Christian Attard
Member for Malta

Christian Attard obtained his doctoral degree in law from the University of Malta in 2005 and was admitted to the Maltese bar a year later. He is a founding member of the Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM) and was board member of the same organisation between 2001 and 2007. In that position he was responsible, amongst other tasks, for monitoring the transposition of EU anti-discrimination law into Maltese law in the run-up to Malta's accession to the EU and for publicising the relevant legislation and providing training to an array of organisations. He has worked for the Office of the Commissioner for Refugees in Malta and is currently an official with the European Parliament.

Søren Baatrup
Member for Denmark

Søren V. Baatrup (born 1966), founding member of the ECSOL, holds a master degree in laws from the University of Copenhagen (1991). From 1993 until 2007 he served as a legal advisor (on a voluntary basis) at the advisory body for gays and lesbians run by the LGBT Denmark (former LBL), the national organisation for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people. Between 2002 and 2004 he was member of the European Group of Experts on Combating Sexual Orientation Discrimination, which reported to the Commission of the European Communities, about the implementation of the Employment Equality Directive. The work was coordinated by Kees Waaldijk. Beside the above mentioned he is specialised in liability insurance and works as a senior manager in Topdanmark Forsikring (Insurance) being in charge of two underwriting departments.

Susanne Baer
Member for Germany

Susanne Baer, is Professor of Public Law and Gender Studies at the Law Faculty a Humboldt University of Berlin, William W. Cook Global Law Professor, University of Michigan, USA, and visiting faculty at CEU Budapest. She has also taught in Bielefeld, Erfurt, Linz, Fiesole, and Toronto. She runs the GenderCompetence centre to advise the government on equality policies, and collaborates with the Berilin state agency against discrimination. She served as an independent expert on sexual orientation discrimination in Europe. Her research areas are socio-cultural legal studies, gender studies, law against discrimination, comparative constitutional law, constitutionalism and governance. Publications in english include, with Norman Dorsen, Michel Rosenfeld, Andras Sájo, Comparative Constitutionalism, St. Paul 2003, Dignity, Liberty, Equality: A Fundamental Rights Triangle of Constitutionalism, University of Toronto Law Journal 4 (2009) 417-468. The End of Private Autonomy" or "Rights-Based Legislation? The Anti-Discrimination Law Debate in Germany", ANNUAL OF GERMAN AND EUROPEAN LAW (AGEL). In November 2010 Susanne Baer was elected a judge at the German Federal Constitutional Court.

Damir Banović
Member for Bosnia-Herzegovina

Damir Banović graduated from Law Faculty in Sarajevo and holds a LLM. Since 2007 he is working as a teaching assistant at the Law Faculty in Sarajevo. Also, a member of Steering board at the Sarajevo Open Centre where he has been involved in a different scientific projects in the area of law, political sciencies and LGBT rights.

During 2011 he provided lectures and tranings for the LGBT persons under the name: Legal System and LGBT Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina (November) and How to Use Legal Remedies in the Protection of LGBT Rights in the Bosnian Legal System (December).

Areas of intrestes: multicultural legal theories, politics of identity, theory and practices of LGBT rights.

Selected articles: Transeksualnost- pravo na modifikaciju spola, published in Doktor, Sarajevo (2006) (eng: Transsexualism: Right to Modify Sex); Seksualna orijentacija i rodni identitet u kontekstu ljudskih prava u Bosni i Hercegovini, in Čitanka o lezbejskim i gej pravima, published by Sarajevo Open Centre (2011); (eng: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity as A Human Right in Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Selected publications: Prava i slobode LGBTIQ osoba u Bosni i Hecegovini: Analiza relevantnih pravnih akata (co-author with Svetlana Đurković), Association Q (2006) (eng: Rights and Freedoms of LGBTTIQ Persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Legal Act Analysis) and Prava i slobode LGBT osoba u Bosni i Hercegovini – seksualna orijentacija i rodni identitet u pozitivnom pravu Bosne i Hercegovine, published by Sarajevo Open Centre (2011) (eng: Rights and Freedoms of LGBT Persons in Bosnia and Herzegovine – Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity within The Bosnian Legal System).

Dmitri Bartenev
Co-Member for Russia

Dmitri Bartenev, Attorney at Law, Senior Legal Monitor for Russia, Mental Disability Advocacy Center, holds an M.D. degree from the Petrozavodsk State University, Russia (1998), a degree in law from the same university (1999) and a doctorate degree in public international law from St. Petersburg State University, Russia (2006). Admitted to the Russian Bar in 2000. Since 2003 he works as Professor of Law at St. Petersburg State University and from 2004 as Legal Monitor for Mental Disability Advocacy Center, an international NGO based in Budapest, Hungary. He has been involved in a number of topical ECHR cases concerning rights of people with mental health or intellectual disabilities. Since 2006 Dmitri has been representing Moscow Gay Russia Project in a number of cases concerning freedom of assembly, hate crimes against lgbt people in Russia, and discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Paul Borghs
Member for Belgium and Co-Member for Luxemburg


Paul Borghs was born on 12 April 1963 in Antwerp (Belgium). He holds a master’s degree in law (University of Antwerp, 2003), a master’s degree in applied economics (University of Antwerp, 1985) and a candidate’s degree in political and social sciences (University of Antwerp, 1986). Since 1992 he has been active, as a volunteer, in the Belgian lesbian and gay movement, where he followed, at first hand, the realization of the LGBT-friendly laws in Belgium. He published several articles, mainly about the legal aspects of lesbian and gay partnership and parenthood and about the history of lesbian and gay rights in Belgium. He also published the following books (in Dutch): “Juridische aspecten van homoseksueel ouderschap” (Legal Aspects of Homosexual Parenthood) (Mys & Breesch, 1998) and “De Antidiscriminatiewet” (The Anti-Discrimination Law) (Garant, 2003). He co-edited “Holebi-beleid en de gemeente“ (Gay and Lesbian Policies and the Local Authority) (Politeia, 2000). His main interests include gay and lesbian partnership, gay and lesbian parenthood, anti-discrimination law and sexual criminal law.

Natasha Boshkova
Co-Member for Macedonia


Natasha Boshkova, Attorney at law, holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, the Republic of Macedonia (2003), MA in Gender Studies from the University of Sarajevo, Centre for Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Studies in Bosnia and Herzegovina (2008). Since 2008 she has been working in HOPS- Healthy Options Project Skopje providing legal aid to drug users and sex workers. She is also engaged as a lawyer in the Coalition "Sexual and Health Rights of Marginalized Communities" where she litigates cases of violation of human rights of drug users, sex workers, LGBT people and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Constantin Cojocariu
Member for Romania

Constantin Cojocariu holds a bachelor's degree in law from the University of Iasi, Romania (2000), a MA in Public Policies from the same university (2002) and a LLM in Human Rights from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary (2003). In 2000 he was admitted as a qualified lawyer to Iasi Bar Association, Romania. Previously he worked for a number of Romanian human rights organizations such as Pro Democracy Association and Equal Opportunities for Women Foundation. Between 2005 and 2007 Constantin worked as Staff Attorney for the European Roma Rights Centre, having been involved in a number of topical Strasbourg cases concerning Roma rights. In 2007, Constantin joined INTERIGHTS, a London-based NGO providing legal expertise on international and comparative human rights law, where he handles among others the work of the organization on LGBT rights in Central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union.

 Stuart Davis
Co-Member for European Private International Law

Stuart Davis has been a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales since 1993. He holds an LL.B. (European) from the Universities of Exeter, UK and Aix-Marseille, France (1989) and a Postgraduate Diploma in European Integration from the Europa-Institut, Saarbrücken, Germany (1991). After specialising for many years in commercial EU Law (particularly competition law, free movement of goods, intellectual property and energy regulation) he developed an interest in private international law at a time when his UK civil partnership was refused recognition in France. His initial research on cross-border recognition of civil status led to the publication of several articles and the opportunity to speak and take part in numerous conferences, finally leading to the completion of a Ph.D. at the University of Reading, UK on 'Conflicts of Law and the Mutual Recognition of Same-Sex Unions in the EU' (2015).

Janka Debreceniova
Member for Slovakia

Janka Debrecéniová holds a law degree from the University of Matej Bel in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, and a Magister Juris in European and Comparative Law degree from the University of Oxford. From 2000, she has been working for the Citizen, Democracy and Accountability civic association (www.oad.sk), a human rights NGO based in Slovakia with a strong focus on anti-discrimination and on human rights of women. She has been actively involved in many legislative and policy initiatives in these fields. For example, she has been a member of the Governmental Inter-Departmental Committee on Amending the Anti-Discrimination Act (2007-2008) whereby prohibition of discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation was introduced for all the fields covered by the act. She also (co-)authored public comments to various drafts of legislation relating to, inter alia, reform of civil law from the perspective of rights of women and people with non-heterosexual orientation, to reproductive rights, to labour law reform from the perspective of anti-discrimination and professional-personal life reconciliation, to reform of procedural regulations relating to enforcing the right to equal treatment and to institutional reforms in this field, and represented the public in subsequent negotiations with the government on these issues. She is an author of a comprehensive commentary on the Slovak Anti-Discrimination Act and of various articles and book chapters on anti-discrimination (including e. g. one on the need to legislatively institutionalise intimate partnerships of non-heterosexual couples and one on gender biases in courts). She is a member of the European Network of Legal Experts in the Non-Discrimination Field on the Grounds of Race and Ethnic Origin, Age, Disability, Religion or Belief and Sexual Orientation. On behalf of her organisation, she also represents persons affected by discrimination in judicial proceedings.

 Deidre Du Bois 
Co-Member for Luxemburg

After completing legal studies at the Université Panthéon/Assas, Paris II, Ms Du Bois was admitted to the Luxembourg bar in 1996 and has been a partner at Dupong, Krieps, Du Bois and Dias Videira since 2001. She specializes in family and youth law and handles cases involving separation, divorce, joint custody and visitation rights issues, as well as paternity claims and testing. She is particularly active in cases dealing with surrogate motherhood and more generally the difficulties connected with medically assisted in vitro fertilization, and she handles domestic and international adoption cases. She represents minors in court as a child lawyer and as an ad hoc administrator on a regular basis. She is currently President of the Family Law Commission of the Luxembourg bar and a member of the Luxembourg Bar Disciplinary and Administrative Council. She represents Luxembourg in the International Academy of Family Lawyers (IAFL). She is Vice-President of the Advisory Board of Human Rights of Luxembourg and is a member of the National Ethics Advisory Board for Life Sciences and Health. She speaks Luxembourgish, English, French and German.

Kristīne Dupate
Member for Latvia

Kristīne Dupate graduated University of Latvia as a lawyer on 2000. On 2002 she obtained LL.M. at Riga Graduate School of Law. A year later on 2003 she was enrolled as doctoral student at the University of Latvia under FEU Programme in cooperation with Danish Universities. After three year research on EU gender equality law under supervision of Professor Ruth Nielsen (Copenhagen Business School) Kristīne Dupate defended her Ph.D. thesis ‘EC sex equality law in Latvia. Rights of persons with regard to child birth’ and was awarded doctoral degree at the University of Latvia on 2007. After participation in various gender equality projects in NGO’s on 2008 she started to work as head of Discrimination Prevention Department of the Ombudsman Office of Latvia performing functions of the National Equality Body. Currently Kristīne Dupate is a lecturer at University of Latvia, Faculty of Law Department of International and European Law. She is also member of European Network of Gender Equality Law, European Network of European Labour Law and European Network on Free Movement of Workers.

 Stefano Fabeni
Co-Member for Italy, Member for San Marino and Vatican City

Stefano Fabeni is the director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex (LGBTI) Initiative at Global Rights, an international non governmental organization based in Washington, DC.

Previously, Mr. Fabeni served as the Italian member of the European Group of Experts on Combating Discrimination on grounds of Sexual Orientation. He was the conceiver and the coordinator of the EU funded project CERSGOSIG-InformaGay and the project’s director of the center for research and legal comparative studies on sexual orientation and gender identity, running the center’s legal database on sexual orientation and gender identity. He has served for several years as a pro bono legal advisor and consultant of the New Rights Department of the national trade union Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro (Italian Labor General Confederation). Mr. Fabeni also has served as a consultant and legal expert for institutions, consultancy firms and NGOs throughout Europe, as well as for the World Health Organization. He is the author of several bills introduced to the Italian Parliament in the XIV, XV and XVI legislatures, namely on transgender rights, legal recognition of same sex and de facto couples, and anti-discrimination legislation. He serves as a member of the Commission on LGBT rights of the Italian Ministry of Equal Opportunity.

He has written several articles on LGBTI issues and often is asked to speak on the subject. Mr. Fabeni is the editor and author (together with Maria Gigliola Toniollo) of the book La discriminazione fondata sull’orientamento sessuale - L’attuazione della direttiva 2000/78/CE e la nuova disciplina per la protezione dei diritti delle persone omosessuali sul posto di lavoro (Discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation The implementation of the directive 2000/78/EC and the new legislation for the protection of the rights of homosexuals at the workplace), Roma, 2005.
Mr. Fabeni is a member of the board of the International Lesbian and Gay Law Association (ILGLaw), has been an honorary member of the Italian transgender NGO Crisalide AzioneTrans and an advocate and legal advisor for InformaGay.

Mr. Fabeni holds a laurea in giurisprudenza (equivalent to J.D.) from the University of Torino and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Columbia University School of Law (James Kent Scholar).

 Barry Fitzpatrick
Member for Northern Ireland and Isle of Man
Member for European anti-discrimination law

Barry Fitzpatrick is Deputy Director of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities. He is a qualified solicitor who has held academic posts in Preston, Leicester and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In 1995, he joined the University of Ulster, where he was Professor of European Law and Head of the Law School. From 2002-05, he was Head of Legal Policy and Advice at the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. He was an equality law and policy consultant between 2005-2008. He was a Part-Time Chairman of Industrial Tribunals from 1998-2002 and has been Deputy Chairman of the Industrial Court from 2001, acting as Chairman from 2006-08 and again in 2010. He was the inaugural Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation (CoSO), an umbrella group of LGB groups in Northern Ireland from 1998-2000 and has written extensively on equality issues, including SO equality, and has contributed to a range of policy responses on LGB issues.

 Miguel Freitas
Member for Portugal

P. Miguel Freitas (born 1971), has a degree in law by the University of Coimbra's School of Law (1994). In 1995 he was admitted to the Centro de Estudos Judiciários (the Portuguese school for the judiciary) where he concluded his studies in 1998. Since that year he has served as a judge in several courts of first instance. Since 2000 he has worked mainly in the areas of criminal law (and more recently, military criminal law) and sexual orientation discrimination law. He worked, on a voluntary basis, with a Portuguese LGBT organization, as an advisor on legal matters, and has done voluntary work for some international LGBT organizations. He was also member of the European Group of Experts on Combating Sexual Orientation Discrimination, commissioned by the European Commission and coordinated by Kees Waaldijk. Currently he also teaches criminal law as part of a course for aspirants to the judiciary.

 Hrefna Fridriksdóttir
Member for Iceland

Hrefna Fridriksdottir was born in Reykjavik 1965. She graduated from the Law Faculty, University of Iceland in 1989 (Cand.jur), passed the bar exam and worked at Icelands biggest law firm for six years. Hrefna has an LLM degree in law from Harvard Law School (1996) and the name of her master thesis was: The Nordic gay and lesbian "marriage": No children allowed.  She worked for tvelve years as head of the legal department for The Government Agency for child protection and a lecturer with the University in Iceland. Hrefna is currently an associate professor in the Law Faculty, University of Iceland and her main fields are family law, children´s rights, child protection, inheritance law, social law and policy and sexual orientation law. She wrote the chapter on Iceland in the report More or less together: Levels of legal consequences of marriage, cohabitation and registered partnership for different-sex and same-sex partners. A comparative study of nine European countries, published by the Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques in 2005. She has also written articles on same-sex partnership in Icelandic publications.

 Daniela Furtunova
Member for Bulgaria

Daniela Furtunova is senior attorney and organisational officer in the legal defence programme of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, a major independent non-governmental organisation for the protection of human rights in Bulgaria. She joined BHC in 2005. In 2006, she received her LLM from Sofia University. She joined the Sofia Bar Association on 31 January 2007. Since then she has been engaged in strategic litigation on anti-discrimination cases before the Bulgarian courts and anti-discrimination commission, as well as before the European Court of Human Rights.

Apart from being attorney-at-law, at BHC Daniela has participated in monitoring missions on the conditions in prisons, detention facilities and police departments as well as institutions for children and adults with disabilities. She is also closely engaged in advocacy on LGBT and women rights.

 Giorgi Gotsiridze 
Member for Georgia

 
Giorgi Gotsiridze was born in Georgia 1983. He graduated from the law school of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi state University in 2005. Giorgi Gotsiridze started working at liberty institute, the human rights NGO, in 2004. Giorgi Gotsiridze was an employee for the Georgian Public Defender (the Ombudsman Institution) on minority issues in 2006-2008. This was first chance for him to advocate for the civil rights of LGBT people. Giorgi Gotsiridze was hired as a human rights expert for United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 2008-2009. In 2009 Giorgi Gotsiridze joined Georgian Young lawyers’ Association (GYLA), one of the leading Human rights NGOs in Georgia. He took the position of the lawyer for the constitutional litigation at GYLA. During municipal election in 2010 GYLA brought a complaint against a candidate for the member of Tbilisi municipal council who had incited violence towards the LGBT community on his facebook page. Giorgi Gotsiridze was representative of his organization in this case. Giorgi Gotsiridze was one of the founder of LGBT Georgia in 2011. Giorgi Gotsiridze left GYLA for Ohio Northern University Claud Pettit law school (United States of America) in 2012. He graduated from Ohio Northern University in 2013 and earned his LLM degree (Master of Law). Giorgi Gotsiridze got his position of GYLA’s lawyer for the constitutional litigation back in 2013. Being the GYLA’s anti-discrimination project coordinator in 2014-2016, Giorgi Gotsiridze brought anti-discrimination cases before the court and ombudsman. The project was funded by the Georgian Open Society foundation (OSGF).              

 Helmut Graupner
Member for Austria, Liechtenstein, Co-Coordinator | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | www.graupner.at | Wikipedia

Helmut Graupner, 1989 Master of Law; 1996 Doctor of Law; 2000 admitted to the Bar in Austria and 2000-2013 in the Czech Republic; since 1991 president of Rechtskomitee LAMBDA (RKL), the Austrian LGBTIQ rights organisation; since 1992 Co-President of the Austrian Society for Sexologies (ÖGS); expert to the Austrian Federal Parliament, to the German Federal Parliament, and to the European Commission on issues of sexual offences legislation, partnership, and antidiscrimination legislation; member of the Expert Committee on the Revision of the Law on Sexual Offences appointed by the Austrian Minister of Justice (1996-2004); since 1999 member of the World Association for Sexual Health (WAS); since 2000 member of the editorial board of the Journal of Homosexuality (Routledge: Philadelphia); former Co-Director for Europe of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Intersex Law Association (ILGLaw); Austrian member and co-coordinator of the European Commission on Sexual Orientation Law (ECSOL); temporary advisor of UNAIDS; since 2013 Member of the National Hiv/Aids-Commission (since 2017: National Commission on Sexually Transmittable Infections) appointed by the Federal Minister of Health; 2002-2006 lecturer in law at the University of Innsbruck ("Sexuality & the Law"); 2006-2011 lecturer at the Academy of European Law, since 2011 lecturer at the Vienna Academy of Sexology. Since 2002 state-approved counsellor-at-law for family affairs under the Austrian Family Counselling Advancement Act. 2005-2007 member of the national Helpline for Crime Victims; since 2003 counsel of crime victims in criminal proceedings on behalf of victim protection centers (Vienna Ombudspersons for Children and Adolescents; Vienna Outreach Clinic for Men; Helpline for Raped Women and Girls). Since 2013 member of the Monitoring Board on Children Rights, Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth. Since 2015 member of the Austrian Commission of Jurists.  

Successfully litigated LGBT-rights cases before the European Court of Human Rights (L. & V. vs. Austria 2003; S. L. vs. Austria 2003; Woditschka & Wilfling vs. Austria 2004; Franz Ladner vs. Austria 2005, Thomas Wolfmeyer vs. Austria 2005; H.G. & G.B. vs. Austria 2005; R.H. vs. Austria 2006; X et al. vs. Austria [GC]2013, E.B. et al v Austria 2013, Hörmann et. al. vs. Austria 2017; D.B. et al v Switzerland 2022), before the Court of Justice of the European Union (Tadao Maruko vs. VdBB [GC]2008, Jürgen Römer vs. City of Hamburg [GC]2011, E.B. v. BVA [GC]2019), and before the Austrian Constitutional Court (striking down of the discriminatory age of consent; deletion of police data stored under discriminatory age of consent legislation; public health insurance benefits for same-sex partners; marriage rights for transsexual persons; genital surgery requirement for recognition in other gender; several cases on equal rights for registered couples as for married couples; donor insemination for lesbian couples; joint adoption by same-sex couples; marriage equality; third gender) and the Administrative Supreme Court of Austria (change of legal sex without surgery). Author of the book “Sexualität, Jugendschutz & Menschenrechte” (“Sexuality, Youth Protection and Human Rights”, Fft./M. et. al.: Peter Lang 1997); Co-edited the books Sexuality & Human Rights - A Global Overview (New York: Haworth Press 2005) and Adolescence, Sexuality & the Criminal Law - Multidisciplinary Perspectives (New York: Haworth Press 2005). 2011 he contributed the article ‘Gay Rights’ to the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law.

2001 Gay And Lesbian Award (G.A.L.A.) by the Austrian LGBT-movement
2009 Civil Courage Award (“Zivilcouragepreis”) by CSD-Berlin
2016 Vienna State Golden Medal of Merits (awarded by the Vienna State Government)
2016 Golden Medal of Honor for Outstanding Merits in the Interests of the Republic of Austria (awarded by the Federal President of Austria)

 Liza Grigoryan 
Member for Armenia

Liza Grigoryan, attorney at the Chamber of Advocates, meantime working with NGOs Armenian Institute for Development, Democracy and Rule of Law Centre, Bar Association of the Republic of Armenia as a project lawyer since 1999. She lectured in Armenian private universities, was involved in several training programmes as a trainer, was involved in anti-corruption projects as an expert, has litigated in domestic and international fora. In 2010 succeeded a property rights violation case in the European Court of Human Rights. Holds LLM degree from Law department of Yerevan State University and LLM at the American University in Armenia did certificate program at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 2008, passed internship at UNHCR in Geneva. She participated in series of trainings on European convention, strategic litigation, antidiscrimination, women’s rights and so on.

 Altin Hazizaj 
Member for Albania

Altin Hazizaj, Barrister at Law, MA of Law and European Studies, Altin Hazizaj, was the first youth member of the Albanian Helsinki Committee (AHC) back in 1992, then the only human rights organisation in Albania. He helped to establish the children and youth rights section at AHC, before establishing Children's Human Rights Centre of Albania (CRCA) in 1997. Since 2002 he is the General Director of CRCA and as of 2009 he is 1st Ambassador of PINK Embassy / LGBT PRO Albania, a major LGBT rights organisation in the country. Altin Hazizaj, finished Tirana Law School of University of Tirana in 1995 with excellent marks. He has dedicated all his work to the advancement of human rights in Albania, contributing as staff and consultant to organizations such as: Albanian Helsinki Committee, Center for Population and Development, Albanian Group for Human Rights, Albanian Civil Society Foundation, Save the Children Kosovo, ILO Turin, World Vision Kosovo, UNICEF etc. In 2003 he received his Master Degree in European Studies from the Center of European Studies of the Univeristy of Tirana. In 2006 he became a member of the Albanian Bar Association. In 2007 the Law School of Tirana University recognised his MA degree in European Studies to be the equivalent of a MA in Law. During the same year he started his PhD studies at the Law School of Tirana University, working on the theses: The system of political parties in Albania. Altin Hazizaj is author, co-author or editor of many researches, reports and studies on human rights situation in Albania such as: "The Vicious Circle", "Forgotten Children", "Awaiting trial", "Youth Employment Opportunities in Albania", "Albania: CRC Alternative Report on the Rights of the Child", "Albania: CEDAW Alternative Report", "Albania: CAT Alternative Report" and "Human Rights violations against LGBT community in Albania". From 1993 to 1999, Altin Hazizaj worked as a journalist for political and social issues for major Albanian daily newspapers such as: "Koha Jone", "Gazeta Shqiptare", "Information Daily", "the People", for Magazine "KLAN", and the National Television "KLAN". He has participated and contributed extensively in working groups for the preparation of National Strategy for Children in Albania, the National Strategy for Youth in Albania, Working Group on LGBT rights, while he has been providing direct legislative inputs for the improvement of the following laws: Criminal Code of Albania (2007 / 2011), Law on Domestic Violence (2006), Law on Anti-discrimination (2006-2010), Law for Children's Rights (2009-2010).

 Rainer Hiltunen
Member for Finland

Rainer Hiltunen (LL.M) is the Head of Office of the Finnish Ombudsman for Minorities and has worked at the office since 2002. He finished his masters? degree in law in 1995 and the subject of his master thesis was same-sex partnerships in Finnish legislation. In 1996-2002 he worked as the Executive Director of the National Lesbian and Gay Association Seta. During that time he took part in the long process of getting new partnership legislation approved in Finland. For example, he worked as a member of the Ministry of Justice? s working group prepairing the partnership law which was passed in 2002. He has also written articles on same-sex partnerships and anti-discrimination in Finnish law.

 Sanja Juras
Member for Croatia

Sanja Juras is the coordinator of the Lesbian Group Kontra (since 2002), and one of the founders and the coordinator of the Legal Team of Iskorak and Kontra - joint team of two LGBT NGOs from Croatia - Lesbian Group Kontra and Iskorak- Sexual and Gender Minorities' Rights Center, that provides direct legal help to victims of hate crimes and advocates for rights of sexual and gender minorities (since 2003). She is also a coordinator of the Women's Network of Croatia - feminist political network of 40 organisations from different parts of Croatia, member of the European Women's Lobby (since 2007). She is lecturer on the subject of lesbian studies at the Centre for Women's Studies in Zagreb (since 2005). She advocated for and created numerous bills and amendments to laws and legal documents in regards to LGBT and women's rights, adopted by the Croatian Parliament. Cases of the Legal Team that followed the adoption of these laws became presedents in regards to the protection of rights of sexual and gender minorities in Croatia. Ms. Juras cooperated in the creation of the module for education of police officers in regards to hate crimes and held trainings at the Police Academy in Zagreb and Pula (2006-2007). She is a public representative for both the Legal Team of Iskorak and Kontra and the Women's Network of Croatia. She participated in organisation of LGBT pride manifestations in Croatia (2002-2005), and International Women's Day marches (2005 - 2009). She is co-author of annual reports on status of human rights of sexual and gender minorities (2002-2008) published by Kontra and Iskorak, author of the LGBT Manual for the Use of the Anti-discrimination Provisions and Laws in Croatia (2004-2006), and a co-author of the Annual Report on the Status of Women's Rights in Croatia (2006).

  Petr Kalla 
 Member for Czech Republic

Petr Kalla finished his master degree in law at the Charles University in Prague in 2001. He was admitted to the Czech Bar Association (Česká advokátní komora) in 2006. He is cooperating on volunteer basis with Czech non-governmental LGBT-organizations Prague Pride z.s. and PROUD (Platforma pro rovnoprávnost, uznání a diverzitu z.s.). Petr Kalla participated on preparation of an annex to the Czech Law on Registered Partnership, which should allow second partner adoption in the Czech Republic, and he took part also on the related lobbying. He is also litigating several LGBT-rights cases in the Czech Republic.

 Ksenyia Kirichenko 
Co-Member for Russia

Kseniya Kirichenko is a Russian human rights lawyer and legal researcher. She has been involved in LGBT human rights advocacy since 2007 and works now as the Strategic Litigation and International Advocacy Program Coordinator at "Coming Out" LGBT Group (Saint Petersburg, Russia), as well as Director of the Transgender Legal Defense Project. She is involved in strategic litigation on LGBT rights and works with the UN treaty bodies and Council of Europe institutions. Kseniya is a member of the Board of the Russian LGBT Network, an inter-regional human rights NGO working for equality of all people regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. She was also Senior Lecturer at Novosibirsk State University in 2005-2015. She holds a degree in law from Novosibirsk State University (2005) and completed her postgraduate studies in law at the Institute of Philosophy and Law at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science (2008). She was a 2011-12 PILnet International Fellow and Visiting Scholar at Columbia University Law School.

 Neza Kogovsek
Member for Slovenia
Member for European family law free movement

Neža Kogovšek holds a law degree from the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law (2002), and a Masters degree in international human rights law from the University of Notre Dame, Law School, U.S.A. (2004). She is a PhD candidate at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Law. She works in the field of human rights law, in particular in the areas of anti-discrimination, citizenship, asylum and migration law. She is the author of numerous articles, reports and legal briefs on sexual orientation law. She is a member of the European Network of Legal Experts in Anti-Discrimination Field since 2007, a deputy member of Odysseus Academic Network for asylum and migration since 2008, and a member of ESCOL network since 2009. In October 2022 the Slovenian National Assembly appointed Neža Kogovšek Constitutional Court judge.

 Jovan Kojicic
Member for Montenegro

Jovan Kojičić is an Assistant Professor in European Law. Prof. Kojičić has an extensive background in environmental law (and international environmental law), policy and legislative framework, as well as in the human rights field. Teaching is an environment that he has found both intellectually stimulating and part of his own growth as a professional. Prof. Kojičić received his Doctor of Laws (Dr. iur.) degree at the Viadrina European University in Germany. During his doctoral studies he was awarded the prestigious German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) Fellowship. Prof. Kojičić joined the Faculty of Administrative and European Studies in Podgorica in April 2008. Also, he has finished his post-doctoral thesis in the field of human rights in international law and the relation of law to social change at the Lund University Department of Sociology of Law in Lund, Sweden. Prof. Kojičić is also a visiting researcher at the department of
European, Public International and Public Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Leipzig, Germany, as well as a visiting scholar at the UCLA School of Law - the Williams Institute in Los Angeles, California, the United States. He has been a full member of the Southeast Europe Society (Munich, Germany) since 2003, as well as a listed expert in Environmental Law for Serbia and Montenegro with the Eco Institute for Applied Ecology in Darmstadt, Germany. Prof. Kojičić was also a member of the European Economic and Social Committee Study Group (2001-2003) for the ECOSOC Project of South-Eastern European Countries. Over the years, Prof. Kojičić has received many awards such as: Academic Fellowship, DAAD, for the 19th European Summer Academy in Germany (2008); Academic Research Fellowship, DAAD (2008); Graduate College Europa Fellows II, Federal German Ministry of Education and Research and European Union Fellows Programme, European University Viadrina, Germany (2005); European Viadrina University PhD Fellow (2004); The European System of Human Rights Summer Course Fellow, European Viadrina University, Council of Europe and DAAD (2003), DAAD PhD Fellowship (2002-2004) among others. He is the President of the DAAD Alumni Club Montenegro and the principal organiser of the international conference "Justice in the Balkans: Equality for Sexual Minorities". In August 2011 he has been appointed as Adviser to the Prime Minister of Montenegro on Human Rights and Protection against Discrimination.

 Lene Løvdal
Co-Member for Norway

Lene Løvdal is a human rights and anti-discrimination lawyer. She has previously worked for the Norwegian LGBT Organisation and other NGOS, as well as the Norwegian Equality and Anti-Discrimination Ombud. She is a co-owner of the independent consultancy firm and non-profit enterprise Egalia centre against discrimination, and a national expert on non-discrimination law for European Equality Law Network. She also works as an examiner in human rights and anti-discrimination law at the University of Oslo, and writes the commentary for the legal database Karnov/Lovdata about the Norwegian Act regarding registration of gender. 

 Nora Markard
Co-Member for Germany

Nora Markard is a Professor for International Public Law and International Human Rights at the University of Münster. She holds an MA in International Peace & Security from King's College, London (2002) as well as a PhD from Humboldt University (2011) and is qualified for the German bar. She co-founded the Humboldt Law Clinic Fundamental and Human Rights in 2010, which she represented before the Committee Against Torture together with the Association of Intersexed People, and co-founded and directed the Refugee Law Clinic Hamburg (2014–19). Her research interests range from legal gender studies and international human rights and refugee law to constitutional law and comparative perspectives. Nora has published widely on gender and LGBT issues and on migration law. Recent publications include 'Dropping the Other Shoe: Obergefell and the Inevitability of the Constitutional Right to Equal Marriage, German Law Journal 17:3 (2016), 509–542, and 'Private but Equal? Why the right to privacy will not bring full equality for same-sex couples,' in: G. Frankenberg (ed), Order from Transfer, 2013. Her dissertation, for which she was awarded the Humboldt Prize, appeared as 'Kriegsflüchtlinge' (2012).

 Caroline Mécary 
Member for France and Member for Monaco
Co-Member for European Private International Law 

Caroline Mécary was admitted to the Paris Bar in 1991. She has published various legal essays and is a frequent columnist with specialised legal journals, as well as with newspapers. She is often invited to participate in TV and radio shows. In February 2009, she was elected president of the Fondation Copernic, a think tank from the left of the political spectrum, as successor to Roger Martelli and Anne Le Strat. At the same time, she is responsible for managing the lawyers’ network of the “Réseau d’aide aux victimes d’agression et de discrimination” (R.A.V.A.D, i.e. the Network to assist victims of assault and discrimination), an association federating many LGBT associations in France. Previously specialising in criminal law and in immigration and asylum law (she assisted illegal immigrants occupying the Saint-Bernard Church), Caroline Mécary now mainly focuses on family law (adoption, succession, divorce, etc.). She also focuses on issues relating to new family forms: extension of civil marriage to same-sex couples (she represented the same-sex couple married in Bègles), recognition of the right of children raised by same-sex couples (she obtained the first adoption judgment in favour of a same-sex couple in June 2001, as well as the first judgment on delegation of parental authority in July 2004, and finally the first decision of the French Supreme Court on delegation of parental authority in February 2006).

In January 2008, she obtained from the European Court of Human Rights a decision ruling that the refusal of an authorisation to adopt opposed to a lesbian based on her sexual orientation was incompatible with Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. She is often approached both in France and from abroad on any issues relating to discrimination, whatever their basis (sex, race, sexual orientation, handicap, etc.) and their area (criminal law, family law, employment law). She represents and assists her clients before French Courts as well as before the European Court of Human Rights, to which she often submits cases (extension of civil marriage to same-sex couples, adoption of the other partner’s child, homophobic insults, surrogate motherhood).

 Reimo Mets
Member for Estonia

Reimo Mets, a lawyer of the Advocate office Veso & Partners, holding a Master`s degree in law from the University of Tartu (Estonia 2002). Previously, he has worked for a number of Estonian law offices and established a NGO Sexual Minorities Protection Union. Reimo is a well-known lawyer in Estonia, who stands openly for the rights of sexual minorities and is an expert in the family law. He has participated in many TV, Radio shows as well as written educational stories about LGBT people in general. In addition to the advocacy in sexual minorities’ rights, he has also presented several constitutional rights cases to the Ombudsman, which have received positive solutions. On February 2009 he sued the Estonian Republic in hate crime case (in co-operation with Interights) to the EcHR – Mets vs Estonia was declared inadmissible on June 2009. He is ILGA -Europe supportive member and he has given lectures and seminars, or spoken at conferences or universities. He is openly gay and fights against homophobia and discrimination.

 Goran Miletic
Member for Serbia and Kosovo


Goran Miletić has a Bachelor of Laws from Belgrade University (Serbia) and a European Regional MA in Democracy and Human Rights (joint programme of the University of Sarajevo and the University of Bologna). He has previously worked for the Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) in Belgrade (Serbia). During his work in HLC, Mr. Miletić dealt mainly with minority rights, including Roma, Albanians and Bosniaks. His work included monitoring of freedom from torture and prohibition of discrimination. That included advocacy and lobbying activities as well as representing the victims before Serbian courts. Goran worked on the preparation of different shadow reports on implementation of UN and CoE conventions, as well as the reports “Roma in Serbia” and “Albanians in Serbia”. He has also worked on preparation of applications to UN bodies.

Goran Miletić started working for the Civil Rights Defenders (former Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights) in 2004 as Programme Officer and later Human Rights Lawyer for the Western Balkans. His work includes co-operation and support of different human rights and minority NGOs from Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Macedonia. During his work he was particularly engaged in drafting and lobbying for adoption of inclusive anti-discrimination legislation in Western Balkan countries. He prepared and conducted numerous training sessions related to LGBT rights, including advocacy, lobbying, fund raising and monitoring of human and minority rights. His lectures included various aspects of respect of human and minority rights of LGBT community as well as legislation and practice in countries in the region. He was involved in capacity building of LGBT activists not only in the Balkans, but also in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

During his work he prepared numerous reports, articles and lectures, and published in the region. His public appearance included promotion and advocacy for LGBT and minority rights as well as publishing of different analyses, articles and columns in major media in Serbia and the region. In 2010, Mr. Miletić become a candidate for the Equality Commissioner in Serbia.

Lynsey Mitchell
Member for Scotland, Jersey und Guernsey

Lynsey holds an LLB in Scots Law (University of Strathclyde 2003), an LLM in International Law (University of Glasgow 2005) and a PhD in International Human Rights Law (University of Strathclyde 2016). She is a Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. She teaches and researches in the areas of human rights law, feminist legal theory, gender and sexuality, and reproductive rights. She sits on the Executive Committee of the reproductive rights organisation Abortion Rights and on the Editorial Board of the leading feminist law journal ‘Feminist Legal Studies’.

 Ninoslav Mladenovic
Member for Macedonia

Ninoslav Mladenovic, born 1974 in Skopje, Macedonia, has earned his LL.B. degree in Criminal Law and Jurisprudence at St. Cyril & Methodius University, Faculty of Law in 1998, his LL.M. degree in International Human Rights Law at University of Notre Dame Law School in 2001, and his LL.M. degree in Sexual and Reproductive Health Law at University of Toronto, Faculty of Law in 2010. Primary focus of his academic research was criminalization of same-sex relationships between consenting adults, yet criminalization of HIV transmission/exposure, travel restrictions for HIV positive people, providing information to patients etc.

He has an extensive professional experience with OSCE, UN and various national and international human rights NGOs in the field of promotion and protection of international minority rights standards, analyzing the implementation of those standards in comparative jurisdictions, and proposing policy initiatives to address problems faced by national/ethnic minorities, young people, women, people living with HIV, sex workers, drug users, men having sex with men, prisoners, and other vulnerable social groups in Western Balkans region.

Mr. Mladenovic is currently working as a UN HIV and AIDS Advisor with the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Skopje, Macedonia.

 Yasemin Öz
Member for Turkey 


Yasemin Öz was graduated from Ankara University Law Faculty in 1997 and became a member of Ankara Bar in 1998. She is a member of Kaos GL Association in Ankara since 1995 and she began to study on LGBT rights since she was a student. She is still a board member and lawyer of the Kaos GL Association. She represented Kaos GL Association in some cases concerning freedom of expression, freedom of association and hate crimes. She is also a board member of Foundation for Women’s Solidarity in Ankara which deals with domestic violence against woman and woman trafficking since 2007 and legal consultant of the Foundation. She also became the lawyer of Amargi Woman Cooperative and Academia in Istanbul since 2007 which opened the first feminist bookstore in Turkey and which publishes the quarterly Amargi Feminist Magazine. She became a member of Istanbul Bar in 2010. She is one of the frontier members of the Woman Platform against Sexual Violence in Turkey and drafted a law to the parliament on Rape Crisis Centers. She has published many articles on discrimination and violence against LGBT people as well as domestic violence and sexual violence against women on some books and many reviews and newspapers. She made presentations in some national and international conferences on the same topics. She also published several national and international reports on discrimination against LGBT people in Turkey. In her professional career she works on mainly tax law, trade law, bankruptcy law and trademark law.

 Oksana Pokalchuk
Member for Ukraine


Oksana Pokalchuk graduated from the Academy of Advocacy of Ukraine with the degree of Master of Arts in Law (2009). She is currently working on her PhD dissertation at Kyiv University of Law of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, where she investigates legal aspects of gender identity. Since 2008 Oksana Pokalchuk has been a lawyer at “Insight” (LGBTQI NGO). Her work consists in providing legal support to LGBTQI community and defending human rights in Ukraine. Now, she works in European Court of Human Rights in the position of assistant lawyer.

 Öncel Polili
Co-Member for Cyprus


Öncel POLİLİ, Graduated Law faculty of Eastern Mediterranean University and completed his master studies in human rights law at City University. Öncel Polili is a practising lawyer in northern Cyprus and legal advisor to the Turkish Cypriot Human Rights Foundation, Queer Cyprus and some trade unions. He has written various articles and reports on Human Rights in North Cyprus including LGBT Rights in North Cyprus. He is also one of the lawyers in the case of H.C vs. Turkey that the case lodged against Turkey concern criminalisation of same sex male sexual relationship  s.   

Tomas V. Raskevičius
Co-Member for Lithuania

Tomas V. Raskevičius holds a bachelor’s degree in political science (Vilnius University, 2011) and a master’s degree in human rights law (Central European University, 2012). In 2012 he joined the National LGBT* Rights Organization LGL (Lithuania) as the Policy Coordinator (Human Rights). Within the framework of organizational activities, Tomas continuously engages with the United Nations and the Council of Europe human rights protection mechanisms with the view of advancing LGBT* human rights situation in Lithuania. In the course of his professional experience, Tomas has developed an in-depth knowledge on transgender human rights issues, resulting in several publications and involvement with law reform pertaining to legal gender recognition procedure in Lithuania.

  Fergus Ryan
Member for Ireland

Fergus Ryan is a graduate and former scholar of Trinity College, University of Dublin, from which he holds an LL.B. (Hons.) (1995) and Ph.D. (2001). Currently, he is Head of the Department of Law (Acting) at the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), a role that he has held since 2003. From 2002-2005, Fergus served as visiting lecturer in Family Law at the School of Law at Trinity College, Dublin. He has also worked as a visiting lecturer at the Law Society of Ireland and at University College Dublin’s Centre for Equality Studies. He is internship director for the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma Dublin Summer Programme and serves or has served as external examiner for the University of Ulster, Waterford Institute of Technology, Dublin Business School and Liverpool John Moores University. He is also a member of staff at the Centre for Transcultural Research and Media Practice at DIT.

Fergus is the author of several texts and journal articles, including Contract Law (Dublin: Thomson Round Hall, 2006) and Constitutional Law (Dublin: Thomson Round Hall, 2008) as well as co-author with Dug Cubie of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Law in Ireland: Text, Cases and Materials (Dublin: Round Hall, 2004). He has completed commissioned reports for the Irish Human Rights Commission and for the Law Reform Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland. Fergus is also the co-author, with Judy Walsh, of The Rights of De Facto Couples (Dublin: Irish Human Rights Commission, 2006) and author of the report Civil Partnership; Your Questions Answered (Dublin: Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, 2009). A former President of the Irish Association of Law Teachers and a former Chairperson of One Family, Fergus appears regularly on national and local radio in Ireland, and has also testified before the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) on matters relating to Irish family law.

 Jolanta Samuolyte
Co-Member for Lithuania

Jolanta Samuolyte is a lawyer and Council of Europe appointed HELP Admissibility Info Point for Lithuania as well as member of Consultative Board. She was a national tutor of Admissibility and Anti-discrimination distance learning courses. She is a lecturer at Mykolas Romeris University, International and EU Law Faculty. Jolanta has previously worked as a lawyer in a number of NGOs including the Human Rights Monitoring Institute and Civil Defence Fund in Vilnius and INTERIGHTS in London. Her main areas of interest include development of pro bono practice and strategic litigation in areas of discrimination of vulnerable groups, freedom of expression, and access to justice before the national and European Court of Human Rights.She is alumni 2010-2011 of USA Hubert H. Humphrey fellowship and 2002-2003 Open Society Foundations Justice Initiative (former OSI COLPI) fellow. Jolanta holds L.L.M. from Central European University.

 Alexander Schuster
Co-Member for Italia
Member for European fundamental freedoms and EU citizenship

Alexander Schuster holds a dual doctorate from Trento and from Strasbourg University with a thesis on gender-neutral family institutions (mention très bien avec félicitations) and an LL.M. from the European Public Law Organisation. He is a post-doc researcher and a lecturer in law at the University of Trento, where he teaches the first course on comparative LGBTI law ever introduced in an Italian university. He is the European coordinator of the EU co-funded project Rights on the move and of the past project EQUAL JUS. He is ECSOL’s co-member for Italy, legal advisor to several Italian NGOs and trainer of legal professionals in Italy and Europe on matters of discrimination.

Alexander Schuster has coordinated major interdisciplinary researches, notably one for the Italian government on LGBT discrimination in the South of Italy. He is an Italian advocate as well as an independent legal expert to the EU Commission (DG Justice, DG Enlargement) and acted as invited expert of the Council of Europe, European governments and NGOs. He has taught and researched at universities and research centres in Trento, Lund, Montréal, Toronto, Washington, Athens, Strasbourg and Udine. His academic interests include fundamental rights in the EU, and the new legal challenges posed by bioethical and technological research, such as access to reproductive technologies and their impact on family law. He has published on various legal subjects ranging from American law to EU and comparative law in the field of constitutional law and biolaw. He has edited books on same-gender parenthood and on discrimination.

 Khalisa Shahverdi
Member for Azerbaijan

Khalisa Shahverdi, a lawyer and human rights activist. She graduated from the Baku Asia University in 2002, from the school of Law with a BA Degree in Law. Since she has graduated from the University, she has worked with several NGOs in various projects dealing with human rights, protection of women, children and disabled rights.

In 2008, Kh. Shahverdi passed courses on domestic violence in USA and specialized on human trafficking, domestic violence and gender equality issues.

In 2009-2010, she prepared proposals on improvement of the Law “Prevention of Domestic Violence” and “Article 144-1 and other relevant articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan defining the structure of the crime of trafficking in human beings”. Furthermore she organized series of measurements on joining the Republic of Azerbaijan the Convention “Against Trafficking of Human Beings”, European Council.

In 2010, Kh. Shahverdi participated in elections as a candidate to the member of the Milli Majlis (parliament) of Republic of Azerbaijan. Presently she is still active in social and political processes.

In 2011-2012, Kh. Shaverdi was teaching a domestic violence and gender studies to third grade classes in Azerbaijan University.

Kh. Shahverdi is founder/ Member of Board of “Women for Peace Coalition” and Member of Board of European Movement Azerbaijan.

 Krzysztof Smiszek
Member for Poland, Co-Coordinator

Krzysztof Smiszek (1979). Polish human rights lawyer, activist and academic. Graduate of University of Warsaw, Faculty of Law and Administration (2003) as well as European Law Postgraduate Studies (2006). PhD received from University of Warsaw, Faculty of Law and Administration (2016).
Co-founder of The Polish Society of Antidiscrimination Law - nation-wide organization which brings together a range of Polish law practitioners, policy experts and academics interested in promotion and improving anti-discrimination legislation.

Krzysztof Śmiszek gained his expertise and practice during his work (2003-2005) as a lawyer of national equality institution (Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Status for Women and Men, Prime Minister Office) as well as a lawyer of The Prime Minister Office (2005-2008). From 2008 to 2010 he worked in Brussels as a Policy Officer and Policy Coordinator for EQUINET-European Network of Equality Bodies. Expert in sexual orientation and gender discrimination.

Author of a number of academic articles and reports on non-discrimination and human rights.
In 2017 shortlisted (second place) as a candidate for a position of the UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In 2019 elected to the Polish Parliament (for the term of 2019-2023) where he contributes to the works of the Committee for Justice and Human Rights as well as to the Committee on European Union.

Anniken Sørli
Co-Member for Norway

Anniken Sørlie is a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. She holds a master degree in law and a bachelor degree in European and American Studies from the University of Oslo. She is involved in the research project ‘Gender identity and sexual orientation in international and national (Norwegian) law’ at the University of Oslo. In her PhD, When Law Decides What Gender Is: A Look At Legal Gender Recognition Through Life (working title), she looks at the protection of the rights of transgender people living in contemporary Norway. The thesis focuses on the lived realities of transgender people. She is a deputy member of the Norwegian Equality and Anti-discrimination Tribunal (2014-2018).

 Doina Ioana Straisteanu  
Member for Moldova

Doina Ioana Straisteanu holds Bachelor degree in International Law from the State University of Moldova (2001) and a Master degree in management & public administration from the Academy for Public Administration of the Republic of Moldova (2002). Previously worked for the Moldovan Helsinki Committee (2000 – 2004) where acquired extensive experience in advocacy, strategic litigation before the European Court of Human Rights, raising awareness of stakeholders on human rights issues and trainings of law
professionals. Written several articles in Moldovan law magazines on fair trial, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, prohibition of torture and ill-treatment in police custody, Shadow Reports to UN Committee against Torture, to European Committee for Prevention of Torture, to Amnesty International and others. Also worked as Legal Director for Stichting Russian Justice Initiative (2005-2006) and in that capacity planned and supervised the submission of the written pleadings in over 130 Chechen cases litigated before the European Court by the team of lawyers. Have also worked as Lawyer for INTERIGHTS (2007- 2009) where she has developed organizations work on women human rights in particular on issues of domestic violence, sexual violence and sexual harassment, trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation and state due diligence standards on protecting women from violence and discrimination.
Currently, Doina Ioana is an independent Human Rights Lawyer and Expert based in Moldova. She does capacity building events, litigation on issues of gender, equality and rule of law in cases from South Eastern Europe using
domestic proceedings and international, regional mechanisms. Particular legal interests are in issues of equality, gender and security and rule of law. Languages: Romanian, Russian, English and French. You can contact Doina
Ioana by e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., www.dis.md

 Renata Uitz
Member for Hungary

Renáta Uitz is associate professor of comparative constitutional law, chair of the Comparative Constitutional Law program and co-director (with Károly Bárd) of the clinical specialization at CEU Legal Studies. She obtained her Doctor iuris degree (with summa cum laude) at Eotvos Lorant University, Faculty of Law in 1996 and received an LLM in Comparative Constitutional Law at CEU Legal studies in the following year. Her S.J.D. (summa cum laude) in comparative constitutional law earned in 2001 is also from CEU Legal Studies. She started teaching at CEU in 2001, and became chair of the Comparative Constitutional Law program in 2007. Her teaching covers subjects in comparative constitutional law in Europe and North America, transitional justice and human rights protection with special emphasis on the enforcement of constitutional rights and on issues of bodily privacy and sexuality. Theories and practices of good governance in and after democratic transition, and the role of courts in constructing the constitutional subject are at the center of her research interests. "Constitutions, Courts and History" (2004) was her first book, while her most recent is "Freedom of Religion in European Constitutional and International Case Law" (2007). In addition she is the author of over 30 articles and book chapters which appeared mainly in English, Hungarian and Russian. She regularly speaks at international conferences on comparative constitutional subjects.

 Vladana Vasić
Co-Member for Bosnia-Herzegovina

Vladana Vasić (born 1990) finished her law studies at the University of Sarajevo in 2013. She has been working in Sarajevo Open Centre since April 2012, first as a volunteer and later on as a programme coordinator, on issues of advocacy, legal counselling, monitoring of the work of public institutions and providing education and trainings for LGBT persons and other civil society representatives on LGBT rights. She is the author of several articles and publications concerning legal status of LGBT persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly discrimination, hate speech, hate crime and legal gender recognition. Vladana is also the author of the proposal of the amendments to the Criminal code of Republic of Srpska and Criminal Code of Federation BiH regulating hate crime and hate speech, on behalf of the Coalition for combat against hate speech and hate crime, which Sarajevo Open Centre is a part of.

Carlos Villagrasa Alcaide  
Member for Spain, Andorra

Carlos Villagrasa Alcaide (born 1968), holds a Ph.D. Degree in Law (1998) and Postgraduate in Catalan Civil Law (2002). Since 1991 is Tenured Professor of Civil Law and Family Law at the Law Faculty, University of Barcelona, where he is also Director of Master on Family Law and Childhood since 1997: President of the Defense of Children and Adolescents' Rights Association; General Secretary of the Olof Palme International Foundation; Judge of the Provincial Court of Barcelona; Coordinator and Professor of Civil Law at the National University of Distance Education; Founding Member of the Commission for the Equality in the Rights of the Diverse Family Models at the Bar Association of Barcelona; Member of the Institute of Development and Analysis of Family Rights in Spain; Director of Legal Research at the Institute of Childhood and Urban World Consortium. He has specific experience in cooperation projects and he was appointed Senior Expert of the European Union to contribute on poverty, social exclusion and inclusion in Romania. Consultant for legislation reform about family law and children's rights with reports about partnership regulation (Parliament of Spain), Mediation, Family Code and Children's Law (Parliament of Catalonia) and Discrimination (Ministry of Equality of Spain). He has wrote more than 50 publications in books and reviews regarding Human Rights, Children and Adolescents' Rights, Family Law, Mediation, Discrimination, and LGTB Rights. He is research leader in four projects at the University and He is Visiting Professor in some Universities of Latin America, France, Italia and Portugal.

José M Lorenzo Villaverde
Member for Greenland and Faroe

José M Lorenzo Villaverde holds a PhD degree from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Previously, he completed his studies in Law (Licenciatura en Derecho) and in Journalism (Licenciatura en Periodismo) at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
His main areas of research are family law and LGBT rights, comparative law, international and inter-regional private law. Within these areas, a good amount of his research has been devoted to the functioning of decentralised states. In this sense, he has delved into the legal systems of the Faroe Islands and Greenland and the conflicts of laws within the Danish Rigsfællesskab. He has participated in multi-national research projects as a researcher and is co-editor of the book Contemporary Gender Relations and Changes in Legal Cultures (DJØF Publishing, 2013) together with profs. Hanne Petersen and Ingrid Lund-Andersen. Besides the mentioned areas, he has expertise in EU research funding, in particular Horizon 2020.

 Kees Waaldijk
Member for the Netherlands

Kees Waaldijk is professor of comparative sexual orientation law at Leiden Law School in the Netherlands. He holds a master degree in law from Erasmus University Rotterdam and a doctorate from the University of Maastricht. Previously he taught law at the universities of Maastricht, Utrecht, Lancaster, Edinburgh, and at UC Hastings in San Francisco. Since 1979 he has been active in the field of law & homosexuality, publishing about it in many languages. Most of his publications (and other info) can be found at his website . In 1987 he published the first of his articles on the opening up of marriage. He was an adviser on various court cases, and a member of the Dutch Government's commission of legal experts advising on the opening up of civil marriage to same-sex couples (1996-1997). He was co-editor of the book Homosexuality: a European Community Issue (1993). From 2002 to 2004 he coordinated the European Group of Experts on Combating Sexual Orientation Discrimination, which reported to the Commission of the European Communities, about the implementation of the Employment Equality Directive; in 2006 this led to the publication of the book Sexual Orientation Discrimination in the European Union, which he wrote together with Matteo Bonini-Baraldi. He is the main author of the comparative report More or less together - Levels of legal consequences of marriage, cohabitation and registered partnership for different-sex and same-sex partners (2005), which led to the book Droit conjugal et unions de même sexe (2008). Since 2008 he contributes the article ‘Same-Sex Partnership, International Protection’ to the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law.

 Robert Wintemute
Member for Council of Europe, England & Wales and Gibraltar

Robert Wintemute is a Professor of Human Rights Law in the School of Law, King's College, University of London, where he teaches European Union Law, Human Rights Law, and Anti-Discrimination Law. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he studied the common law of English-speaking Canada and the civil law of Québec at McGill University (Montréal). A member of the Bar of the State of New York, he practised Chapter 11 bankruptcy law with Milbank Tweed, before doing his doctorate in human rights law at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Sexual Orientation and Human Rights: The United States Constitution, the European Convention, and the Canadian Charter (Oxford University Press, 1997), and the editor (with honorary co-editor Mads Andenæs) of Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Partnerships: A Study of National, European and International Law (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2001). He is currently writing a book on Anti-Discrimination Law for Oxford University Press.

His pro bono legal work has included delivering or drafting oral arguments in Fretté v. France (European Court of Human Rights, 2002, eligibility of openly gay man to adopt a child), and Maruko (European Court of Justice, 2008, pension for surviving same-sex registered partner), as well as drafting third-party interventions (amicus curiae briefs) on international and comparative law on behalf of NGOs in such cases as Karner v. Austria (ECtHR, 2003, tenancy of apartment for surviving same-sex partner), Goodridge v. Department of Public Health (Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 2003, equal access to legal marriage for same-sex couples), and E.B. v. France (ECtHR, 2008, same issue as Fretté for lesbian woman). In Lawrence v. Texas (US Supreme Court, 2003), he advised the drafters of Yale Law School's intervention, which the majority cited in striking down laws banning oral or anal sexual activity in 13 states. He was a Senior Research Associate at Yale Law School in 2001, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law in 2002. From 2002 to 2004, he was the United Kingdom expert in the European Commission's group of independent experts monitoring national implementation of the European Union's Council Directive 2000/78/EC (banning sexual orientation discrimination in employment and higher education).

At the global level, in July 2006, he served as Co-President of the largest-ever (1500-participant) "International Conference on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Human Rights", presented by the 1st World Outgames at Montréal's Palais des Congrès, and opened by Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In Nov. 2006, he was one of the experts invited to Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia, to draft "The Yogyakarta Principles on the application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

". He has given lectures or seminars, or spoken at conferences or universities, in 28 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He also participated in Moscow Pride 2006.

 Andreas Yiannaros
Co-Member for Cyprus

Andreas Yiannaros is Head of LLB at the University of Law (London - Bloomsbury). Andreas holds an LLB Hons Law, an LL.M in Public international Law from King’s College London and a PhD in International Law completed with a scholarship award. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and member of the Society of Legal Scholars, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and the Human Rights Lawyers Association. He frequently acts as consultant for civil society organisations in Europe on issues around equality and non-discrimination. Andreas has published widely in academic law journals on conscientious objection to military service, non-discrimination, freedom of movement and human rights accountability for multinational corporations.  

 Hans Ytterberg
Member for Sweden


Hans Ytterberg was born in Stockholm in 1956. He has an LLM degree in law from the University of Stockholm (1990), has served as a court of appeals judge and as a legal advisor to the Swedish Parliament's Advisory Committee on European Union Affairs. He was then recruited to the Ministry of Justice as legal advisor and in 1999 he was appointed Sweden's Ombudsman against Sexual Orientation Discrimination. After that office was merged with others into a single Equality Ombudsman in 2009, he was attached to different Government Ministries as Director General, mainly working on new disability rights legislation and on evaluation of the Government's National Human Rights Action Plan. He has served in a number of national and international expert roles in the field of non-discrimination and human rights, inter alia as expert to the European Commission on discrimination issues, board member of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency and Chair of the Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe on Discrimination on grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (DH-LGBT). Since 2011 he has been serving as Director General of the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority and as of 2016 he is also serving as President of the Equal Opportunities Commission, a judicial body dealing with appeals against disclosure orders issued by the Discrimination Ombudsman and with applications for judicial orders against employers or educational establishments to comply, at the risk of an administrative fine, with statutory requirements for proactive measures against discrimination.  

 Andreas R. Ziegler
Member for Switzerland


Andreas R. Ziegler studied economics, international relations and law at the universities of St. Gallen, Paris (SciencesPo), Florence (LLM, European University Institute) and London (SOAS). After obtaining his doctorate in St. Gallen in 1995, and the diplomas of the Academy of International Law (The Hague, 1996 and European Law (Florence, 1993) and the ICRC (1997) he undertook post-doctoral research at Georgetown University Law Center (Washington DC, USA) and the Max-Planck-Institute in Heidelberg (Germany). He was a civil servant working for several Swiss Ministries as well as the EFTA Secretariat in Geneva and the European Commission before being appointed full professor of law at the University of Lausanne in 2003 and a conjoint professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW, Australia) in 2009. He is a visiting professor at the Universities of St. Gallen and ETH Zurich. He is the editor together with Nadja Herz, Martin Bertschi, Michel Montini und Alexandre Curchod, of the leading Swiss monograph on LGBT rights: Rechte der Lesben und Schwulen in der Schweiz (Stämpfli Verlag, Bern, 2006, ISBN/ISSN: 3-7272-9928-2, 589 Seiten or Droits des gays et lesbiennens en Suisse (Editions Staempfli, Berne, 2006, ISBN/ISSN: 3-7272-9929-0, 580 pages).