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.

Office Manager
Line Favre
lfavre(at)wilpf.ch

Human Rights Interns
Ida Wikblom
rights(at)wilpf.ch

Disarmament Intern
disarm(at)wilpf.ch

UN Office Staff

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.