitional justice and atrocity prevention. Her work in transitional justice and atrocity prevention has mainly focused Burma/Myanmar, however she has provided advice on responses to other country situations around the world.

During 1981 – 1996, Debbie worked as a crime reporter, student organizer, policy analyst, academic, government advisor and food caterer in Malaysia and Australia while volunteering for human rights causes.

In 1996, she founded ALTSEAN-Burma which spearheaded a range of innovative and empowering human rights programs. This includes ALTSEAN’s ongoing intensive leadership program for diverse young women from Burma, which in the past 22 years, has helped strengthen and expand women’s leadership in conflict-affected zones.

She served as a member of the Board of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) for 9 years as Deputy Secretary-General (2010-2013) and Secretary-General (2013 – 2019) during which she promoted the mission and profile of FIDH at approximately 100 meetings and conferences per year.

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Fons Coomans

Prof Fons Coomans holds the UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Peace at the Department of International and European Law at the Faculty of Law, Maastricht University. He is the Director of the Maastricht Centre for Human Rights, and a member of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research. His fields of research include the international protection of economic, social and cultural rights, the right to education, health and food in particular, the extraterritorial scope of human rights law, and international supervisory mechanisms in the field of human rights. He teaches Master courses on international human rights law and on human development and human rights at the Faculty of Law of Maastricht University. He is a founding member of the Consortium on Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations and member of the Dutch Section of the International Commission of Jurists (NJCM). He is also a visiting professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is an advisor to Food First Information Action Network (FIAN) and the Right to Education Initiative and a consultant for UNESCO.

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Mary Jane N. Real

Mary Jane N. Real is the Co-Lead of Urgent Action Fund for Women's Human Rights Asia & Pacific (UAF A&P), a member of the UAF sister funds’ consortium that provides rapid response grants and supports women and non-binary human rights defenders at risk in Asia and the Pacific. She is a founding member and former Coordinator of the Women Human Rights Defenders International Coalition. A lawyer and a long-time advocate for women's human rights, she has worked with various international, regional and national organisations and initiatives in different capacities including as former regional coordinator of Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development.  Currently, she is also a Board member of Front Line Defenders and Just Associates.

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Sandra Petersen

Sandra Petersen is the Executive Director at The Norwegian Human Rights Fund (NHRF) working to protect and promote human rights internationally through direct support to organisations working in the first line of defence for human rights.

For more than two decades she has been working with different Norwegian and international organizations both as a volunteer, board member and in her professional capacity with peace education for refugees, development work and human rights issues. Before joining the Norwegian Human Rights Fund, she worked as the Secretary General of The Norwegian Afghanistan Committee.

Over the years, she has gained extensive experience with organizational and strategy development, working with a broad range of human rights issues with a focus on some of the most vulnerable communities and defenders in the world. From the NHRF she has accumulated more than ten years of experience of close partnerships with and support to human rights defenders’ networks and organizations in Asia, Africa and Latin America with a focus on protection, security and to enhance working conditions of defenders. Her work has involved capacity building and alliance building with human rights networks/organizations, diplomatic missions, the UN system, as well as national and international actors and political advocacy including in the Dalit Solidarity Network where she served as a board member for five years (2013-2018). Mrs. Petersen holds a MA in International Relations and Diplomatic Studies from SOAS, University of London and an inter disciplinary degree (cand.mag) from the University in Oslo with subjects such as Law, Middle Eastern studies, and Comparative religion with a specialization in Islam.