Jawad Fairouz
ALQST AdvisorJawad Fairouz is a former member of the Bahraini parliament. From 2006 to 2011, while an MP, he was Chair of the Public Utilities and Environment Committee and chaired several scrutiny committees in the Council of Representatives. Before that, he was an elected member and deputy chair of the Northern Area Municipality from 2002 to 2006. A founding member of a number of civil society organisations in Bahrain and abroad, he currently chairs Salam for Democracy and Human Rights, a UK-based NGO set up in 2013. In 2018 he joined the Advisory Board of the Dutch-based Institute on Statelessness and Integration. Fairouz holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, USA, and a Diploma in Business Management from the University of Bahrain. He has been living in exile in the UK since 2012, and was one of a number of Bahrainis stripped of their citizenship on 6 November of that year.
Khalid Ibrahim
ALQST AdvisorKhalid Ibrahim is an Iraqi human rights defender and Executive Director of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, with responsibility for administration, programme development, funding and training. He spent more than ten years in Dublin with Frontline Defenders, where he had the opportunity to work on human rights issues in the MENA region. In 2011 he decided to concentrate on human rights in the Gulf and neighbouring states, and co-founded the Gulf Centre for Human Rights. Khalid gained a BSc in Physics in Iraq and an MSc in Health Informatics from Trinity College Dublin, where he is pursuing a PhD on digital protection for human rights defenders. He is an acknowledged expert in the field of human rights and is interested in the use of new technology to promote the protection of human rights in the MENA region.
Taha al-Hajji
ALQST AdvisorTaha al-Hajji is a lawyer and legal consultant. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from King Abdulaziz University (1999), a Diploma in Law from Cairo University, and a Masters in Administrative Law from Cairo University. He worked in the Legal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Interior for five years between 2007 - 2012, is the Founding member of the Justice Center for Human Rights and worked as a member of Nimr al-Nimr’s defence team.
Radhya al-Mutawakel
ALQST AdvisorRadhya al-Mutawakel is Yemeni human rights defender. She is the chairperson and co-founder of Mwatana Organization for Human Rights. She has been working in the human rights field since 2004, covering different topics including war crimes, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and freedom of the press. Al-Mutawakel has been invited to present her work at numerous international events and forums, including at a hearing of the European Parliament, and she briefed the UN Security Council on 30 May 2017 on the war in Yemen. In March 2019 and April 2020 she had a testimony in front of the Congress. Al-Mutawakel was on the TIME's list of the 100 most influential people of 2019. She also holds a bachelor's degree in mass communication and two high diplomas in gender studies and political science from Sanaa University. Mwatana for Human Rights is a Yemeni NGO advocates for human rights through the verification and documentation of violations, provision of legal support to victims, lobbying for accountability and redress , as well as awareness raising and capacity building
Maryam Al-Khawaja
ALQST AdvisorMaryam Al-Khawaja is a Bahraini Woman Human Rights Defender and international advocate on human rights issues. Currently working as a consultant and trainer on human rights, Al-Khawaja served on the Board of Directors of CIVICUS, Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, International Service for Human Rights and Urgent Action Fund. She previously served as Co-Director of Frida - the Young Feminist Fund, Europe Director and Interim Advocacy Director at Physicians for Human Rights, Co-Director for the Gulf Center for Human Rights and as Acting President of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. Al-Khawaja played an instrumental role in the democratic protests taking place in Bahrain’s Pearl Roundabout in February 2011.
Inès Osman
ALQST AdvisorA French-Algerian human rights lawyer and is the co-founder and executive director of MENA Rights Group, a legal advocacy NGO which defends and promotes fundamental rights and freedoms in the Middle East and North Africa region. Prior to this, she worked as a jurist for several years in human rights NGOs and international courts. Inès received her B.A. in International Relations from the University of Geneva and a LL.M. in Public International Law from the University of Leiden.
Salma El Hosseiny
ALQST AdvisorSalma El Hosseiny (she/her) is an Egyptian woman human rights defender. She leads strategic engagement and advocacy at the Human Rights Council at the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR). She holds a Masters degree in International Human Rights Law and a Bachelors degree in Political Science from the American University in Cairo. Prior to joining ISHR in 2018, she worked for national and international human rights organisations in the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on the protection of human rights defenders, civil and political rights and women’s rights.
Nawaf Al-hendal
ALQST AdvisorNawaf Al-hendal is founder of Kuwait Monitor and a human rights activist since 2004.
