Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights

The BoT is currently composed as follows:

Mr. Morten KJAERUM (Denmark) Chairperson

Mr. Morten KJAERUM (Denmark) is a renowned human rights expert and currently the Director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Lund, Sweden. He has a long diplomatic and negotiations experience at international level. He has a trajectory and expertise in the area of civil and political rights; anti-discrimination; the rights of minorities; business and human rights as well as in the area of institutional building through technical cooperation. Mr. Kjaerum was the Director of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights in Vienna from 2008 to 2015. Prior to that he was Director of the Danish Institute for Human Rights (1991-2008) He started his career at the Danish Refugee Council where he worked as Legal Adviser. From 2002-06 he was member of the UN Committee on Elimination of racial Discrimination. In 2012 he was appointed adjunct professor at the University of Aalborg, Denmark. Mr. Kjaerum was appointed as a VFTC Board Member by the Secretary-General in July 2017.

Ms. Azita BERAR AWAD (Iran)

Ms. Azita BERAR AWAD (Iran), is an internationally renowned development economist/ human rights advocate and currently Policy Director of the Global Labour Organization (GLO). Ms. Berar Awad has extensive experience in international development cooperation and in the UN system. She has held several senior leadership positions at International Labour Organization (ILO) as Deputy Regional Director and Director of Multi-disciplinary Technical Team for Arab States (1999-2002), Director of National Policy Group in the Policy Integration Department (2002-2006) and Director of the Employment Policy Department (2006-2017). She has advised numerous governments and other stakeholders, across regions and in a variety of contexts of development, on the formulation and implementation of inclusive and rights-based policies for promoting full and decent employment. She led the ILO’s response to the youth employment crisis and founded the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth in 2016, an inclusive multi-stakeholder partnership established under the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030. She led the ILO teams that facilitated international tripartite negotiations on new international standards, namely Recommendation 204 on Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy (adopted in 2015) and Recommendation 205 on Employment and Decent work for Peace and Resilience (adopted in 2017). She is also a Senior Fellow at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies building a programme on Globalization and Social Policy and teaches in various universities and executive education programmes on employment, international labour law and governance. Ms. Berar Awad holds post graduate degrees in Development Economics and Political Science. Ms. Berar was appointed as VFTC Board Member by the Secretary-General in March 2020.

Ms. Valeriya Lutkovska (Ukraine) is a renowned supported of human rights defenders and currently the Ombudsperson (Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights) in Ukraine (leaving soon her mandate). Graduated from the National Taras Shevchenko University, having studied philology and Russian language and literature, in 1999, she completed a specialist degree in law. Previously she held various governmental positions including as Deputy Minister of Justice and Government agent of Ukraine in the European Court of Human Rights. Ms. Lutkovska has also solid private law experience at the law firm “Lavrynovych & Partners”. She is fluent in English, Russian and German. Ms. Lutkovska was appointed as VFTC Board Member by the Secretary-General in February 2017.

Mr. Santiago CORCUERA-CABEZUT (Mexico), is a lawyer specialist on human rights. He is a partner of international law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, based in the Mexico City office of that firm. A member of the National Civil Council for the search of disappeared persons of Mexico, he is a renowned human rights advocate with several membership positions in international human rights mechanisms, notably Chair of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances , Chair of the Coordination Committee of the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and recently Chair of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances. He also has litigation expertise within the Inter American Court of Human Rights. Master in Law from Cambridge, he has occupied several positions as law and human rights professor in various universities in Mexico, including Dean of the Law School of Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City and founder and head of the Master on Human Rights of such University. He has developed sound expertise on the rights of migrants and refugees. Mr. Corcuera-Cabezut has a solid long experience in advising and supporting organisations of family members of disappeared persons as well as governments through technical cooperation on the fight against enforced disappearances. He has advised legislatures in the drafting, promotion and issuance of legislation and constitutional amendments in several areas of human rights in Mexico. His mother tongue is Spanish and he has a proficient level in English. M. Santiago Corcuera-Cabezut was appointed as VFTC Board Member by the Secretary-General in August 2019.

Ms. Nozipho JANUARY-BARDILL is a human rights expert and activist in racial justice, gender equality and sustainable development. She has vast experience in the fields of corporate communications, stakeholder management, high level government relations and business and human rights. Her solid technical cooperation experience gained from her experience as an activist senior diplomat, as an advocate for renewable energy and on the development of policies related to climate change is well known. She served as a Member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racism, Racial Discrimination, xenophobia and related Intolerance for twelve years. Her expertise supporting expansion of understanding of the key role of civil society meaningful participation in advocating for change and transformation has been acknowledged through numerous Governmental and non Governmental positions. Her mother tongue is English. Ms. Nozipho January-Bardill was appointed as VFTC Board Member by the Secretary-General in January 2021.