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International Forum ›› Fellowship Programs ›› Current Fellows |
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Mr. Jami Chandio is executive director of the Center for Peace and Civil Society (CPCS), a think tank based in Pakistan’s Sindh province. He edits CPCS’ quarterly journal Freedom and oversees year-long seminars on democracy that target civil society, especially young journalists. One of Pakistan’s most celebrated journalists, Mr. Chandio is the former editor of Ibrat, Pakistan’s largest Sindhi-language daily newspaper, a former anchor on Sindh TV and KTN, and former chair of the Liberal Forum of Pakistan. The only two-time winner of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society Award (in 2000 and 2001), he has authored more than a dozen books in Sindhi, Urdu, and English, including Beyond Headlines and Sound-bites: A Handbook for Reporting on Democracy and Good Governance (published by the Centre for Civic Education Pakistan). He has worked with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Pakistan as a political expert since 2004. During his fellowship, Mr. Chandio is studying the problems of federalism and prospects for provincial autonomy, including constitutional mechanisms that can be used to prevent, manage, and resolve intra-state conflict in Pakistan. Events:
Mr. Suvash Darnal is founding chair of the Jagaran Media Center, a nongovernmental organization working to promote Dalit rights in Nepal through research and activism. He also serves as chairperson of the Collective Campaign for Peace, an umbrella human rights organization that seeks to strengthen Nepali democracy through programs advocating for accountability, peace, and human rights. An accomplished and energetic young human rights activist, Mr. Darnal has been an outspoken voice for Nepal’s Dalits, the so-called “untouchables” of traditional Hindu society who remain marginalized in Nepal today. He is the author of The Local Discourse of Reservation in Nepal (2005) and coeditor of The Politics of Affirmative Action and Special Rights in Nepal (2006). During his fellowship, Mr. Darnal explored strategies and techniques for including marginalized groups such as the Dalits into the political, economic, and social mainstream in Nepal. The results of his project were disseminated in the form of articles and presentations on affirmative action in Nepal. Events:
Dr. Dieter Dettke is chairman of the board of directors of the Friends of the Goethe Institute, in Washington, D.C., and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. An expert on German-American relations, he has been named a Senior Non-Residential Fellow at the American Institute of Contemporary German Studies. From 1985 to 2006, he served as executive director and U.S. representative of the Washington office of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the largest and oldest of the German political party foundations. Dr. Dettke has published several books on the foreign policies of Germany and the European Union, including In Search of Normalcy: German Foreign and Security Policy Between Realpolitik and the Civilian Power Paradigm (forthcoming in 2009). During his fellowship, Dr. Dettke analyzed the institutional arrangements and the future direction of EU democracy promotion efforts.
Dr. Rajesh Dev is a senior lecturer in the department of political science at the Women’s College of Shillong, in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya. A leading scholar of Indian politics, he has published and edited numerous scholarly articles and books on democratic governance, human rights, and ethnopolitical conflict in northeastern India, and is a regular commentator for both print and radio media. Committed to fostering dialogue and promoting a greater understanding of tribal politics in northeastern India, Dr. Dev serves as executive secretary of the Advanced Research Group for Understanding Eastern India, as well as state coordinator for the northeastern arm of the Program for Comparative Democracy at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, in New Delhi. During his fellowship, Dr. Dev examined how ethnic and tribal political tensions have led to a crisis of democratic governance in northeastern India. He also explored approaches to conflict resolution that are structurally inclusive, ideologically tolerant, and mindful of the multicultural setting of the region. He plans to publish his findings in the form of an article. Events:
Colonel Birame Diop is a technical adviser and air force pilot for the Ministry of Defense in Senegal. A leading authority on militaries in Africa, he has spent his career facilitating dialogue between civilian and military leaders and has participated in numerous international seminars, including the Next Generation of African Military Leaders Seminar, the African Air Chiefs Seminar, and the African Leaders Seminar. In recognition of his work as deputy chief of air operations for the United Nations Mission in Congo, he was awarded the United Nations’ Peacekeeping Medal, the Senegalese Armed Force’s Medal of Honor, and the Senegalese Air Force’s Medal of Aviation. During his fellowship, Col. Diop worked on a report making the case for military reform in Africa, including the need to create military police forces in the region.
Ms. Lila Iril is president of the National Association of Families of Missing Persons, an NGO that investigates forced disappearances in Algeria. The youngest president in the history of the organization, Ms. Iril leads the campaign to determine the fate of Algerians who were “disappeared” by state security services during the country’s recent civil war. She works closely with the Algerian League of Human Rights and is currently managing a project that will establish a common database for missing persons. A regular contributor to newspapers and political reviews such as El Watan and the Algerian League of Human Rights Review, she has collaborated with the National Democratic Institute, Freedom House, and the International Commission of Missing Persons in Bosnia-Herzegovina. During her fellowship, Ms. Iril is working on a memorandum on transitional and restorative justice that can be used to help establish an independent mechanism for truth and justice in Algeria.
Ms. Niemat Kuku is coordinator of the Research Program at the Gender Center for Research and Training in Khartoum. A lifelong women’s rights advocate, she has spearheaded several initiatives intended to upgrade the capacities of women in Sudan and promote awareness of gender issues. To that end, she has prepared several training manuals on gender, conflict, and democracy and has also published several papers and book chapters on gender development in the region. Ms. Kuku has conducted research for the United Nations Development Programme on Gender and Poverty, examining women’s rights throughout Sudan. She is also a longtime member of the Sudanese Women’s Union, the Women’s Solidarity Group, the Poverty Forum, and the Gender Forum in Sudan. During her fellowship, Ms. Kuku is preparing a policy document that will serve as a framework for prioritizing gender issues in Sudanese politics.
Mr. Frederic Loua is founding president of Equal Rights for All (MDT), the only nongovernmental organization in Guinea that provides legal assistance to adult detainees in Maison Central, Guinea’s largest prison. MDT also works to reduce the prevalence of torture in Guinean police stations. A practicing lawyer, Mr. Loua has worked with Human Rights Watch to report on torture and the excessive use of force by Guinean security forces. He is an active member of Guinea’s human rights commission and has collaborated with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to provide legal assistance to refugees in Guinea. He also serves as a legal consultant for the Adventist Development and Relief Agency and for the Civil Society Organization of Guinea. During his fellowship, Mr. Loua worked on a project concerning the legal rights of criminal defendants in Guinea’s justice and penal systems, with a focus on how those rights can be improved, especially during criminal proceedings. Events:
Dr. Ihor Lylo is director of two popular political talk shows on the Ukrainian radio station The Lviv Wave, “The Moment of Truth” and “Chronographer,” which monitor the activities of local authorities and expose corruption in Ukraine. He is also an assistant professor at Ivan Franko State National University and a lecturer at the Ukrainian Catholic University, where he teaches courses on Ukrainian history and culture. Widely considered one of Ukraine’s best political reporters, Dr. Lylo has interviewed nearly all of the country’s top political elite. In addition, he has published nearly forty articles on subjects ranging from art history to Greek ancestry in Lviv. During his fellowship, Dr. Lylo examined the role of journalists in curbing corruption in the United States, as well as the legal environment in which U.S. journalists operate. Upon returning to Ukraine, he plans to launch two new radio shows—one on the American way of life and one concerning the activities of local and regional governments in Ukraine. Events:
Mr. Antonio Maldonado is an independent human rights lawyer with extensive experience in cases of anticorruption, human rights violations, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. Most recently, he was an International Legal Officer with the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG). From 2004 to 2006, he successfully represented the Peruvian government as the Anti-corruption Ad Hoc Solicitor in criminal cases against Peru’s former president, Alberto Fujimori, and the former head of Peru’s National Intelligence Service, Vladimiro Montesinos, who are believed to be responsible for a number of criminal activities, including human rights abuses, bribery, and other transgressions. Mr. Maldonado has also served as a consultant and advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United States Agency for International Development, the United Nations Mission for the Verification of Human Rights in Guatemala, and the International Human Rights Law Group, among others. During his fellowship, Mr. Maldonado is tracing the incidence of political and economic corruption over the last three decades in Peru, with a focus on the methods and strategies used to bring Alberto Fujimori and other corrupt officials to justice.
Dr. Gilbert Maoundonodji is president of the Association for the Promotion of Fundamental Liberties in Chad (APLFT), a human rights organization based in the Chadian capital of N’Djamena. As APLFT president, he has established the Independent National Observatory for Election Processes and Democracy (ONIPED) and has overseen the selection and deployment of hundreds of election observers during Chad’s national elections in 2001. An active member of Chad’s civil society, Dr. Maoundonodji has served as vice president of the executive board of Radio FM Liberty and as editor of the magazine Tchad et Culture. He is an expert on oil extraction in Chad and currently sits on the international board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. He recently completed his doctoral dissertation in political science entitled, “Geopolitical and Geostrategic Stakes of Oil Exploitation in Chad” and holds a Ph.D. from the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium). During his fellowship, Dr. Maoundonodji is studying the relationship between oil exploitation and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on the case of Chad.
Mr. Anyakwee Nsirimovu is founder and executive director of the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (IHRHL), a Nigerian human rights organization that serves the oil-rich but underdeveloped Niger Delta region. A lawyer by training, he is also chair of the Niger Delta Civil Society Coalition, a coalition of over 60 civil society groups. Since founding the IHRHL in 1988, Mr. Nsirimovu has become a household name in human rights and conflict prevention, having recruited and trained over 8,000 paralegals, established 30 legal advice offices, organized over 2,000 human rights workshops, and mobilized hundreds of communities throughout the region. He is the author of several books and reports on human rights, including Human Rights: An Umbilical Cord of Participatory Democracy (1997) and Extractive Industries and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, (2000). During his fellowship, Mr. Nsirimovu is examining how the proliferation of small arms in the Niger Delta region and governance deficit threatens the efforts of civil society, the donor community, and others working to advance democracy in Nigeria.
Ms. Siti Nurjanah is a leading civil society activist whose career has been dedicated to the promotion of a tolerant pluralistic Islam in Indonesia. Beginning with her involvement in the Indonesian Muslim student movement in the early 1990s, Ms. Nurjanah has emerged as a passionate advocate for the rights of women and the need to integrate feminist interpretations to Islamic jurisprudence. In 1995, she co-founded the Institute for the Study of Religion and Democracy (eLSAD), based in Surabaya, Indonesia, and in 1998, she launched eLSAD’s journal, Gerbang: A Journal of Thought on Religion and Democracy. In 2005, she co-founded the Center for Religious and Community Studies, also based in Surabaya. An experienced journalist, Ms. Nurjanah has written for the Indonesian press and has also worked as a reporter for Voice of America’s Indonesian Service in Washington, D.C. During her fellowship, she is exploring the influence of Islamist political parties on women’s participation in the political arena. Ms. Nurjanah intends to raise public awareness of these dynamics in Indonesia through outreach to the media, political parties, student bodies, and nongovernmental organizations in Indonesia.
Dr. Ekaterina Osipova is an associate professor in the department of criminal justice and law at Immanuil Kant State University of Russia, where she has been teaching courses on forensic examination, criminal psychology, ethics, and environmental law for the past eight years. In 2007, she conducted a research project on human trafficking in Kaliningrad, under the auspices of the International Organization for Migration (Vilnius, Lithuania), which resulted in the contribution of four chapters to a monograph on illegal migration and human trafficking, published in September 2007. In addition, Dr. Osipova has published over thirty articles in Russian law journals on subjects ranging from environmental crimes to plea-bargaining. During her fellowship, Dr. Osipova is working on an article concerning best practices for combating human trafficking in Russia and the United States.
Dr. Enrique Peruzzotti is associate professor of political science and international relations at Torcuato Di Tella University, in Buenos Aires. He has taught courses on political science, sociology, and Latin American Studies at universities around the world, including the University of Buenos Aires, Oxford University, Cornell University, and the American University in Paris. He has authored numerous articles and book chapters and has co-edited four books: Participatory Innovations and Representative Democracy in Latin America (forthcoming, in English), The Return of the People: Populism and New Democracies in Latin America (2008, in Spanish), Enforcing the Rule of Law: Social Accountability in Latin America (2006, in English), and Keeping Politicians in Check: Citizens and Methods in New Latin American Democracies (2002, in Spanish). During his fellowship, he is conducting a comparative analysis of the different mechanisms of institutionalized participation in Latin America, a project he hopes will shed light on the relationship between political representation and civic participation in the region.
Dr. Ronojoy Sen is a journalist with The Times of India, the largest and most widely read English-language daily newspaper in India. As senior assistant editor of the newspaper’s editorial page, Dr. Sen has written numerous editorials and op-ed articles on a range of issues relating to the politics of South Asia, including constitutional secularism, law, religion, nationalism, globalization and culture. In addition to several articles, he is the author of Legalizing Religion: The Indian Supreme Court and Homogenization of the Nation, a monograph based on his doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago, published in the East-West Center’s Policy Studies series in 2007. His book, tentatively entitled Articles of Faith, is scheduled to be published by Oxford University Press in 2009. During his fellowship, Dr. Sen is examining the reasons for popular disenchantment with politicians and political culture in India. He intends to share his findings in the form of a journal article and op-eds for the Times of India.
Mr. Omar Afifi Soliman is a Supreme Court lawyer and prominent human rights activist from Egypt. Trained as a police officer, he has taught human rights and international law to Egyptian police officers and has authored a number of books and articles on the relationship between citizens’ rights and law enforcement. His most renowned book, which translates into English as So That You Do Not Get Hit on the Back of Your Neck, was a milestone in the development of a human rights culture in Egypt. His articles have appeared in a number of independent newspapers, including AlDostour, Albadeel, and Almasry Alyoum. During his fellowship, Mr. Soliman is simplifying the language of democracy and human rights to make it more accessible to the average Arab citizen. Drawing on a variety of media, he is working to promote an understanding of democracy at the grassroots level in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world.
Dr. Sharon L. Wolchik is professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, where she has been teaching courses on Central and Eastern European politics since 1977. She recently served as chair of the board of directors of the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. A leading scholar of Central and East European affairs, Dr. Wolchik has written or edited ten books and over sixty articles on post-communist politics, elites, and social and women’s issues. She has been awarded numerous prestigious grants and fellowships to support her research in the region, including awards from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Smith-Richardson Foundation, and IREX. During her fellowship, Dr. Wolchik wrote an article on the factors influencing political development in postcommunist Europe and Eurasia, following the recent democratizing elections in the region. Events: |
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