profiles

Amb Philippe Kridelka holds a Master's Degree in Law, and entered the Diplomatic Service in October 1987. He is currently Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore and to the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam.

His first appointment overseas was as the First Secretary at the Brussels office in Tehran from 1989-1992. Following that, Amb Kridelka became Deputy Director of the Central European Desk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brussels.

His other appointments include Counsellor, Warsaw (1995-1998) as well as Counsellor, Belgian Representative to the European Union (WTO Desk, 1999-2000). Most recently, he was Diplomatic Advisor to the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister.

Born in Charleori, Amb Kridelka is married with one son.

participants....

Nuri Albala (France)

Lawyer

International Association of Democratic Lawyers

I was sent for human rights inquiry missions by several NGOs (Iran 5 times, Argentina, Colombia .) and for human rights-teaching missions either by NGOs (Paraguay, Uruguay) or by the H.R. High Commissionneer of the United Nations (Haïti)

Charnchao is the Director-General of the Department of Rights and Liberties Protection, Ministry of Justice, Bangkok, Thailand. He graduated from Washington College of Law, the American University and the University of Iowa law school. He was public prosecutor during 1987 - 2002 and his recent position is Deputy-Director of Thailand Criminal Law Institute.

He joined the civil society and academics to reform the Thai criminal justice system since 1997, the year Thailand has new constitution. He has worked in the area of human rights,both in public and people sector. His work is focused on how to apply the philosophy of natural law and the pracmatic of access to justice under the theory of community-justice and restorative justice into the Thai society.

Chongko Choi (Korea)

College of Law

Seoul National University (Korea)

Chongko Choi is Professor of Law at Seoul National University in Korea. As a legal historian and legal philosopher, he is actively engaged in the World Association of Legal Philosophy and Social Philosophy(IVR). Choi got his doctorate from Freiburg University in 1979 and has researched at UC Berkeley and Harvard. His main concern in research lies in establishing East Asian Jurisprudenc

His work covers a broad range of topics, combining elements of sociological theory, policy analysis and social philosophy. In 2000, he published a book (in German) that aims to lay conceptual foundations for a genuinely sociological approach in the study of justice; altogether he has published some 60 books, editions and articles/book chapters in German and English. The justice issues on which his pertinent work focuses concern distributive questions as they arise in the allocation of scarce goods and necessary burdens.

I am a professor of Information Law and a Principal Scientist in a leading academic research unit of Information Technology, concentrating researches I supervise on cultural, legal and societal issues arising from new technologies. I collaborate closely with the Finnish government, leadiing industries and international organisations.
Having previously worked long years as a justice at Court of Appeals I am a specialist of Intellectual Property as well as basic rights issues especially reflected in private law issues.

I still write often in newspapers, having been a columnist of the leading newspper, and continue publishing essays, fiction and poetry. Being also Ph. D. in General History I am familiar with the classical languages and the philosphical heritage of Hellenistic-Roman era and Middle Age and am able to read in 10 European languages or more."

In 2000 he was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as international observer of the Lockerbie trial in the Netherlands. He is the author of over 300 articles, reports and books on issues of philosophy, human rights, theory of democracy, international law, international criminal law, and United Nations reform. He serves as editor of the series "Studies in International Relations."

Norani Othman (Malaysia)

Senior Research Fellow & Professor

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Norani Othman is a sociologist, an Associate Professor and Senior Fellow at the Institut Kajian Malaysia dan Antarabangsa (IKMAS), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) [or National University of Malaysia]. She is also an afiliate Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin ( Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin ), where she was an Academic Fellow from 1998 to 1999.

She received her M.Phil from the University of Hull in 1977, and was a member of Wolfson College at the University of Oxford from 1980 to 1985. As a Fulbright Fellow in 1996, she undertook research and a lecture tour of several universities in the USA tour on the theme of "Islamic Laws, Woman and Human Rights". Norani Othman was a Vice-President of the Malaysian Social Science Association and a Director of the SIS Forum Malaysia , a Muslim woman's organization popularly known as Sisters in Islam .

Dr. Lyal S. Sunga, is Director of the LLM Programme in Human Rights and Associate Professor, Hong Kong University Faculty of Law. He has been Visiting Professor at the University Centre for International Humanitarian Law (Geneva), the United Nations University (Tokyo), Malta University, Helsinki University, the Abo Akademi, Raoul Wallenberg Institute (Lund), the International Peace Academy (New York), the International Institute of Human Rights (Strasbourg), Padjadjaran University (Bandung), the Summer University on Human Rights and the Right to Education (Geneva), and the Sant = Anna Institute (Pisa).

Dr. Sunga also taught law at Carleton University and at the McGill University Faculty of Law. From 1994-2001, he worked for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, first to assist the UN Security Council = s Commission of Experts on Rwanda and then on a wide range of human rights, humanitarian law and international criminal law issues. He also acted as representative of the Office at the UN Preparatory Commission meetings and Diplomatic Conference in New York and Rome respectively on the International Criminal Court. In addition, Dr. Sunga serviced the UN special rapporteurs on Iran, Rwanda, and the question of Human Rights and Terrorism and he was Secretary of the UN Asian Preparatory Conference on Racism in Tehran. Dr. Sunga is the author of The Emerging System of International Criminal Law: Developments in Codification and Implementation (1997), and Individual Responsibility in International Law for Serious Human Rights Violations (1992) as well as numerous scholarly legal articles and he serves on the Editorial Board of the Indian Yearbook of International Humanitarian and Refugee Law.

Makoto Usami (Japan)

Assoc Prof. of Law and Philosophy

Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan)

Makoto Usami (LL.D., Nagoya University, 1996) is Associate Professor of Law and Philosophy at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. He was Professor of Jurisprudence at Chukyo University in Japan (2002-2004) and a visiting scholar at Harvard (1997-1999).

The author of two books written in Japanese, Collective Decision Making (2000) and Law as Public Decision: Interpreting the Practice of Law (1993), Usami has published many articles on transitional justice in recent years, including "Retroactive Justice," in Burton M. Leiser and Tom D. Campbell (eds.), Human Rights in Philosophy and Practice (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001).

Director of the LL.M in international law at the Faculty of Law of the Free University of Brussels, Prof. David teaches Public international law, International institutional law, International criminal law and the Law of armed conflicts. He wrote books and duplicate lecture notes for each of his courses.

In other respects, E. David practiced public international law as a lawyer and advocate for various States before the International Court of Justice. He has been also the agent for the Belgian Government before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. More important, he likes black chocolates, but contrary to many self-respecting Belgians he is not especially fond of Belgian beer or fries ... "

Abdul Bari Azed is currently the Director General of Intellectual Property Rights at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia. In 1998 and 1999, he was a member of the People's Consultative Assembly following which, he was appointed Dean of the Law Faculty in University of Indonesia. His publications include 'Sociological Jurisprudence Stream & State ideology (Pancasila) Idealism,' The Judicial Power and Review in Indonesia,' 'An idea about Law and Democracy,' among others.

Past publications include "Comparing the Principle of Territorial Jurisdiction between Mainland China and Taiwan," and numerous other papers and articles.

Bertrand has been senior adviser to the Humanitarian Affairs Delegation of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and from 1998 to early 2002 served as Political Adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister M. Hubert V é drine. In addition, he was a post-degree lecturer at the Institut d'Études Politiques (IEP) de Paris, and at the IEP of Lille.