Contact WILPF

Secretariat Staff:

Secretary General
Madeleine Rees
mrees(at)wilpf.ch

Madeleine qualified as a lawyer in 1990 and became a partner in a large law firm in the UK in 1994 specializing in discrimination law, particularly in the area of employment, and public and administrative law and she did work on behalf of both the Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission mainly on developing strategies to establish rights under domestic law through the identification of test cases to be brought before the courts. Madeleine brought cases both to the European Court of Human Rights and The European Court in Luxembourg. She was cited as one of the leading lawyers in the field of discrimination in the Chambers directory of British lawyers.

In 1998 she began working for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as the gender expert and Head of Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In that capacity she worked extensively on the rule of law, gender and post conflict, transitional justice and the protection of social and economic rights. The Office in Bosnia was the first to take a case of rendition to Guantanamo before a court. The OHCHR office dealt extensively with the issue of trafficking and Madeleine was a member of the expert coordination group of the trafficking task force of the Stability Pact, thence the Alliance against Trafficking. From September 2006 to April 2010 she was the Head of the Women`s Rights and Gender Unit for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, focusing on using law to describe the different experiences of men and women, particularly in post conflict situations. The aim was to better understand and interpret the concept of Security using human rights law as complementary to humanitarian law and how to make the human rights machinery more responsive and therefore more effective from a gender perspective.

Human Rights Programme Assistant/Personal Assistant to Madeleine Rees
Raisa Dougan
raisa@wilpf.ch

Human Rights Associate
Leila Chaker
leila@wilpf.ch

Leila is from London, England, and has recently graduated from the University of Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts in History. Leila's primary responsibility at WILPF is to develop WILPF's new campaign, Operation 26, with particular focus on business and human rights and legal accountabilities. As well as this, Leila is working on the 1325 Anniversary events, specifically through her research on prevention mechanisms.

Human Rights Associate
Cara Gleeson
rights@wilpf.ch

Cara Gleeson is from Melbourne, Australia and is passionate about human rights, equality and social justice.  Cara has worked at the Australian Government’s Office for Women, has been a committee member and board director YWCA Australia and Canberra and was a contributor to Australia’s Beijing +15 NGO response. She has completed a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and is currently studying a Masters of Social Research at Australian National University.  These along with her fundraising achievements for International Women’s Development Agency are all testimony to her experience in and commitment to her passions.
She looks forward to being a part of WILPF in this exciting time and working on WILPF’s important international human rights program while also promoting engagement and change for communities and WILPF sections around the world.

Communications Coordinator
Katherin Machalek
membership(at)wilpf.ch / katherin(at)wilpf.ch

Katherin is originally from New York City and came to Geneva in August 2008 to finish her masters thesis on democracy in Russia.  After volunteering at WILPF for a few months at the beginning of 2009, she has returned as Communications Coordinator.  She is responsible for the maintenance of membership as well as its reform, contact between sections, committees and the international board and much more.  She came to WILPF because she was interested in learning more about advocacy and lobbying efforts to promote the gender perspective and the internal NGO management that lies behind effective actions.  She has a background in policy making and democratic institution building in the former Soviet Union, but she is also passionate about women’s political empowerment and international measures for the protection of women’s rights to social protection and equality.

Disarmament Intern
Sara Sjogren
disarm(at)wilpf.ch

We would like to take this opportunity to warmly thank the German section’s regular financial contribution to the Human Rights annual internship through the Alice & Helga Herz legacy, without which the internship programme would not be possible.

UN Office Staff

WILPF United Nations Office Director
AnnJanette Rosga
rosga(at)wilpf.ch

AnnJanette Rosga is the UN Office Director in New York City. She holds a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness (interdisciplinary social sciences) from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prior to joining WILPF, Anjie was an assistant professor at Knox College in Illinois, and then at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she taught courses in social and feminist theory, research methodologies, and the cultural study of law, crime and violence. Anjie’s recent research was on US training for police in emerging democracies, especially vis-à-vis human rights and child trafficking in Bosnia-Herzegovina. She has published on human trafficking, bias-related crime, and human rights indicators. Anjie has received several awards, including fellowships from the Fulbright Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. As a researcher for the film, Licensed to Kill, Anjie was co-recipient of the Sundance Filmmakers’ Trophy Award for Best Documentary in 1997. She has also been a consultant for Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNDP, and the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces. For DCAF, she authored an online peacekeepers’ course on violence against women and women’s human rights. A longtime admirer of WILPF and an avid consumer of its web archives, she is thrilled and honored to join the WILPF team in New York.

Reaching Critical Will Team

Ray Acheson - RCW Director
ray(at)reachingcriticalwill.org

Ray is the project director of Reaching Critical Will. Prior to this position, she was an intern and research assistant for the project. Ray previously worked with the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies, an organization founded during the Nuclear Freeze movement of the 1980s. She tracked the manufacture and trade of conventional weapons systems and was also the associate editor of the 2006 and 2007 editions of the Arms Control Reporter, a reference journal that provides information and analysis on international arms control and disarmament issues. Ray graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours BA in Peace and Conflict Studies in 2005. She has been a social justice activist for many years and has contributed with writing, research, and editing to several organizations, including Native Planet and RESPECT International.

Beatrice Fihn - Project Associate of RCW
beatrice(at)reachingcriticalwill.org

Beatrice is the project associate of Reaching Critical Will and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to this position, she was a research officer at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, where she carried out research on geopolitics and global security in areas such as outer space and emerging strategic technologies. Beatrice has a BA in International Relations from Stockholm University and is currently finishing a Masters of Law at University of London with a specialization in public international law.

PeaceWomen Team

Maria Butler - Project Associate of PW
maria(at)peacewomen.org

Maria joined the PeaceWomen Project of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) as an Associate in 2010.  Maria is passionate about advancing the women, peace and security agenda and gained experience working on these issues with Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, led by Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland; former High Commission for Human Rights). Before joining PeaceWomen, Maria worked as a delegate at UN General Assembly Sixty-Four Session, representing the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the UN. In this role, Maria liaised on broad range of human rights issues including as a representative on the Middle East negotiation team and a delegate to the UN Fourth Committee.