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, Executive Director, aleas@amera-uk.org. Allan Leas worked for the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) from 1994 to 2007. He initially coordinated ECRE’s capacity building programme in Central Europe, working to develop the organisational, legal and advocacy skills of about 35 refugee assisting organisations in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia. Following this he managed an expanded capacity-building programme that also included Russia, Belarus, the Ukraine and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. In his latter years in ECRE he worked in the capacity of Head of Operations. For a period of several months in 2006 he worked as a consultant to the Dutch Council for Refugees, during which he helped to develop their International Strategy.
Africa remains his overriding commitment. A south african by
birth he fled the apartheid government in 1979, and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom. As a
student in South Africa he had been a founding member of National Youth Action, a schools bases anti-apartheid network. Soon after arriving in the UK he helped to establish the Committee on South Africa War Resisters (COSAWR), an organisation that aimed to highlight the worst aspects of Apartheid’s covert military actions in its bordering states, and to discourage young South Africans from joining the largely white South African Defence Force. During his time in exile he also worked for the Namibia Support Committee and the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Prior to his joining ECRE he worked for the British Refugee Council (1989 to 1994) during which he coordinated the Africa Committee, a grouping of the main UK development and aid agencies operational in Africa. He was also employed in the role of 'Staff Writer'. During his period in the British Refugee Council he wrote a large number of papers on Africa, focussing mostly on Somalia and Sudan. Additionally he coordinated the work of the UK Sudan Lobby Group.
Leas is a prolific writer has had plays produced at the Almost Free Theatre, Young Vic, Croydon Warehouse Theatre, Etcetera Theatre, Redgrave Theatre and the Thorndike Theatre. He was a member of the Royal Court Writers Group from 1983-84.
he has peublished two books of history: ‘The Abolition of Slavery’ and ‘Apartheid – Reform or Revolution?’ At least four other unpublished books lie buried in
his bottom drawer.
, Finance and Fundraising Officer (UK), administrator@amera-uk.org
, OBE, She has a D.Phil and an M.Litt in social anthropology from Oxford University. She is a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She founded the Refugees Studies Programme at Oxford University, which expanded rapidly during the years she was director (1982-1996). In 1999, while Visiting Professor at Makerere University, she set up the Refugee Law Project for Uganda. She is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor at the American University in Cairo's Forced Migration and Refugee Studies and is the co-author, with Gugliemo Veridrame of Rights in Exile: Janus-Faced Humanitarianism, published 2005 by Berghahn Books. In 2000 she created the Refugee Legal Aid Project for refugees and asylum seekers in Cairo which developed into AMERA-Egypt.
practiced as a
barrister in the UK before joining a private American investment
bank and, subsequently, Warburg Investment Management. He became
a Vice Chairman of Mercury Asset Management plc in 1990 and, a Managing Director of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. He is currently a non-executive Chairman and a Director of a number of UK investment companies.
has a BA Hons in History from Oxford University and a LL.M. from The London School of Economics. She was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1998. She has worked for UN agencies in Geneva (UNHCR) and New York (WIPO) and now works with her father, H.R.H Prince El Hassan of Jordan, on projects to further interfaith and cross cultural understanding. She often represents her father at meetings, and is his designated representative at Council Meetings of the Geneva based Refugee Education Trust. She is on the executive committee of the London-based Interfaith Foundation. She is a regular participant at steering committee meetings and workshops of the international human rights group, Rights in Humanity. She is regularly invited to give lectures
at schools in England and North America on Islam and related issues.
studied international human rights law at the American University in Cairo. He worked with UNHCR-Cairo on a refugee status determination project for Sudanese asylum seekers in Egypt before joining the Egyptian Refugee Legal Aid Project in 2002. In 2003, he joined Amnesty International’s International Secretariat as refugee officer for the Middle and North Africa region (MENA). He conducted field research on refugee, asylum seeker and IDP issues in several countries in the region and works on campaigning and advocacy for refugee rights in the MENA region. He is currently, Refugee Officer/Middle East Program, International Secretariat, at Amnesty International.
is a lawyer specializing in issues relating to human rights, migration, nationality and refugees. She has directed the Research and Right to Development Branch of OHCHR in Geneva. She was Director of Research at Amnesty International’s International Secretariat. She has practiced law as a Partner with Bindman & Partners in London, and is currently practicing at the Harrison Grant law firm.
, OBE, Co-Chair and Secretary, is the author of Dunant's Dream, The History of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and many important biographies including: Bertrand Russell and most recently Martha Gellhorn. She is also a frequent contributor on human rights and refugee problems to the Guardian, Index on Censorship and The New York Review of Books. Her book on refugees, Human Cargo, Travels among the Refugees, was recently published in 2005. She helped Barbara Harrell-Bond to set up the Refugee Legal Aid Project for refugees and asylum seekers in Cairo in 2000.
, Treasure. Martha began her career in 1983, as an Assistant Manager – Corporate Foreign Exchange Trader, by Citibank, Houston and by 1984, was an Assistant Vice President and head of emerging market currency trading desk, New York. In 1986, she moved to Citicorp Investment Bank as the Vice President – Head of Africa Unit, International Corporate Finance, where she was responsible for origination and execution of corporate finance transactions in Africa, including North Africa and Egypt. In this position she worked closely with Ministries of Finance and central banks to design and implement debt-equity swap programmes in and to structure and execute project finance transactions using foreign external debt as basis of financing. In collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria, she assisted with the drafting of terms, conditions and regulations for the Nigerian debt conversion programme, later formalised into law. In addition, she served as Citibank’s delegate to the London Club restructuring negotiations for selected African countries. In 1990, she was employed as a Vice-President - Corporate Finance, by Citibank Geneva, where she worked with high net worth clients on corporate finance transactions, private placements, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and privatizations. In 1992, she moved to ING Bank Geneva, as a member of the management team directing private banking activities in 16 countries in Latin America and Asia. In 1995, she moved to JP Morgan Chase Bank, Geneva structured finance department focusing on Eastern Europe, Russia and CIS countries. In 199, she moved to JP Morgan London where she was a senior client relationship manager to governments within the Middle East and North Africa, with extensive interaction with governments at senior levels across Ministries, In addition, she led a team examining non-performing loan (NPL) asset portfolio purchases in Turkey and Czech Republic.In September 2006, she became a Senior Investment Officer covering South Eastern Europe, Turkey and Central Asia with the International Finance Corporation/World Bank Group based in Istanbul. Since 1992, Martha Mueller Guicciardini has worked as an independent consultant assisting African governments in the active management and reduction of external debt, with a number of financial institutions and organizations. She is a board member of “Friends of American Research Institute in Turkey” advising on fundraising for fellowships for Turkish Ph.D students pursuing degrees in the social sciences in North America. In addition, she was a board member and Treasurer of International Women of Istanbul, 2004-2005, raising funds for charity institutions in Turkey.
began his career in Laos, as a technical officer engaged in post war reconstruction projects, principally in the education sector. From 1977-83, he was employed by the World University Service developing programmes in Central America and Africa. In 1983 he became the General Secretary of European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), a consortium of 60 non-governmental organisations working in the field of refugee protection and integration in Europe with a headquarters in London and a representative office in Brussels. This post required extensive travel, consultation at all levels (governmental, intergovernmental, and non governmental), writing and policy analysis, the management of staff and budgets. The European Legal Network on Asylum (ELENA) is a major project activity developed by that organisation. Since 1997 Philip Rudge has worked as an independent consultant on humanitarian issues to governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations. Recent assignments have included reports on Corporate Social Responsibility and Refugee Protection (for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees); European Donor Government Policies towards Internally Displaced Persons (for the US Brookings Institution, the Norwegian Refugee Council and the US Committee for Refugees); and Danish Assistance to Kosovo 1999-2003 (for DANIDA). In 1999, he was Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan
law school, Ann Arbor, USA. Since 2000 he has been Co-Chair and International Advisor of the Dutch Society for International Development’s Project on the Future of Refugee and Migration Policy, Advisor to the Reference Group on South East Europe of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, Chairman of the Board of the Refugee Legal Centre in the UK, the principal organisation for legal advice for asylum seekers supported by the Home Office and Legal Services Commission, and Senior Consultant to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. In 2005 he was a member of Evaluation Team on the European Refugee Fund. ECRE Policy papers on aspects of European refugee policy 1983-1997. He has published articles in the Journal of Refugee Studies, International Journal of Refugee Law, other magazines and the Press. He is Chair of the Executive Board of the Refugee Legal Centre, London, Council Member of the Minority Rights Group, Advisory Council Member of the Institute of Development Studies, Oxford University, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
, Co-Chair, is University Lecturer in Law and tutor at Corpus Christi, Cambridge University. Before coming to Cambridge, he was a research fellow at Merton College, Oxford University, and a member of the law faculty (2000-03). He conducted extensive field research on human rights and refugees in Africa, during his time as a research officer at the Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford), as well as on behalf of various human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, Article 19 and the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights. He has co-author of two books: Rights in Exile: Janus-Faced Humanitarianism, published May 2004 by Berghahn Books and the forthcoming UN Accountability for Human Rights Violations, Cambridge University Press, and is the author of various articles. He is also a regular contributor to the Italian daily newspaper Il Foglio.
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