Aage Thor Falkanger, the Norwegian Parliamentary Ombudsman. In 2014, the Norwegian Parliament elected Supreme Court Judge Aage Thor Falkanger as ombudsman for the current parliamentary term (4 years).
Falkanger graduated in law in 1991, after which he worked as an assistant lawyer at the office of the Attorney General. From 1992 he was a judge in Nord-Troms District Court. In 1999 he became a Doctor of Jurisprudence after having been a research fellow at the Faculty of Law of the University of Tromsø from 1995.
He was a judge at Hålogaland Court of Appeal from 1999 to 2007 and Professor at the University of Tromsø from 2007 to 2010. He served as an acting judge of the Supreme Court from April to July 2007 and from February to July 2009. He was also a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University in 2007-08.
Falkanger has been a Supreme Court Judge since 2010.
Alessio Scandurra is director of research activities at Antigone, an Italian NGO committed to the protection of fundamental rights within the criminal and penitentiary system.
He coordinates for Antigone the Observatory on Prison Conditions in Italy and, since 2012, the European Prison Observatory (www.prisonobservatory.org), a project supported by the European Union.
Currently his main research interests regard prison conditions, penitentiary policies and the systems of alternatives to detention in Europe.
Ivan Šelih (deputy ombudsman of Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia) is the deputy ombudsman, born on 18th of May 1967 in Celje (Slovenia).
He is University graduate lawyer who completed the state judicial examination. He actively speaks English and uses the Croatian and the Serbian languages. Mr. Ivan Šelih is employed at the Ombudsman’s office since 15 June 1995, first as Adviser in the field of judicial and police procedures, and all forms of deprivation of personal liberty. Since 2007 he is also Head of the Judicial Affairs and the Optional Protocol Affairs. Mr. Ivan Šelih completed his studies at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana with a thesis from the criminal law group of subjects. The title of thesis was Privacy Protection under the European Convention on Human Rights. As Head of the Judicial Affairs and the Optional Protocol Affairs at the Ombudsman’s office he leads, performs and coordinates the national prevention mechanism activities which the Ombudsman pursues, in cooperation with some NGOs, in line with Article 5 of the Act ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
He authored several articles related to the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Marija Definis-Gojanović, MD, PhD, is a professor of forensic medicine and medical ethics at Medical School and Law School, as well as at university study “Forensics”, University of Split, Croatia, and at Mostar Medical School, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is the head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at these institutions. She is a specialist of forensic medicine and the former head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at University Hospital Center Split, Croatia. She has served as a permanent court appointed expert at District Courts in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as coroner/medical examiner for Split-Dalmatia County since 1993. She has an extensive experience in monitoring protection of human rights of people deprived of their liberty being a member of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) (2002-2013), member of the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT) (2007-2012, 2015-2018) and member of Croatian National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) (since 2012). She participated in number of regular and ad-hoc visits to places of deprivation of liberty in many countries of Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. In addition, as a member of SPT/CPT/NPM or invited independent expert/consultant, she actively participated in (training) seminars, conferences, workshops and round-tables on monitoring of places of detention, on prevention of torture, on implementation of OPCAT and establishing NPMs, on prison health care and documenting ill-treatment.
Mykola Gnatovskyy (born in 1977) is President of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) since March 2015, and Professor of International Law at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine. He holds LL.M. (1999) and Ph.D. (2002) in International Law and specializes in international human rights law and international humanitarian law, as well as international criminal law. He is a member of the CPT since 2009. He is also Academic Secretary of the Ukrainian Association of International Law, a member of editorial boards of international legal journals published in Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, Russia, and the UK, and Senior Constitutional Advisor at the Ukrainian office of Democracy Reporting International.
Patrizio Gonnella is the Chairman of Antigone and of the NGO CILD (Italian Coalition for Civil Rights and Liberties). He works as a researcher in collaboration with the Chair of Philosophy of Law at the University Roma Tre. During the Nineties, he used to work as a deputy-warden in the prisons of Padova and Pisa. He authored many essays on criminal justice subjects, among which the most recent are Carceri. I confini della dignità and Detenuti stranieri in Italia. He collaborates with many famous newspapers and online blogs, such as MicroMega and L’Espresso.
Peter Clarke joined the Metropolitan Police in 1977 and served in a variety of uniformed and detective roles. When he was Vice Director of HR, he was appointed as Head of the Anti- Terrorist Branch at New Scotland Yard and National Co-ordinator of Terrorist Investigations. He retired from the police service from the position of Assistant Commissioner, Specialist Operations in 2008. In 2009 he was appointed by the Prime Minister to be a member of the UK national Security Forum, created to advise Government on the implementation of the UK National Security Strategy. In 2014 he was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education to be the Education Commissioner for Birmingham. He became a member of the Board of the Charity Commission in 2013, and is a trustee of the Crimestoppers charity. He has been a Fellow of the Center for Law and Security at New York University. He became HM Chief Inspector of Prisons on 1 February 2016.
Susanna Marietti is the national coordinator of the NGO Antigone. She has been working at Antigone's Observatory on Italian prisons since its birth, promoting campaigns and cooperating to the Reports. She wrote essays on Italian penitentiary system as well as on contemporary philosophical topics. She authors and hosts the radio broadcast Jailhouse Rock.
She is the President of Atletico Diritti, a soccer team composed by prisoners, migrants and students.
Luigi Manconi started his career in the field of education in Universities. He was film, book and music critic then he became writer and journalist, he was editor and columnist of the best known Italian newspapers. He is one of the founders of the Magazine Antigone in the 1980s. He is committed to the defence of individual liberties, justice and social guarantees. In 1994, Luigi Manconi started his political career and was elected senator with the Green party. Then, in 2006 he was appointed under-secretary of State for the Justice Minister prior to becoming senator with the Democratic Party in 2013. He is also President of the Association A buon diritto Onlus.
Mario Morcone. The prefect Mario Morcone joined the Public Security Administration and the civil administration of the Ministry of the Interior in 1976. Then he served different functions for ministers. Appointed prefect in 1993, he became first class prefect in 1999. He was Deputy for the civil administration to the mission of the United Nations in Kosovo and he was appointed UN administrator of the region and city of Mitrovica at the border between Serbia and Kosovo. Then, in 2000 he returned to the Italian administration, director general of the civil administration of the Ministry of the Interior and Head of Department of Fire-fighters, Public Assistance and Civil Defence. Since 2006 he is Head of Department of Civil Liberty and Immigration. He handled the implementations of European directives of 2004/2005 for asylum and international protection. By Presidential decree he was appointed Extraordinary Commissioner for the interim management of Roma.
Mauro Palma does many activities in the area of justice and human rights. He is an expert in criminal justice and right of detainees and is the coordinator of the European Prison Observatory, adviser to the Ministry of Justice Andrea Orlando, the chairman of the Group of experts set up by the European council on prison overcrowding and President of the European council on penal cooperation. He also served on a number of committees and observatories on these issues and carries out editorial and journalistic activities. He is very experienced on institutional consulting activities too, in 2015 ha was appointed expert by the committee of the European court for human rights. Moreover, he has been involved in a lot of human rights education and training activities and worked for various NGOs, in 1991 he founded the association Antigone.
Marco Mona is a lawyer specialized in administrative law, social insurance and migration law. He started his career in 1973 with the function of public prosecutor. Then in 1978 he was appointed judge at the Zurich district. In 1983, he became MP in Zurich. He worked in collaboration with migrant and refugee organizations and in 1990 he became President of the Association for the Prevention of Torture. From 2002 to 2003, he was appointed Police Ombudsman for Zurich then member of the federal commission against racism. In 2009, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of San Gallo. From 2010 to 2013, he was Vice president of the National Commission for the prevention of torture.
Antonio Marchesi holds a degree in jurisprudence and is graduate in research by the European University Institute. He teaches international law in the Faculty of Jurisprudence of the University of Teramo. He also holds courses of international protection of human rights for the Italian Society for International Organisation (SIOI). He wrote more than 50 papers, scientific articles and various books among which Obligations of conduct and obligations of result. He is part of the Italian section of Amnesty International since 1977, of whose he is the President since 2013 (he already had this position from 1990 to 1994). He was consultant for the international Secretariat of Amnesty International, for the European Parliament (for the First Speaker, Adelaide Aglietta), for the European Commission (always mainly about the death penalty), for the Council of Europe (as expert of the European Committee for the prevention of Torture), and for various NGOs. In 1998 he was part of the delegation to the Institutive Conference of the International Criminal Court. He collaborated with the Observatory of the Prisons of Antigone, he is a member of its Scientific Committee, and was vicepresident of the Ethic Committee on the Sponsoring of the Municipality of Rome.
Giuseppe Mosconi (1946) is full professor of Sociology of Law at the department FISPPA (Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy and Applicated Psychology) of the university of Padova. In general he deals with the study of the normative mutation, of the social control, of the deviance, of the prison, of the security and of the prevention, themes about which he published various works (among which The Other Prison, Cleup, Padova 1982; The norm, the meaning, the control, Franco Angeli, Milano 1986; Complexity of the Law and Ambivalence of the control, Imprimitur, 1992; Inside the Prison, Other Sentence, Cedam, Padova, 1998; Criminality, security, public opinion in the Veneto, Cleup, Padova 2000). Studies on these themes are references for a social and political involvement for penal and prison reform, in the framework of the association Antigone of whose the Venetian section is president.
Gabriella Guido actively deals with topics as the immigration, the right of migrants at the national scale, the freedom of information and the social justice at many levels. She is vicepresident of CILD (Italian Coalition for and Civil Rights and Liberties). She coordinates since 2011 the campaign LASCIATECIENTRARE (Let us enter) about administrative detention of the migrants and violation of human rights in CIE (Center of Identification and Expulsion), with many other associations of the civil society in Italy and in Europe. She works since 2006 at AMREF HEALTH AFRICA, the main health NGO in Africa, where she deals with institutional campaigns and information campaigns, with external relations and with projects of sensibilisation.
Valentina Calderone is the director of the association A Buon Diritto and is collaborator of the Italian Senate Commission on Human Rights. She deals with privation of liberty and immigration and writes papers and articles on those themes. In 2015 she handled the First Report on the State of the Rights in Italy for Ediesse and she published, with others, the essay Abolish the Prison, edition Chiarelettere.
Massimo De Pascalis is the General Manager of the Superior Institute for Penitentiary Studies (ISSP). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law. He occupied the position of Director of the Rebibbia Penitentiary and of the Prison of Spoleto. He was part of the National Commission of the Ministry of Justice for the Reform of the Penitentiary Administration and of the National Commission JusticeHealth. He occupied various positions within the Penitentiary Administration Direction such as Head of the General Secretariat, Responsable of the Trade Union Relations Office, and ViceDirector of the Central Office of the Personnel. He was President of the Central Council of Discipline of the Penitentiary Police Corps. He is also Managing Director of the periodical “I quaderni ISSP”.
Michele Nicoletti is graduated of a philosphy degree. He is full professor of political philosphy an deputy of the Partito Democratico. He was secretary of the Permanent Council on Human Rights from 2013 to 2015. Currently he is Director of the Center of Studies and Researches “Antonio Rosmini”. Furthermore he occupies the position of President of the Italian Parliamentarian Delegation to the Council of Europe and of Coordinator of the Parliamentarian Assembly of the Council of Europe.