The Honorable Anson Chan Understood as the "Conscience of Hong Kong," The Honorable Anson Chan was a career public servant, serving 38 years in Hong Kong's civil service. She retired in 2001 as the Chief Secretary of the Hong Kong government. In that position she was a principal advisor to the Chief Executive and head of Hong Kong's 190,00-member civil service. Dr. Chan was the first woman, and the first person of Chinese ancestry, to hold that position. She is very much a figure of continuity, the most senior figure to straddle the British and Chinese eras in Hong Kong.
Shirin Ebadi Shirin Ebadi is a lawyer, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. In 2003, she became the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Ms. Ebadi received her law degree from the University of Tehran. From the years 1975-79, she served as president of the city court of Tehran but was forced to resign after the revolution in 1979. She was the first woman judge in Iran. Ms. Ebadi is the cofounder and president of the Association for Support of Children's Rights and the cofounder and president of Human Rights Defence Centre. She is the author of numerous books including The Rights of the Child (1994) and History and Documentation of Human Rights.
Juan Guzmán Juan Guzmán was the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals in Santiago, Chile and was in charge of the prosecution and trial of former General Augusto Pinochet. Currently, Judge Guzmán is a Professor of Law at the Catholic University Law School and at the Central University Law School of Santiago. In 1998, the Santiago Court of Appeals appointed him to conduct investigations into human rights violations committed during the Pinochet dictatorship. In March 2001, Guzmán filed a motion with the court to strip Pinochet of senatorial immunity from prosecution. In December 2001, he indicted Augusto Pinochet in the "Caravan of Death" case. In December 2004, Guzmán indicted Pinochet again in the "Operation Condor" case.
Carmen Hertz Carmen Hertz is a lawyer for the Vicaía de la Solidaridad, the principal organization for Human Rights defense law in Chile during Pinochet's Dictatorship from 1977 to 1992. From 1996-98, she was the director of Judicial Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Chile presiding over the Chilean delegation to the Rome Conference. She renounced this position after the Chilean government decided not to recognize Universal Jurisdiction in reaction to Pinochet's detention in London in 1998. Ms. Hertz, whose husband was disappeared and killed during the "Caravan of Death", represents other victims killed in this period of atrocity and other criminal acts ordered by Pinochet during his regime.
Farooq Kathwari Farooq Kathwari is the Chairman, President and Chief Executive officer of Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. Mr. Kathwari serves on several not-for-profit organizations, including Chairman of the Kashmir Study Group, Chairman of Refugees International, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He also has received several recognitions, including the 2005 Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal; 2005 Honoree from the International Center in New York; "National Human Relations Awards" by the American Jewish Committee; "American Muslim Recognition Awards" by several organizations; Worth Magazine Recognition of one of 50 Best CEO's in USA; recipient of the International First Freedom Award from the Council for America's First Freedom, Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award; and the Anti-Defamation League's Humanitarian Award.
Amory B. Lovins Amory B. Lovins, Chief Executive Officer of Rocky Mountain Institute, is a consultant and experimental physicist. He has received nine honorary doctorates, a MacArthur Fellowship, the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood ("Alternative Nobel"), World Technology, and TIME Hero for the Planet awards, the Happold Medal, and the Nissan, Shingo, Mitchell, and Onassis Prizes. He has briefed 18 heads of state, held several visiting academic chairs, authored or co-authored 29 books and hundreds of papers, and consulted for scores of industries and governments worldwide. The Wall Street Journal named Mr. Lovins one of 39 people worldwide "most likely to change the course of business in the '90s" and Newsweek has praised him as "one of the Western world's most influential energy thinkers."
Mac Maharaj Mac Maharaj was a member of Nelson Mandela's inner circle during the days of resistance in South Africa. In 1977, after spending 12 years in prison on Robben Island, he was appointed secretary of the Internal Political and Reconstruction Department of the ANC. He served on the Revolutionary Council and National Executive Committee of the ANC, an underground program of armed resistance against the apartheid government. After Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Maharaj was a lead negotiator for the ANC in talks with the National Party government and Joint Secretary of the Transitional Executive Council, overseeing South Africa's transition to democracy. Mandela appointed Maharaj minister of transport upon becoming president in 1994; Maharaj served in parliament until 1999. In 2005, Mr. Maharaj was appointed to the chair of the Democracy Project at Bennington College in Vermont.
Roelf Meyer Roelf Meyer is the former Minister of Defence and Minister of Constitutional Affairs in South Africa and was the chief negotiator for the National Party during the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa. After the first democratic election in 1994, Meyer continued his position as Minister of Constitutional Affairs in the cabinet of former President Nelson Mandela. In 2000, after 21 years, Mr. Meyer resigned from active politics. During this period he was a Member of Parliament (since 1979), Deputy Minister for Law and Order and subsequently of Constitutional Development (1986-1991) and Cabinet Minister (1991-1996). Currently, Mr. Meyer is Chairman of the Civil Society Initiative in South Africa.
Benjamin Pogrund Benjamin Pogrund is the former deputy editor of The Rand Daily Mail in South Africa, the former editor of the World Paper in Boston, and the former foreign sub-editor of The Independent in London . He is the author of several books including Sobukwe and Apartheid (1991), War of Words: Memoir of a South African Journalist (2000) and Nelson Mandela: Leader Against Apartheid (2003). In 2001, he joined Israel's delegation to the Durban UN Anti-Racism conference. Currently, Mr. Pogrund is the director of the Yakar Center for Social Concern in Jerusalem.
Ervin Staub Ervin Staub is Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Founding Director of the Ph.D. Concentration in the Psychology of Peace and the Prevention of Violence. He has studied helping behavior and altruism, passivity in the face of others' need and the origins of human destructiveness. He is the author of numerous books including Positive Social Behavior and Morality (1978), The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence (1992) and The Psychology of Good and Evil (2003). He is past President of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence (1999-2000) as well as of the International Society for Political Psychology (2000-2001). He is the recipient of the Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Prize.
