Professor Ali Abdullatif Ahmida was born in Libya and attended Cairo University in Egypt and the University of Washington, Seattle. He was founding Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of New England, Maine, U.S. His areas of expertise are political theory, comparative politics, and historical sociology focusing on power, agency, genocide, and anti-colonial resistance in North Africa, specifically Libya. Mr. Ahmida is a respected author of an array of scholarly literature.

Jude Layas is Legal Director in the Corporate department of BDB Pitmans. She completed her legal studies at The University of Law in London and her training contract at Addleshaw Goddard. She was made a Corporate Associate before transferring to Memery Crystal LLP. In 2018, she worked as a Senior Associate at Gunercooke Associates and was made Legal Director in October of 2021 at BDB Pitmans. Her specialities include, cross border mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments and disposals, reorganisations, joint ventures and fundraisings in relation to both private and public companies.

Ignacio Saiz is an international human rights expert and activist specialising in the links between human rights and economic justice. He currently works as an advisor to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to leading international human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International, and to foundations working at these intersections. Ignacio served for twelve years as Executive Director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), a pioneering international NGO working for a rights-based economy, and formerly served as Director of Policy for Amnesty International. He received an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex. He is based in New York, USA.

Ben Fishman is a Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy focusing on Libya, North Africa, Jordan, and U.S. democracy and governance assistance to the Middle East. Between 2009 and 2013 he served on the National Security Council, holding several posts, including Director for North Africa and Jordan and Director for Libya. He coordinated U.S. support for Libya's revolution and served in the State Department’s office in charge of policy development toward Iran and the Gulf states in 2009. Since leaving government, he was a consulting Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), an adjunct fellow with the RAND Corporation and an adjunct assistant professor of security studies at Georgetown University. He is the editor of North Africa in Transition: The Struggle for Democracies and Institutions. 

Professor Youssef Sawani is a Libyan political scientist, analyst and author. He began his career at the University of Tripoli in 1985 as a member of faculty. He became the Head of the Department of Political Science in 1989 and in 1998, and the Coordinator of Graduate Programme in 2004. He has 38 years of teaching and research experience and between 2016-22 was the editor of the Contemporary Arab Affairs Journal published by the University of California Press. Between 2012-21, he assumed leading roles at the Center for Arab Unity Studies in Beirut including that of the Acting Director-General and Director of Studies. In 2021-2022, Mr. Sawani was a visiting scholar at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Currently, he is professor of politics and international relations at the University of Tripoli, Libya and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the International Centre for Dialogue Initiatives in New York, U.S.

Amal Hadi is an independent gender consultant and human rights activist. Previously she worked as a Project Officer at Oxfam, Egypt, and as a Women’s Program Coordinator at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) until 1998. Before becoming a gender consultant, Amal worked as a Coordinator at New Woman Foundation, an Egyptian non-governmental organisation that targets women empowerment and women’s rights. She holds a degree in Medicine and Surgery form Ain Shams University, and a diploma in Industrial Medicine. She also graduated from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, in 2000, with a degree in Women Studies.

Hassan Al Amin is a Libyan activist and advocate working to expose human rights abuses and promote democracy in Libya. Hassan fled Libya for the UK in 1983 after Muammar Gaddafi’s security forces arrested and beat him. From London he founded the independent website Libya al-Mostakbal (The Future Libya). Hassan returned to Libya during the revolution in 2011 and won a parliamentary seat in Libya’s first democratic elections in 2012. However, in 2013 he was forced to return to London as a result of his work investigating the mistreatment and torture of prisoners by anti-Gaddafi armed groups. In 2013, he received the Human Rights Watch’s Alison Des Forges Award “for his unyielding commitment to exposing abuses and protecting human rights in Libya.”

Laila Alodaat is a Syrian human rights lawyer specialised in international law of armed conflicts and the human rights of women with 15 years of experience in litigation, advocacy and governance. She holds a BA in Law and an LLM in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice, and is a qualified trainer of international humanitarian law. Laila is currently the Deputy Secretary General of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and sits on the board of trustees of the Feminist Review Trust.

Tim Eaton is a Senior Research Fellow with the MENA programme at Chatham House, where he focuses on the political economy of the Libyan conflict. In 2018 Tim authored a report on the development of Libya’s war economy, in which he examined the increasing connection between economic activities and violence. Prior to this, Tim managed Chatham House’s research on the Syrian conflict, including its ‘Syria and its Neighbours’ policy initiative. Previously Tim worked for BBC Media Action, the BBC’s international development charity, on projects in Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, where he helped to set up and manage its Libya bureau from 2013 to 2014.

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Asma Khalifa is a Libyan activist and researcher, and is co-founder of the Tamazight Women’s Movement (TWM). TWM is an intersectional feminist think tank conducting research on, and advocating for, the indigenous women of Libya and North Africa. Its work currently focuses on strengthening the resilience of civil society organisations working on women, youth, peace and security. Asma’s previous research has included work on governance and development indicators for Libya and gendered communication patterns in the Middle East and North Africa. In 2016 Asma was awarded the Luxembourg Peace Prize during the World Peace Forum and the following year was named one of the ‘100 Most Influential Young Africans’. She is currently a research fellow at the GIGA Institute of Middle East Studies.

Ian Martin is a British human rights activist and and former United Nations official. His work in international NGOs has included being Secretary-General of Amnesty International, Vice President of the International Center for Transitional Justice, and Executive Director of Security Council Report.  His senior United Nations capacities have included Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) in East Timor (1999) and Nepal (2007-2009), as well as the first SRSG for Libya (2011-2012). He has also served in human rights or peace operations in Haiti, Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ethiopia/Eritrea.

Hisham Matar is a British-Libyan writer. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an Associate Professor of Professional Practice in Asia & Middle East Cultures, Comparative Literature, and English at Barnard College, Columbia University. His first novel, In the Country of Men, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won numerous literary awards, including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best First Book award for Europe and South Asia, the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, and the inaugural Arab American Book Award. His memoir, The Return, published in 2016, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography and the PEN America Jean Stein Book Award.

Photo credit: Tina Hillier

Tarek Megerisi is a Libyan political analyst and researcher who specialises in Libyan affairs and more generally politics, governance and development in the Arab world. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations in London. He started his career in Tripoli with the Sadeq Institute, Libya’s first independent think tank, where he  worked as a Research Fellow for Political Affairs. He also worked as a consultant on Libya’s transition with various NGOs, collaborating with a range of international experts on issues of democratisation and constitutionalism to directly assist Libya’s new institutions. He publishes research papers on Libyan issues including property rights and the 2011 revolution, and commentates on Libyan developments for various publications, such as Foreign Policy magazine.

Hajer Sharief is a Libyan activist and co-founder of the non-profit organisation Together We Build It. Her organisation works on the democratic transition in Libya by emphasising the relevance of women's and youth participation in the political process. In 2013 she co-initiated the 1325 Network in Libya, a network of civil society organisations encouraging women to play an active role in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. She is also an advocate for Kofi Annan Foundation with the Extremely Together initiative on countering violent extremism and a member of the UN Advisory Group of Experts for the Progress Study on Youth, Peace and Security. In 2017, Hajer was awarded the Student Peace Prize for her contribution to the inclusion of women in peacebuilding processes. She is a law graduate from Tripoli University.

Lynn Welchman is Professor of Law at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where she teaches Law and Society in the Middle East and North Africa, Human Rights and Islamic Law, and the International Human Rights Clinic. Before starting her academic career, Lynn worked on human rights in the Arab world for 15 years working mostly with Palestinian organisations including Al Haq but also with international NGOs including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Federation for Human Rights Leagues. She is also a member of the founding editorial board of the Muslim World Journal of Human Rights and a member of the Board of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Foundation, and of the International Advisory Board of OSF’s Arab Regional Office.

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Iain Scobbie is a British expert in public international law. He is currently the Chair of International Law at University of Manchester Law School and a Senior Teaching Fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He was previously the Sir Joseph Hotung Research Professor in Law, Human Rights, and Peace Building in the Middle East at SOAS, where he taught the law of armed conflict. Iain maintains a special interest in international humanitarian law; international adjudication, particularly the role of the International Court of Justice; and in the theory of international law. He is on the International Advisory Council of Diakonia's International Humanitarian Law Programme, which is based in Jerusalem. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Journal of International Law and an editor of the EJIL: Talk! blog.