The STEERING COMMITTEE is appointed in order to ensure that the Fund maintains close ties to the civil society. The members of this Committee will be selected from civil society organizations or will be selected for their expertise related to the Fund’s subject. The Steering Committee will discuss the projects undertaken by the Fund with the Governing Board and seek counsel wherever necessary. Its distinguished members are:
- Professor Boaventura DE SOUSA SANTOS
Boaventura de Sousa Santos is Professor of Sociology, University of Coimbra (Portugal), and Distinguished Legal Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned an LL.M and J.S.D. from Yale University and holds the Degree of Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa, by McGill University. He is director of the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra and has written and published widely on the issues of globalization, sociology of law and the state, epistemology, social movements and the World Social Forum. He has been awarded several prizes, most recently the Science and Technology Prize of Mexico, 2010, and the Kalven Jr. Prize of the Law and Society Association, 2011. - Alexis Deswaef, lawyer
Alexis Deswaef is licenced in Law at the Université Catholique de Louvain and lawyer at the Bussels Bar since 1994. He is one of the co-founders of the Cabinet d’Avocats du Quartier des Libertés and he is on the List of Counsel of the International Criminal Court.
As a lawyer, he is expert of the rights of foreigners (asylum and stay) and in criminal law (human trafficking).
Between 2002 and 2008, with Véronique van der Plancke and Grégor Chapelle, he held the criminal complaint for four Burmese refugees against the junta and TOTAL for crimes against humanity in Myanmar, making use of the Belgian “universal competence” law.
In 2007, he obtained the first prize at the Human Rights Plea International Competition in Caen (Normandy, France) by denouncing the detention of undocumented children in closed centres. In 2010, he obtained the condemnation of Belgium by the European Court of Human Rights.
He realized various missions in Burundi for Lawyers without Borders.
In 2012, he went on a mission in Palestine and Israël, which he described in his book “Israël-Palestine, au cœur de l’étau. 10 jours pour comprendre”.He is since 2011 at the head of the Ligue des droits de l’Homme. - Professor Nancy FRASER
Nancy Fraser is an American critical theorist, currently the Henry A. and Louise Loeb Professor of Political and Social Science and professor of philosophy at The New School for Social Research in New York City. Fraser earned her PhD in philosophy from the CUNY Graduate Center and taught in the philosophy department at Northwestern University for many years before moving to the New School. In addition to her many publications and lectures, Fraser is a former Co-editor of Constellations, an international journal of critical and democratic theory, where she remains an active member of the Editorial Council. - Mr Philippe HENSEMANS
Director of the Belgian section of Amnesty International since 1996. Bachelor in Sociology of UCL in 1980, Journalist, 1985-1988, Press Attaché and Editor-in-Chief of AIBF monthly magazine, 1988-1996. - Professeur Xavier PHILIPPE
Xavier Philippe is Professor of Public Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Aix-Marseilles (AMU – France). He holds a State Doctorate in Law (1989) and two Masters degree (1983-1984). He has been appointed Professor in 1990 at the University of La Réunion (Indian Ocean) after having been lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Aix-Marseilles (1985-1989) . From 1995 until 2001, he has been seconded to South Africa during the transition period as legal expert and academic at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town – South Africa). He came back to Aix-en-Provence from 2002 until 2004 as Professor of Public Law. From 2004 until 2007, he was seconded again to the International Committee of the Red Cross as Regional Legal Advisor for the CIS countries (Moscow delegation). Since 2008, he heads the Louis Favoreu Institute and created a new Master Programme in the Law of State Rebuilding in Post-conflicts situations. His main field of expertise are Constitutional comparative Law (Drafting processes), Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Lax and Transitional justice. He is also deeply implicated in constitutions rebuilding processes in post conflict or post crises situations, especially in Tunisia and Myanmar, where he participated to national dialogue and constitution rebuilding processes. - Professeur Françoise TULKENS
Alongside her post at the Université catholique de Louvain, Françoise Tulkens was Chairwoman of the Scientific Committee of the European Law-making Research Group (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris) from 1993 to 1998 and editor-in-chief of the journal, Revue internationale de droit pénal, from 1994 to 1998. From 1996 to 1997, she was an Expert for the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture. She has also been a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Geneva, Ottawa, Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne) and Rennes.
On 1 November 1998, she became a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights in respect of Belgium. She was elected a Section President in 2007 and on 1 February 2011 became one of two Vice-Presidents of the Court, along with the British judge, Sir Nicolas Bratza, and under French President Jean-Paul Costa. She retired from the European Court in September 2012 and was appointed a member of the Human Rights Advisory Panel of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo.
- Maître Véronique VAN DER PLANCKE
Avocate au Barreau de Bruxelles (Ordre français) depuis 1999, Licenciée en droit de l'UCL en 1998 (Promotion Aung San Suu Kyi); Diplômée en criminologie (DEC) de la Katholieke Universiteit Leuven en 1999, Diplômée en études spécialisées en Droits de l’Homme (DES) des Facultés universitaires de Saint-Louis et de l’U.C.L. en 2002. Véronique van der Plancke est une des co-fondatrices du Cabinet d’Avocats du Quartier des Libertés. Elle est également conseillère juridique au Centre d'Appui SocialEnergie de la FdSS www.socialenergie.be et www.fdss.be, au sein duquel elle rédige notamment des recommandations politiques relatives à l'accès et au droit fondamental au logement et à l'énergie. Parallèlement, elle est collaboratrice scientifique au sein de l’Institut pour la recherche interdisciplinaire en sciences juridiques (JURI) de l' UCL, et participe à des groupes de recherche (projet ARC) sur le droit face à l'impunité, mais aussi face aux injustices économiques et sociales.
Vice-présidente de la Ligue des droits de l’homme, Belgique francophone depuis 2010.