Guest speakers
Plenary Session
Alison Brysk is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Global Studies and Political Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and currently holds the Mellichamp Chair in Global Governance at the same institution. Her expertise includes human rights, democracy, global governance, social movements, gender rights, and Latin American politics, and she has authored or edited 17 books on the specific topic of international human rights. Dr. Brysk also has extensive experience lecturing abroad in dozens of countries, including Costa Rica, Estonia, Hungary, Japan, India, and South Africa.
Key Publications:
- The Struggle for Freedom From Fear: Contesting Violence Against Women at the Frontiers of Globalization. Oxford University Press, 2018.
- The Future of Human Rights. Polity Press, 2018.
- Speaking Rights to Power. Oxford University Press. 2013.
- Global Good Samaritans: Human rights as foreign policy, Oxford University Press, 2009.
Dianah Msipa is an international human rights lawyer, scholar, and advocate specializing in disability rights. She currently serves as the Program Manager of Disability Rights Unite and a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Some of her most recent work focuses on the African Disability Protocol, albinism as a disability, and accommodations in the justice system for people with communication disabilities.
Key publications:
- Albinism as disability: The key to ensuring equal access to justice for the vindication of economic, social and cultural rights by persons with albinism in South Africa? (2022) Southern Africa Albinism Socio-Economic Rights Journal (forthcoming)
- Access to health care by mothers impacted by albinism in South Africa (2022) Southern Africa Albinism Socio-Economic Rights Journal (forthcoming) (with M Buyco et al)
- Moshoeshoe v DPP: A missed opportunity for persons with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in Lesotho? (2021) 13 Drexel Law Review 909
- Court accommodations for persons with severe communication disabilities: A legal scoping review (2021) 27 (3) Psychology, Public Policy and Law 399 (with R White, J Bornman and E Johnson)
Valentina Carraro is an assistant Professor in Global Governance at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) at Leiden University. Before joining the university in 2021, she held research and teaching positions at the University of Groningen, VU Amsterdam, the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights in Vienna, and Maastricht University. She specializes in regional and human rights governance, the fight against torture and other forms of violence, and state compliance with international law.
Key publications:
- Carraro, V. and Lacatus, C. (2025) ‘National Human Rights Institutions as Expert Actors in Global Human Rights Governance: The Case of the UN Universal Periodic Review’, Global Studies Quarterly, 5(2), ksaf042.
- Carraro, V. (2025) ‘Overlapping Institutions in the United Nations Human Rights System: Mutually Strengthening or Undermining?’, Journal of Human Rights, 24(2), pp. 199-216.
- Carraro, V. (2024) ‘The Effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Violations of the Right to Integrity of the Person’, Journal of International Humanitarian Action, 9(5), pp. 1-11.
- Lacatus, C. and Carraro, V. (2023) ‘National Human Rights Institutions: Independent actors in global human rights governance?’, International Affairs, 99(3), pp. 1167–1189.
- Carraro, V. (2022) ‘The More the Better? The Complementarity of United Nations Institutions in the Fight Against Torture’, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 40(4), pp. 354-378.
Closing Plenary Roundtable
Michael Windfuhr has been Deputy Director of the German Institute for Human Rights, Germany's National Human Rights Institution, for over 15 years. He has also been a member of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Human Rights since 2017. He first studied political science at the University of Heidelberg and has since built a long career as a human rights defender. He played a key role in standard-setting processes for the right to adequate food, including developing the Voluntary Guidelines on the Implementation of the Right to Food, adopted by FAO in 2004. He has also committed to protecting human rights defenders and creating space for political discourse in civil society.
Maja Spanu holds a doctorate in political science from the European University Institute, Italy. Her area of expertise includes racial and gendered discrimination, civic space and democracy, state-building, and human rights. In September 2025, she became the director of Ariadne, a private philanthropic organization focused on a range of human rights issues, including LGBTI rights, racial justice, climate justice, and labor rights. Moreover, she sits on the board of the Fund for Democracy in France.
Fabiana Leibl is a human rights lawyer, and she currently works as a Program Manager at the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR). Here, she leads institutional advocacy to make UN human rights mechanisms more accessible and responsive, and to enhance civil society participation at the Human Rights Council and related mechanisms. Her work focuses primarily on women’s rights, gender disparities, and combating anti-rights movements.
Desirée Campagna holds a doctorate in Human Rights, Society and Multi-level Governance from the University of Padova. She currently works as a project manager in PTSCLAS (Milan), an Italian consulting team that provides advisory and research services focused on economic, territorial, and industrial development. Dr. Campagna’s work focuses on evaluating EU-funded Programs as well as private and Third-sector initiatives.
Mohamed Kheir is a Human Rights Officer working with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Branch. He is a long-time friend of the Human Rights Centre, often participating in training sessions and academic simulations to educate civil society and future diplomats.