International Journal of Transitional Justice Fellows Programme: Introduction to 2008 Fellows

Monday, 12 May 2008

The International Journal of Transitional Justice (IJTJ) is pleased to announce the selection of its 2008 Fellows for the Transitional Justice Fellows Programme. The six Fellows are: Mr Aderito de Jésus Soares (Timor Leste); Ms Andrea Diaz (Peru); Ms Dilrukshi Fonseka (Sri Lanka); Mr Kanio Gbala (Liberia); Mr Nsamba Adam Morris (Uganda); and Ms Rany Pen (Cambodia). Please find below a short biography of each. The IJTJ Fellowship is the first of its kind and is aimed at increasing the publication and dissemination of articles from south-based transitional justice practitioners and scholars in international publications. The Programme will provide the opportunity for applicants to develop their writing, analytical and comparative content skills through a short training workshop held in Cape Town, South Africa later this month. The training will be followed by a one year e-mentorship by leading scholars and practitioners in the field globally as well as the IJTJ Editorial team. Over the course of the year Fellows will develop a minimum of one paper of sufficient quality to be considered for publication in IJTJ or other key international publications. The workshop in Cape Town will follow the first meeting of IJTJ’s International Advisory and Editorial Boards. As such, Fellows will have the opportunity to interact with Board members as well as participate in the conference itself that  will focus on new directions in transitional justice and the role of the IJTJ. The Fellowship Programme was developed to further the goals of IJTJ by promoting the contributions of south-based authors to transitional justice discourse. The number of applications received – as well as the calibre of the applications – far exceeded expectations. Choosing the final applicants was a challenging process and as such it was decided to accept six Fellows in this first year rather than the originally anticipated five. We congratulate each of the 2008 IJTJ Fellows and look forward to working with them over the course of the next year. Editors-in-Chief Hugo van der Merwe (Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, South Africa) and Harvey Weinstein (Human Rights Center, University of California, Berkeley) Managing Editor Nahla Valji (Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, South Africa) www.ijtj.oxfordjournals.org This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ADÉRITO DE JESUS SOARES Adérito de Jesus Soares is a longtime human rights advocate. He was member of East Timor’s Constituent Assembly, which drafted East Timor’s constitution, from September 2001 to May 2002. He has worked for various national and international NGOs, as a consultant in the field of transitional justice and more broadly, and as a law and political science lecturer in East Timor from 1999 to 2007. He obtained an LLM from New York University School of Law in 2003 and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Centre for International Governance and Justice, the Australian National University. Aderito has written extensively on justice issues in East Timor, including on the subject of reparations for indigenous persons and holding private corporations to account for past violations. His opinion pieces have appeared in The Jakarta Post, International Herald Tribune, South China Morning Post and Christian Science Monitor amongst others, and he is regularly interviewed as a commentator on East Timor by international media including BBC, Reuters and AFP. ANDREA DIAZ Andrea Diaz holds an LLB from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP); an MA (Magna Cum Laude) in Sociology of Law from the Oñati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, the University of the Basque Country and the University of Milan; and has recently been granted admission to the Pre-doctoral Programme at the Faculty of Law at K.U. Leuven. Currently, Andrea works in the Academic Unit of the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights of the Catholic Pontifical University of Peru (IDEHPUCP). The institute is led by Salomon Lerner Febres, ex- Chairman of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and is intimately related to the TRC recommendations. Andrea’s work at the IDEHPUCP involves the design and implementation of research projects and the writing of academic reports on issues of international public law, human rights, transitional justice, political violence and democracy. DILRUKSHI FONSEKA Dilrukshi holds a Masters (with high honors) in International Relations from The London School of Economics (UK) and a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude), majoring in International Relations and Theater Arts from Mount Holyoke College (USA). She is currently employed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka as its Team Leader for Peace and Recovery. Prior to her current position, she worked with UNDP as part of its Tsunami Recovery Unit (2005-2006), with the Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies (2001-2004) and the International Center for Ethnic Studies (2001). Dilrukshi has worked as a resource-person, trainer and lecturer on conflict transformation, with a special focus on transitional justice, reconciliation, dialogue facilitation and mediation and gender. She is currently a faculty member on the Diploma in Conflict Resolution offered by the Bandaranaike Center for International Studies in Colombo. She has also written extensively on peacebuilding, gender, transitional justice and reconciliation. In 2005 Dilrukshi was awarded the ‘Scholar of Peace’ fellowship by the Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP). KANIO GBALA Kanio Gbala began his involvement in Liberian civil society as a national youth leader and advocate. Having first served as Program Associate at the National Youth Movement for Transparent Elections (NAYMOTE), a renowned national youth advocacy institution, in a bid to reduce the under-representation of youths in Liberian political life, he co-founded along with other colleagues in early 2006, Civic Initiative, a local human rights and pro-democracy organization geared towards the broader agenda of fiscal and moral accountability as well as respect for the rule of law. Kanio currently heads CI’s Transitional Justice and Security Sector Reform programs and is a member of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)’s West and Southern African Reparations Working Group. He also serves as coordinator of the Transitional Justice Working Group of Liberia. Kanio holds both Associate (2004) and Bachelor Degrees (2007) in Business Administration in Accounting and Management from the Stella Maris Polytechnic and is currently a candidate for an MBA in Management at the University of Liberia. NSAMBA ADAM MORRIS Nsamba Morris holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration and Management and a Bachelors degree in Political Science and Economics. Nsamba has worked as a social researcher on various projects with different organisations. He has authored papers on the conflicts in Northern Uganda, and DRC Congo as well as on decentralisation, gender ethnic identity and politics. His research interests are in the areas identity and ethnic minority politics; conflict resolution and management; and post-conflict institutional reforms and governance. He is currently the lead researcher on decentralisation for the Beyond Juba Project at the Refugee Law Project (RLP), Makerere University, Uganda where he is charged with the development of institutional Transitional Justice (TJ) mechanisms in Uganda; advocacy for institutional changes in national and local governance systems; planning and implementing advocacy strategies and activities geared at national reconciliation and integration in Uganda; and training of government and non-governmental institutions staff about transitional justice. Recently he has been involved in debates on transitional justice issues in that country as well as the process of drafting the National Reconciliation Bill. RANY PEN Born and raised in Cambodia, Rany obtained her LL.B. from the prestigious Royal University of Law and Economy in Phnom Penh and was awarded a scholarship to pursue her LL.M. in France, where she specialized in criminal law and criminology in 2004. Rany then joined the Centre for Social Development (CSD), Cambodia in May 2005 and was seconded to the International Criminal Court in The Hague as an international legal clerk. She rejoined CSD as the Court Watch Project Manager and is currently head of their Legal Unit. At CSD, Rany has authored a number of articles on justice, transparency and sustainable development. She is also involved in CSD’s activities on justice and national reconciliation, such as its nation-wide public forums. Rany has represented CSD at various workshops and seminars where she has delivered speeches on the Cambodian judicial system, reconciliation process, and on the need for transparency in its extractive industry. Acknowledging the need to build the capacity of young Cambodians to deal with legal matters, Rany volunteered as a part-time lecturer at her alma mater. Due to the full-time nature of her work at CSD, Rany has recently scaled down her teaching but continues to engage in her research interests through CSD’s advocacy and projects which pertain to the law and human rights.