Obtained a Master degree in Culture and Society from University of Stanford and a Master degree in African General History from UCLA. He is researching the Nilotic and Abyssynian prescence in the Tuareg civilization for his PhD. He currently works as a technical adviser to the Peace Building High Authority (Niger Republic Presidency) During the armed civil conflict in Niger, he formed part of the forces that demanded an independent state in the Western Sahara. Later, he became one of founding members of the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee and since February 2017 he serves as the Vice President of the organization. Since 2006, he has worked on research project on the history of of Indigenous peoples, notably the keltamachakh (Touareg), in the Sahelo-Saharan region of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
Experts
Mohamed Ewangaye Didane
Paweł Filipek
Paweł Filipek, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the Institute of European Studies, Jagiellonian University, Ph.D. in Legal Sciences with specialization in Public International Law. Previously worked at the Chair of Public International Law (1997-2007) and coordinated the Jagiellonian University Human Rights Centre (2003-2007) and the Human Rights Clinic (2003-2006). Scholarship holder of the Max-Planck Society (2002-2003). Earlier, Ph.D. candidate at the European Graduate College Heidelberg-Krakow-Mainz (2001-2008), trainee at the Council of Europe on Strasburg (2000) and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw (1997). Academic interests in Public International Law, Human Rights Protection, Law and practice of the European Convention on Human Rights, Law of International Organizations, international control.
Pavel Fischer
Pavel Fischer served as senior political advisor to the late President Vaclav Havel and the Director of the Political Department of President Havel's Presidential Office. Subsequently he was appointed as the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to France and Monaco. After his 7-year ambassadorial mission, he served as the Political Director General in charge of defence, security and strategic issues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2013, he stepped down for family reasons, and worked with governmental and non-governmental partners. He worked as Director of empirical studies institute STEM. Mr. Fischer has been generally acknowledged as one of the leading supporters of strong Trans-Atlantic ties, as well as of an active membership of the Czech republic in the NATO and EU among the politically active figures. In 2018 Presidential election, he lost and was 3rd with 10% of votes. Member of Jacques Delors Institute (Paris), of SIRIRI (Prague based NGO promoting educational programs in Central African Republic), and of Forum 2000 Foundation (Prague).
András Forgách
Professor at the University of Theatre and Film, Budapest, author, playwright, essayist. Published three novels in Hungary, Who isn't (1999), Zehuze (2007), I was Twelve Women (2013). Besides these novels he published three essay-books about literature, theatre and film. His first play The Player, after Dostoyevski's novel was presented at the Katona József Színház, in 1985. He wrote many adaptations of classical and newer authors (Flaubert, Garcia Marquez, Hamsun, Danilo Kis), and several original plays, among them Vitellius and The Key, which won prizes and were also translated into several languages. In the last years, he directed his own play, The Boy in Oradea/Nagyvárad, (2013), and his very last play, The End is Close, was premiered (also in his own direction) in january of 2014 in Budapest in the Rózsavölgyi Szalon. He translated the plays of Kleist, Beaumarchais, Genet, Wedekind, Ödön von Horvath, Marlowe, Pinter, and many others.
Kristóf Forrai
Executive Director of the International Visegrad Fund from 2006. In 1982 graduated from the University of Economics in Budapest. In 1989 he obtained his second Master of International Affairs at Colombia University, New York, USA. He joined the Foreign Service after the collapse of the totalitarian regime as First Secretary on the Embassy of Hungary in Washington, D.C. (1990-1993). 1993 – 1997 he worked as Head of Department for the Government Office for Hungarian Minorities Abroad. In 1998 he became Head of the Department for Regional Cooperation in the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the same time Hungarian representative at the Danube Commission. Before being nominated V4 National Coordinator during the Hungarian Presidency (2005-2006) he worked for four years as Ambassador at the Hungarian Embassy in Prague.
Jochen Fried
Director of education initiatives and academic director of the International Study Programme at the Salzburg Seminar. Former director of the Universities Project of the Salzburg Seminar. Since 1998 head of programs at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and senior officer in the secretariat of the German Science Council in Cologne, Germany. After receiving the PhD degree in German literature from the Düsseldorf University, in 1984, he was lecturer at the Cambridge University, and at the University of Ljubljana, under the auspices of the German Academic Exchange Service. Main area of professional interests are higher education and research policy. Expert for the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture, member of the editorial board of the UNESCO-CEPES quarterly review Higher Education in Europe.
Ivor Gaber
Director of City's Political Journalism MA of London University has an outstanding background in both practical political journalism and in academic research in this area. He has co-authored three books and numerous articles on political communications, and has served as a media consultant to a variety of organisations, governments and international bodies. His journalistic career has included senior editorial positions at the BBC, ITN, Channel Four and Sky News. He is an Independent Editorial Adviser to the BBC and a frequent contributor to radio and television networks in the UK and abroad.
Awad Gabir
Immigrant from Sudan living in Poland.
Andrej Gál
Graduated from VŠMU Bratislava. He participated in several international courses and competitions (e.g. under R. Wallfisch). Since 1999 Andrej Gál has performed several times the first cello in the Internationale Orchesterakademie in Germany and also within the festival orchestra at Summer Arts in Idyllwild in California. Since 2001 he has been a member of the Bohdan Warchal Slovak Chamber Music Orchestra and the Zwiebel Quartet. Andrej Gál performs chamber music and interprets contemporary Slovak and international music.
Zoltán Gál
MA in Central European Studies at the Central European University, Budapest in 1994. PhD in Economic Geography at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1998. Research fields include Regional Economics, Regional Economics of Finance, Financial Geography, Regional Innovation Policy, Innovation Systems, Co-operation in the Central Europe in the field of innovation, Financial Sector Development in the Eastern and Central Europe and Economic History. Senior research fellow at the Centre for Regional Studies, HAS, the Transdanubian Research Institute, and Associate Professor at the University of Kaposvár, Faculty of Economics, Department of Regional Economics.2003-2004expert at the Regional Foresight Unit at the DG Research of the European Commission, Brussels. 2001-2004 senior manager of the Regional Innovation Strategy for the South Transdanuabian region.
