The mission of Jimmie Briggs's decade-long career as a journalist has been to share with the world the voices and stories of the disenfranchised and voiceless. The release of his first book, Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War, is the culmination of over six years of painstaking, investigative journalism. Briggs is the first African American to be appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador and Special Envoy for Children and Armed Conflict by WAFUNIF at the United Nations. In addition, Briggs served as a Special Consultant for the United Nations Special Session on Children.

Briggs graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude with a degree in philosophy Morehouse College. Briggs's love of reportage and investigative journalism took him to LIFE magazine. He has published in a broad spectrum of publications (including The New York Times Magazine, People, Vibe, Bust, and Fortune). Briggs has also served as an adjunct professor of investigative journalism at the New School for Social Research and he has received a number of distinguished fellowships.

Debra L. Schultz is Acting Director of OSI’s Women’s Program, which promotes women’s human rights as integral to fostering open societies.  At OSI, she works to strengthen new frameworks for women’s rights, including women’s multiple discrimination and women in transitional justice.  She is the author of Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement (New York University Press).   

Bukeni Tete Waruzi is director and founder of AJEDI-Ka/Projet Enfants Soldats.  Bukeni has worked to demobilize more than 316 child soldiers. In that work he has been arrested twice and beaten twice by armed groups and forces. Bukeni’s writing includes a forthcoming essay entitled “Child Soldiers: A Comparative Study on the Traditional Ritual Initiations of Soldiering and the Cultural Attitudes of Social Reintegration,” as well as a forthcoming book entitled Merida ("girl soldiers").

He has made three films on child soldiers, one of which, A Duty to Protect, led to the arrest of Thomas Lubanga Dylio by the International Criminal Court for the charge of conscription and participation of children into hostilities.  He continues to advocate at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court for justice for child soldiers and an end to sexual violence.

Pamela Yates is a director with a breadth of experience in both commercial television and independent documentaries. Most recently she directed State of Fear, a feature-length documentary that tells the epic story of Peru’s 20-year “war on terror” based on the findings of the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  State of Fear has been shown in 156 countries, translated into 46 languages, and embraced by human rights and pro-democracy advocates around the world. Before that she directed Presumed Guilty, a two-hour PBS special about public defenders, that aired in fall 2002. She produced and directed Cause for Murder, which was commissioned by the PBS international series “Wide Angle” (2002). The film explores the cost of political bravery in the lives and deaths of two young Mexican lawyers, Digna Ochoa and Marigeli Tamés. In 2000 she produced and directed Brotherhood of Hate, a study of violent white supremacy, broadcast on the Showtime Networks. Brotherhood of Hate and Cause for Murder were both co-productions with The New York Times. Yates produced on the series Trauma: Life and Death in the ER. Trauma was the highest rated series on The Learning Channel (1997 and 1998) and Yates’ program Loss of Innocence received a national Emmy.

Yates’ independent films in Latin America include Witness to War, (Academy Award, 1985) about an American doctor behind rebel lines in El Salvador; When the Mountains Tremble (Special Jury Award, Sundance 1984), featuring Nobel Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchú; and Nicaragua: Report from the Front. She also produced and directed Takeover (Official Selection, Sundance 1991), Poverty Outlaw (Sundance 1995), and the Independent Television Service presentation Outriders on PBS (1999). Yates directed the first music video made in China, “No More Disguises,” with Ciu Jian, which was named by Rolling Stone as one of the 10 best music videos of 1989, and which had its U.S. premiere at he Human Rights Watch International Film Festival.

Pamela Yates is one of the founders, and president of Skylight Pictures, a film and video production company in midtown Manhattan. She is a member of the Director’s Guild of America and The Writers Guild.