The Fund for Global Human Rights is governed and advised by a distinguished, international board of directors. The board is comprised of international human rights experts, funders, and activists from the regions where the Fund operates. Mary Robinson, former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and former President of Ireland, serves as Chair.
Mary Robinson (Chair), President, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative
Mrs. Robinson has served in numerous positions from which she has worked to protect human rights. As President of Ireland from 1990-1997, she emphasized the needs of developing countries by drawing connections between the needs of today and the needs of countries in the past, such as with the Great Irish Famine. After her Presidency, Mrs. Robinson took the position of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. During her term, she focused on implementing Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s reform proposal to integrate human rights concerns in all the activities of the United Nations. Mrs. Robinson founded in 2002 and currently serves as president of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, an organization committed to multi-disciplinary thought and action aimed at integrating human rights standards into global governance and policy-making in order to serve as a bridge between the needs of the poorest communities and the global stage. Educated at Trinity College, Mrs. Robinson also holds law degrees from the King's Inns in Dublin and from Harvard University. In addition to chairing the Fund for Global Human Rights, Ms. Robinson serves as Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders, Vice President of the Club of Madrid, honorary President of Oxfam International, Member of the Vaccine Fund Board of Directors and member of the Leadership Council the UN Global Coalition on Women and AIDS. She is a Professor of Practice at Columbia University and member of the Advisory Board of the Earth Institute, and Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria.
Mary Ann Stein (Founding Chair)
President, The Moriah Fund
Mary Ann Stein is the President of the Moriah Fund, a private foundation seeking to promote human rights and democracy, help disadvantaged people gain self-sufficiency and control over their lives, foster sustainable development, promote women’s rights and reproductive health and protect and preserve the environment. In addition to the Fund for Global Human Rights, Ms. Stein serves on the boards of Americans for Peace Now and the New Israel Fund. A graduate of Wellesley College and George Washington University Law Center, Ms. Stein has chaired several committees, coalitions, and mayoral advisory commissions on family and children’s issues. She served on the D.C. Judicial Nominations Commission and has written and published papers on public assistance and child welfare.
Mariclaire Acosta, Americas Director, International Center for Transitional Justice
Prior to joining the ICTJ, Mariclaire Acosta served as special adviser to the secretary general of the OAS on civil society affairs and as deputy secretary for human rights and democracy at the Mexico Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before that she served as special ambassador for human rights and democracy at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as adviser to the Social Convergence Working Group for Civil Organizations, Political Coordinating Office and Transition team for President Vicente Fox. Her involvement with human rights encompasses a wide spectrum of non-profit, public, and private activities. Ms. Acosta is a founding member and former president of the Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos (Non-profit Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights), a founding member and former executive director of the Academia Mexicana de Derechos Humanos (Mexican Human Rights Academy), and served as chairperson of the Mexican section of Amnesty International.
Kemal Ahmed, Founder & Managing Partner, Old Square Capital Advisors LLC
Mr. Ahmed manages an emerging and frontier markets focused fund of managers for institutional investors. Most recently he was a Managing Director with the Brown University Investment Office. Prior to that Mr. Ahmed was a Senior Vice President with Calvert Asset Management. Before Calvert, he served eight years with the World Bank Group as a Senior Investment Officer in the World Bank’s Treasury Department and in the International Finance Corporation’s Central Capital Markets Department. Mr. Ahmed started his career in international banking with a predecessor of Bank of America. He holds an MA, with distinctions, from the Johns Hopkins University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is a past Board member of the Rhode Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.
George C. Biddle, Senior Vice President, International Rescue Committee
George C. Biddle is the senior vice president of the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a leading humanitarian organization that goes to war zones to rescue and rebuild lives by delivering lifesaving aid, rebuilding shattered communities, restoring livelihoods, and strengthening the capacity of local organizations and institutions. Mr. Biddle has direct oversight of the IRC’s program departments and works closely with the IRC’s president in managing all aspects of the agency’s operations. Previously, he was the vice president of the International Crisis Group, an organization that works through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict. He was also president of the Institute for Central American Studies, an organization he founded in 1989 to assist post-cold war Central America in its transition from violent conflict to peace and democracy. He serves on several non-profit boards, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and holds an AB degree from Harvard and an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins.
Holly Cartner, Executive Director, Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch
As the Executive Director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, Ms. Cartner is responsible for overseeing research and advocacy work in over 25 countries in Europe and Central Asia. Ms. Cartner has written extensively on issues of human rights abuses against the Roma minority in Romania and Bulgaria, as well as on xenophobic violence in Germany. During her career, Ms. Cartner has also worked as a consultant to various international institutions including the Open Society Institute and the International Helsinki Federation. In addition to the Fund for Global Human Rights, Ms. Cartner serves on the boards of the International Helsinki Federation, the Russia Chechnya Justice Initiative, and Sub-board on Human Rights and Law of the Open Society Institute. Ms. Cartner earned her Bachelors degree from the University of North Carolina, as well as her Master's degree in political science and her law degree from Columbia University in New York where she also received a Parker School Certificate in Recognition of Achievement in International Law.
Hina Jilani, Director, AGHS Legal Aid Clinic; Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders
Hina Jilani has been at the forefront of the movement for peace, human rights and women’s rights in Pakistan for the last two decades. A founding member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Jilani currently serves as the Commission’s vice president. She is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and has steadfastly represented those whose human rights have been violated, including victims of domestic violence, fundamentalist violence, and so-called “honor killings,” as well as bonded workers. In 2001, Ms. Jilani was appointed Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders. In that same year, she was also awarded the Millennium Peace Prize, the first award of its kind to recognize women who have made outstanding contributions to building peace.
Josh Mailman, President, Sirius Business Corporation
Mr. Mailman has helped start several grantmaking foundations and philanthropic business initiatives since the early 1980s, including the Threshold Foundation and the Social Venture Network, which brings together private investors, company founders and social entrepreneurs with a shared commitment to create a more just and sustainable society through business. He co-founded Business for Social Responsibility in 1992, now one of the largest national organizations focused on promoting business and social responsibility simultaneously. Mr. Mailman is a trustee of the Sigrid Rausing Trust, an advisor to the Rudolf Steiner Foundation, and a board member of the Mailman Foundation. In addition to the Fund, Mr. Mailman serves on the boards of Human Rights Watch, Witness, Sierra Madre Alliance, Blacksmith Institute, Afropop Worldwide, and the Environmental Defenders Law Center.
Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, Senior Legal Officer, Open Society Justice Initiative
Mr. Odinkalu has worked extensively with groups based in Africa. He is the author of many reports, articles, and books on human rights issues, including Justice Denied: the Area Courts System in the Northern States of Nigeria and “Why More Africans Don’t Use Human Rights Language.” Mr. Odinkalu’s work has also focused on penal reform, refugees, and women’s rights under customary law and he emphasizes the dangers of adopting an elitist approach to human rights advocacy. He currently serves as the Senior Legal Officer for Africa at Open Society Justice Initiative, a program which pursues law reform activities grounded in the protection of human rights. Before the Open Society Justice Initiative, Mr. Odinkalu worked with and/or advised the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights in London, and the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone. Mr. Odinkalu is a former Brandeis International Fellow at the Centre for Ethics, Justice and Public Life of the Brandeis University, and Lecturer at the Harvard Law School.
Cynthia Ryan, Principal, The Schooner Foundation
Ms. Ryan oversees The Schooner Foundation, a progressive family foundation that honors human dignity, thinks big, and acts where trustees see the greatest need and opportunities for leverage locally, nationally and globally. The foundation focuses on human rights, peace & security, economic opportunity, environment and progressive media. In addition to the Fund for Global Human Rights, Ms. Ryan is a current or former trustee of National Braille Press, Women for Women International, the Ploughshares Fund and the National Association of Health Education Centers. She is active with the Peace & Security Funders Group, the International Human Rights Funders Group, National Network of Grantmakers, Women Waging Peace and Grantmakers Without Borders. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and on the Women’s Leadership Board, both at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She was a member of the Advisory Committee of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch and a member of the Women Donors Network. Ms. Ryan received her Bachelor of Arts from the New School for Social Research in New York and a Masters of Arts from the School of Oriental & African Studies at the University of London in England. She is a contributing author to the book Women, Philanthropy and Social Change: Journey to a Just Society, published in the fall of 2005 by UPNE.
Mona Younis, Director, AAAS Science and Human Rights Program
Mona Younis, Ph.D. joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2007 as Director of the Science and Human Rights Program. From 1998-2006, she was human rights Program Officer at the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, overseeing three funding programs for human rights in the U.S. and internationally. While at the Foundation, she served as Coordinator of the International Human Rights Funders Group. She facilitated this international association of more than 400 grantmakers between 2000 and 2005, working to expand the philanthropic community's support for human rights work at home and abroad. She is a founding board member of the Fund for Global Human Rights (Washington, DC) and the Arab Human Rights Fund (Beirut, Lebanon). For a decade prior to working in philanthropy, she evaluated government funding policies for social services in the Middle East, taught at the University of Jordan in Amman, and conducted research on a range of subjects that included racial and economic diversity, economic development, and educational attainment in the Middle East and the U.S. Dr. Younis is author of Liberation and Democratization: The South African and Palestinian National Movements, University of Minnesota Press (2000). She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley and earned her Bachelor and Master's degrees at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
