International Women's Program Board

Suliman Baldo, Africa Program Director, International Crisis Group

Prior to holding his position at the International Crisis Group, Suliman Baldo was an independent expert providing advice on conflict situations in Central and East Africa. From 1995 to 2002, he was with Human Rights Watch as senior researcher for the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Horn of Africa. In his native Sudan, Baldo is widely known as a human rights and democracy activist. He has lectured at the University of Khartoum and worked in humanitarian/emergency assistance, first as a volunteer and later as a full-time professional. Baldo holds a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Dijon in France and undergraduate degrees from the University of Khartoum.

Ricardo Castro, General Counsel, Open Society Institute

The Open Society Institute Office of the General Counsel provides a wide variety of legal services to all aspects of the network both domestically and internationally, including analyzing, structuring, and documenting the foundations’ program-related investments. Prior to joining OSI, Castro was an associate at the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, where he worked on corporate finance matters in Latin America. After his stint at Cleary and before joining OSI, Castro spent three years working as a legal services lawyer on behalf of people living with HIV/AIDS. Upon completing his JD at NYU in 1987, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Marie L. Garibaldi of the New Jersey Supreme Court. While at NYU Law, Castro served as editor-in-chief of the Review of Law and Social Change and president of the Latino Law Students Association.

Joan Dunlop, Board Chair, International Women’s Program

Joan Dunlop joined the International Women’s Program Sub-board in 2002, and was appointed chair in 2005. From 1984-1998, Dunlop served as president of the International Women’s Health Coalition. Responsible for revitalizing the organization's mission, she extended its reach and visibility and shaped its influential role in global policy development. In 1989, she was recognized by Barnard College as one of 100 Distinguished New York Women. She currently serves on the boards of CARE, the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, and the Foundation for Community Health in the Northwest Corner of Connecticut.

Pregs Govender, Independent Researcher

Pregs Govender is an activist and author of Love and Courage, A Story of Insubordination (Jacana Publishers, 2007). Govender grew up in apartheid-era South Africa to become a teacher and trade unionist. She managed the Women's National Coalition, which mobilized women to have a positive impact on the Constitution. In the first democratic elections in 1994, she was elected as an ANC MP to the National Assembly, where she initiated and steered South Africa's gender budgeting.

Elected to chair parliament’s Committee on Women, Govender ensured that most of the priorities for gender-transformative legislation were enacted. She resigned after voting against an exorbitant arms deal, arguing that the money needed to be spent on HIV/AIDS and poverty instead. She now works as an independent writer, researcher, and educator for a range of publications and organizations. She also chairs the Independent Panel of Experts currently reviewing South Africa's Parliament.

Paul Hoffman, Partner, Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman LLP

Paul Hoffman specializes in civil and human rights cases, including sexual harassment and gender discrimination cases. He is the former legal director of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. He is the former chair of the International Executive Committee of Amnesty International and the former chair of the board (twice) of Amnesty International-USA. Hoffman is on the boards of several other human rights organizations. He has litigated numerous human rights cases in U.S. courts, including many cases under the Alien Tort Statute. He has also taught at Oxford University and at Stanford, UCLA, and USC Law Schools. He has published numerous articles about civil rights and international human rights law.

Hina Jilani, UN Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders

Hina Jilani is an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and a human rights activist with a special focus on defending the rights of women, minorities, and children. Jilani founded the first women's law firm in Pakistan in 1980, AGHS Legal Aid Cell, focusing on cases concerning violations of women's rights to security of person, liberty, and equality. She is also one of the founders of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. In 2000, Jilani was appointed as the first UN special representative of the secretary general on human rights defenders. She has received several national and international awards, including the UNIFEM 2001 Millennium Peace Award for Women. She was recently appointed to a UN international fact-finding commission on Darfur.

Gay J. McDougall, UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues

Gay J. McDougall is a human rights lawyer and was executive director of global rights from 1994 to 2006. She is currently the UN independent expert on minority issues. She served as an independent expert on the UN treaty body that oversees the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and on the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. As special rapporteur on the issue of systematic rape and sexual slavery practices in armed conflict, she presented a groundbreaking study in 1998 calling for international legal standards for the prosecution of such acts. She was one of five international members of South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission, which successfully organized and administered that country's first non-racial elections.

Patricia Sellers, Independent Legal Expert

Patricia Sellers was the legal advisor for gender and a prosecutor at the international Yugoslav and the Rwanda tribunals from 1994 until February 2007.  Sellers was the special consultant to the Gender and Women’s Rights Division of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights throughout 2007, and is now an independent legal expert and honorary fellow at Kellogg College of Oxford University. She has written over 20 articles on international criminal law.  The most recent are "The Appeal of Sexual Violence. Gacumbitsi/Akayesu," in Gender Based Violence in Africa (Law Press of the University of Pretoria, South Africa), and "The ’Tokyoisation’ of the Rwanda Tribunal’s Gender Jurisprudence," in the Africa Legal Aid Journal (2008). Sellers holds a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an undergraduate degree from the Rutgers College of Rutgers University.