Unpacking Participatory Democracy:
from theory to practice and from practice to theory
Biographies of Conference Participants
Tom Blanton, Director, National Security Archive, George Washington University, Washington D.C., U.S.A.
Thomas S. Blanton is Director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. The Archive won U.S. journalism’s George Polk Award in April 2000 for “piercing self-serving veils of government secrecy, guiding journalists in search for the truth, and informing us all.” The Los Angeles Times (16 January 2001) described the Archive as “the world’s largest nongovernmental library of declassified documents.” Blanton served as the Archive’s first Director of Planning & Research beginning in 1986, became Deputy Director in 1989, and Executive Director in 1992. He filed his first Freedom of Information Act request in 1976 as a weekly newspaper reporter in Minnesota; and among many hundreds subsequently, he filed the FOIA request and subsequent lawsuit (with Public Citizen Litigation Group) that forced the release of Oliver North’s Iran-contra diaries in 1990.
His books include White House E-Mail: The Top Secret Computer Messages the Reagan-Bush White House Tried to Destroy (New York: The New Press, 1995, 254 pp. + computer disk), which The New York Times described as “a stream of insights into past American policy, spiced with depictions of White House officials in poses they would never adopt for a formal portrait.” He co-authored The Chronology (New York: Warner Books, 1987, 687 pp.) on the Iran-contra affair, and served as a contributing author to three editions of the ACLU’s authoritative guide, Litigation Under the Federal Open Government Laws, and to the Brookings Institution study Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of U.S. Nuclear Weapons Since 1940 (Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 1998, 680 pp.). His latest book, Masterpieces of History: The Peaceful End of the Cold War in Europe, 1989, co-authored with Svetlana Savranskaya and Vladislav Zubok, won the Arthur S. Link-Warren F. Kuehl Prize for Documentary Editing of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. His articles have appeared in The International Herald-Tribune, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times,The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Slate, the Wilson Quarterly, and many other publications.
Patrick Brennan, Executive Director, Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University, Montreal, Canada
https://www.mcgill.ca/isid/leadership/directors/executive
Moyukh Chatterjee, Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Governance, Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Moyukh Chatterjee joined ISID in 2015 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Governance. He holds a PhD in Anthropology from Emory University, and earned an M.Phil and MA in Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, and a BA in English Literature from Delhi University. His research has received funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation. His prior publications include articles on the politics of fieldwork in the aftermath of violence and legal techniques that allow states to reinforce sectarian politics. As an anthropologist of South Asia, Moyukh Chatterjee analyzes how regimes perform spectacular violence against minorities in ways that deepen their political power and public legitimacy. Drawing on ethnographic research on one of India’s most gruesome episodes of state-sanctioned violence, Chatterjee’s research offers an account of how democratic states like India are able to purge themselves of public violence against minorities. His research shows that recurrent sectarian violence and subsequent impunity in India is not breakdown of law and order but a key lens to understand postcolonial governance. By analyzing the rise of an elected majoritarian regime, of which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s India is only one example, Chatterjee invites us to reconsider not only the postcolonial state, but the modern state in general.
Dolores Chew, Program Secretary and Founder-Member, South Asian Women’s Community Centre, Montreal
Dolores Chew was born and grew up in Kolkata, India. She has been living in Montreal for many years now and is very involved with migrant and minority women organizing in the city. She is a founding member of the South Asian Women’s Community Centre (SAWCC) and of the 8th March Committee of Women of Diverse Origins that organizes around International Women’s Day to bring issues pertinent to minority women to the fore. As well, she is a member of CERAS, an forum in support of peace, secularism and democratic development in South Asia. She is also on the Board of the Fédération des femmes du Québec. Dolores teaches history and humanities at Marianopolis College and is a Research Associate at the Simone de Beauvoir Women’s Studies Institute of Concordia University.
Nikhil Dey, Founder-Member, MKSS, NCPRI, and SR Abhiyan (Rajasthan), India
Nikhil Dey was born in Bangalore in 1963. He was educated in India and the USA, Bachelors Degree from Osmania University, and got his degree in law from the University of Delhi. After working briefly with the Kheduth Mazdoor Chetna Sangathana in Madhya Pradesh, he joined Aruna Roy and Shankar Singh in 1987 to go to Devdungri, in Rajsamand District in Rajasthan where along with many others they helped found the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS).Since 1990, he has been a full time worker of the MKSS, and has been involved in struggles of the poor for justice, including grass root struggles for land and the payment of minimum wages. He has also been a part of peoples organisations taking responsibility for putting together “peoples drafts” of the Right to Information and Employment Guarantee Bills. Nikhil has also played a prominent part in the ongoing effort by peoples movements to build institutions of participatory democracy, where for instance, peoples platforms for public audits are now being institutionalised by introducing statutory requirements of social audits and public hearings. He received the K L Bordia Award for social service in 2013. He has been a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) and of the State Employment Guarantee Council of Rajasthan, as well as several official committees related to the formulation of policy for rural development. He is also a Co-convener of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI). Nikhil is a former member of the OGP Steering Committee.
Mukelani Dimba, Executive Director, Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC), South Africa
Mukelani Dimba is the Executive Director of the Open Democracy Advice Center (ODAC), a South African law center that specializes in freedom of information and whistleblower protection laws. He is also the civil society chair of the Open Government Partnership’s steering committee. Mukelani has experience in accountability and transparency issues in South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His work includes advising civil society groups on campaigning for, and application of, right-to-information laws, advising legislators on drafting these laws, advising governments on implementation and monitoring strategies and conducting research on behalf of development agencies. Mukelani is a co-founder of the South Africa’s National Information Officers’ Forum and is a member of the board of directors of the Parliamentary Monitoring Group (South Africa). He is a member of the advisory council of the Council for Advancement of the South African Constitution and is faculty member of the International School for Transparency, a joint project of the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and the Södertörn University (Sweden). He has previously served as chairperson of the Africa Freedom of Information Centre (Uganda) and the advisory board of Open Society Foundations’ Right-To-Information Fund (USA).
Pearl Eliadis, Law Office of Pearl Eliadis, Full Member, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, and Lecturer, Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Pearl Eliadis is human rights lawyer. Her practice focuses on national institutions and democratic governance. Clients include the UN, the European Union, the OSCE and NGOs, and involve a range of human rights issues in Africa, and in Central, South and Southeast Asia. Areas of experience and research include national human rights institutions, equality law, civil liberties and gender equality. Appointed President of the Advisory Committee of the Quebec Bar Association in 2013, Pearl is past President of Equitas, serves on several community boards and advises public interest organizations. For her community engagement, she has received the Canada 125 Commemorative Medal, the 2006 Woman of Distinction Award (community service) and the 2013 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award. She has published several books and articles on human rights and public administration, and is on the Editorial Board of the Charter and Human Rights Litigation. She teaches Civil Liberties at the Faculty of Law at McGill University. Her book on Canada’s human rights commissions and tribunals, Speaking out on Human Rights: Debating Canada’s Human Rights System, was published by McGill-Queens University Press (2014).
Ellen Gabriel, Indigenous Human Rights Activist, Kanien’kehá:ka Nation and Turtle Clan, Kanehsatà:ke Mohawk Territory, Quebec, Canada
Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation and Turtle Clan, Kanehsatà:ke Mohawk Territory, was well-known to the public when she was chosen by the People of the Longhouse and her community of Kanehsatà:ke to be their spokesperson during the 1990 “Oka” Crisis. Since the Occupation of Kanehsatà:ke in 1990 Ms. Gabriel has been active as an Indigenous human rights activist and has been steadily advocating for the human rights of Indigenous peoples. Most recently she has been active in the anti-pipeline movement opposing the projects of TransCanada “Energy East” and Enbridge “Line 9 and 9b”. She has worked diligently to sensitize the public, academics, policing authorities and politicians on the history, culture and identity of Indigenous peoples and is an advocate for gender equity, the revitalization of Indigenous languages, culture, traditional knowledge and Indigenous governing structures. Ms. Gabriel has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Concordia University where she graduated in May 1990. She worked as an Illustrator/Curriculum developer for Tsi Ronteriwanónha ne Kanien’kéka/ Kanehsatà:ke Resource Center in Kanehsatà:ke and also worked as an Art Teacher for the Mohawk Immersion School for grades 1-6. Ellen has also worked on videos illustrating legends of the Iroquois people and the local community stories. She is presently an active board member of Kontinónstats – Mohawk Language Custodians and First Peoples Human Rights Coalition. In 2004, Ellen Gabriel was elected president of the Quebec Native Women’s Association a position which she held for 6 ½ years, until December 2010.
Fredrik Galtung, President, Integrity Action, London, U.K.
Fredrik Galtung is the president and co-founder of Integrity Action. Over the past 20 years, Fredrik has consulted on strategic corruption control in more than forty countries, working with governments, international organisations (Council of Europe, World Bank, UN secretariat, UNDP, UNESCO, Unicef, UN Office of Drugs and Crime, etc.), several companies, foundations and governments and development agencies. Fredrik is considered one of the foremost experts on measurements and metrics pertaining to corruption, fraud and organizational integrity. His expertise in this matter and strategic corruption control has been sought by the UN Secretariat, the World Bank, the Offices of the Presidents Nicaragua, Mexico, Benin, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, the Philippines as well as by specialised anti-corruption agencies, civil society groups, academics and development organisations. Fredrik began his international career as the founding staff member and Head of Research of Transparency International (TI), the world’s first global anti-corruption NGO, with national chapters in some 100 countries. He was responsible for developing the Bribe Payers Index (BPI) in the course of which he interviewed business leaders in a dozen countries about their first-hand experiences with international bribery. Another of his innovations was the Global Corruption Barometer (with Gallup International). Fredrik is an Ashoka Fellow in recognition of his role as a social entrepreneur.
Anne Marie Goetz, Professor, Center for Global Affairs (CGA), School of Professional Studies, New York University, New York, U.S.A.
Dr. Goetz joined NYU’s Center for Global Affairs in January 2014, where she teaches International Relations and Comparative Politics. She is both an academic and a policy-maker. She was a Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex between 1991 and 2005, and she has also held a number of positions at the United Nations, most recently as UN Women’s Chief Advisor on Peace and Security. In this role Dr. Goetz spearheaded initiatives to promote women’s empowerment in the UN’s peacebuilding work, women’s participation in peace talks and post conflict elections, and protection of women from violence. Dr. Goetz was instrumental in supporting negotiations for important Security Council resolutions on women’s participation in peacebuilding (resolution 1889), conflict-related sexual violence (resolution 1820) and women’s leadership in conflict resolution (resolution 2122). Professor Goetz is the author of eight books on women’s rights, democratization, and accountability institutions. She holds a BA from Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario); an MSc from the London School of Economics; a PhD from the University of Cambridge.
John Harriss, Professor and Director, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
John Harriss is a Professor, and currently the Director of the School for International Studies at Simon Fraser University. Trained originally in social anthropology, he has worked for most of his academic life in cross-disciplinary contexts, at Cambridge, the University of East Anglia, the London School of Economics, the National University of Singapore and now at SFU. He has lived and researched in India, and elsewhere in South and Southeast Asia, for long periods, and particularly in Tamil Nadu - where he has studied many different aspects of economy, politics and society. Outside the academy, he worked for some time as the Head of the Regional Office for South and Central Asia, of the Save the Children Fund (UK).
Patrick Heller, Professor, Sociology and International Studies, Brown University, U.S.A.
Patrick Heller is professor of sociology and international studies at Brown and the director of the Graduate Program in Development at the Watson Institute. His main area of research is the comparative study of social inequality and democratic deepening. He is the author of The Labor of Development: Workers in the Transformation of Capitalism in Kerala, India (Cornell 1999) and co-author of Social Democracy and the Global Periphery (Cambridge 2006). He has published articles on urbanization, comparative democracy, social movements, development policy, civil society and state transformation. His most recent book – Bootstrapping Democracy (Stanford 2011) with Gianpaolo Baiocchi and Marcelo Silva – explores politics and institutional reform in
Brazilian municipalities. Heller has also done research on urban transformation in South Africa and built a database on spatial transformation of the post-apartheid city.
Hussein Khalid, Executive Director, Muslims for Human Rights and HAKI Africa, Kenya
Hussein Khalid is currently the Executive Director of HAKI Africa – a national human rights organisation based in Mombasa, Kenya. For the last 15 years, Mr. Khalid has been at the forefront of agitating for the rights of community members at the grassroots level in Kenya and the general East African region. Mr. Khalid has worked with and served as a member of numerous civil rights groups and institutions, including Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI), Government Taskforce on Grievances of Coast People, the Centre for Law and Research International (CLARION) and the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). He has been involved in various national and international processes to promote and protect fundamental rights and freedoms of the people including giving testimonies to numerous taskforces. Mr. Khalid is a lawyer by profession and has also undertaken other courses including Fundamentals of Social Accountability at Rhodes University (South Africa), International Human Rights Conventions at the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom) and Crime Prevention in Kenya with the United States International University (Kenya).
Warren Krafchik, Executive Director, International Budget Partnership, Washington D.C., U.S.A.
Warren Krafchik is the Executive Director of the International Budget Partnership (IBP), where for 13 years he has led IBP’s work to support and collaborate with civil society organizations in Africa, Latin America, and Asia to ensure governments are held accountable as stewards of public resources. IBP works with independent organizations in over 100 countries by providing financial assistance, training, and technical support and designing collaborative research and networking programs. In addition to directing IBP, Krafchik is also a founder and steering committee member of the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency, and he was a founding Co-Chair of the Open Government Partnership. Krafchik joined the IBP in 2001 after nine years at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), where he founded the Budget Information Service (BIS). Idasa’s BIS was one of the first organizations in developing countries to pioneer a role for civil society organizations in budget processes, and its work and methods have been adapted by civil society and governments around the world.
Sonia Laszlo, Director, Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University, Montreal
https://www.mcgill.ca/isid/leadership
Suzanne Legault, Information Commissioner of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Suzanne Legault was named Information Commissioner of Canada in June 2010 for a seven-year mandate. During her tenure, the Commissioner and her team conducted more than 10,000 investigations and completed several systemic investigations. She tabled Special Reports to Parliament on the health of the Access to Information Regime, the use of instant messaging in the federal public service, the political interference in the processing of access to information requests, the federal government’s retroactive nullification of access to information rights in the case of the Long Gun registry, and a comprehensive road map to modernize the outdated Access to Information Act. The Commissioner steered several precedent setting cases through the Federal Court, including the interpretation of the provisions dealing with the CBC, the reasonableness of time extensions under the Act, and a reference dealing with the application of fees for electronic records. The Commissioner is a recognized leader both nationally and internationally. She has worked to advance freedom of information at home and abroad. She has supported her national colleagues through joint resolutions, various provincial legislative reform initiatives and interventions before the courts. She has assisted many countries in their efforts to advance transparency in partnership with the Carter Center, the Organisation of American States, the World Bank and Global Affairs Canada. Notably, she has worked in India, Nigeria, Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, Peru and Mexico. In 2011, she hosted the 7th International Information Commissioners conference. The Commissioner was an early advocate for Open Government leading the way for the adoption by the federal government of its Open Government initiative.
Marlihan Lopez, Intersectionality Committee, Federation des femmes du Quebec, Montreal, Quebec
Marlihan Lopez has over 10 years of experience in community development, feminist advocacy and intercultural education. She holds a Master’s degree in International Studies, with a specialization in International Development and Women’s Studies. She has worked on different South-South Cooperation projects in Latin America, notably in the field of health and education. She has also participated in women rights and afrodescendant advocacy movements in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. In Quebec, she currently works as liaison agent with the Regroupement québécois des centres d’aide et de lutte contre les agressions à caractère sexuel (Quebec Coalition of Sexual Assault Centers) a province-wide non-profit feminist organization that fights against sexual violence against women. She also works with social advocacy groups campaigning against racism, sexism and all types of discrimination, particularly intersectional oppressions. She is presently the President of Parole de Femmes Foundation, a Quebec non-profit organization committed to creating inclusive spaces where women of color can speak and share their diverse experiences and perspectives.
Catherine Lu, Associate Director, Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University, Montreal, Canada
https://www.mcgill.ca/isid/leadership/directors/associate-director-catherine-lu
Sara Mahboob, Research Assistant and Doctoral Candidate, Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Sara Mahboob is a doctoral candidate at McGill University Faculty of Law. Her research project examines how women interact with the criminal justice system. Before Sara started her doctoral studies, she worked with the Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan. She also practiced criminal law in Pakistan for six years and taught law at School of Law and Policy.
Toby Mendel, Executive Director, Center for Law and Democracy, Halifax, Canada
Toby Mendel is Executive Director of the Centre for Law and Democracy, a Canadian-based international human rights NGO that provides legal and capacity building expertise regarding foundational rights for democracy, including the right to information, freedom of expression, the right to participate and the rights to assembly and association. Prior to founding the Centre for Law and Democracy in January 2010, Toby Mendel was for over 12 years Senior Director for Law at ARTICLE 19, a human rights NGO focusing on freedom of expression and the right to information. He has provided expertise on these rights to a wide range of actors including the World Bank, various UN and other intergovernmental bodies, and numerous governments and NGOs in countries all over the world. In these various roles, he has often played a leading role in drafting legislation in the areas of the right to information and media regulation. Before joining ARTICLE 19, he worked as a senior human rights consultant with Oxfam Canada and as a human rights policy analyst at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). He has published extensively on a range of freedom of expression, right to information, communication rights and refugee issues, including comparative legal and analytical studies on public service broadcasting, the right to information and broadcast policy. Toby has an Honours B.A. in mathematics from McGill University and an L.L.B. from Dalhousie University.
Vrinda Narain, Professor, Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Vrinda Narain is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, McGill University. Her research and teaching focus on constitutional law, social diversity and feminist legal theory. She is the author of two books: Reclaiming the Nation: Muslim Women and the Law in India (University of Toronto Press, 2008) and Gender and Community: Muslim Women’s Rights in India (University of Toronto Press, 2001).
Suchi Pande, Scholar in Residence, Accountability Research Center, American University, Washington D.C., U.S.A.
Suchi Pande is a scholar in residence at the Accountability Research Center at American University, Washington DC. She has experience in both activism and research. Suchi was Secretary of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, and has worked with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, in India. She received her PhD from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Her doctoral research focused on the grassroots struggle for a national right to information law in India, and the role of “public audits” in implementing India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). She is currently researching the implications of state-run social audits for NREGA in the state of Telangana.
S. Parasuraman, Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India and Professor, School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada
Prof. S. Parasuraman is the Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India since 2004. He has more than three decades of experience as teacher and researcher in Rural Development, Education, Health, Public Policy, Social Protection, Social Exclusion and Inclusive policies, Governance, Water and Energy and a range of inter-disciplinaryareas. He has published extensively on development and disasters.
Prof. Parasuraman has held key positions in international organisations such as World Bank, IUCN, Oxfam, Action Aid International and UN including being the Asia Policy Director of Action Aid International; Team Leader of the Secretariat, World Commission on Dams; and as Programme Director, Oxfam GB, India Programme and dealt with possibilities and politics of development at the micro and macro level. Prof. Parasuraman has a Master’s in Anthropology from the University of Poona, and a Ph.D. in Demography from the University of Mumbai. He has been a United Nations Fellow on Population and Development, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, and was conferred Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa) by the Assam University.
Nandini Ramanujam, Professor, Faculty of Law and Director, Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Associate Professor Nandini Ramanujam is the Executive Director and Director of Programs of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism at McGill University’s Faculty of Law. She also directs the International Human Rights Internship Program as well as Independent Human Rights Internships Program. She is the McGill representative for the Scholars at Risk Network and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Scholars at Risk Network, Canada section. Nandini Ramanujam’s research and teaching interests include Law and Development, Institutions and Governance, Economic Justice, Food Security and Food Safety, the role of civil society and the Fourth Estate (Media) in promotion of the rule of law, as well as the exploration of interconnections between field based human rights work and theoretical discourses. She also has extensive experience in human rights issues, strategic planning, governance and programming, with a particular focus on education and civil society.
Vivek Ramkumar, Senior Director of Policy, International Budget Partnership, Washington D.C., U.S.A.
Vivek Ramkumar joined the International Budget Partnership (IBP) in 2005 and currently is Senior Director of Policy. In this capacity, he oversees IBP’s research and advocacy efforts to expand the adoption of transparent and accountable budget systems around the world. As Senior Director, Vivek stands-in for the Executive Director, as requested. Vivek is an Indian national and previously worked with the MKSS – an organization that pioneered the Right to Information movement in India. He also worked with a Mumbai-based nongovernmental organization called SPARC, which is part of the Shack/Slum Dwellers International. Vivek is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds an MA from the London School of Economics. He is a member of the Consultative Advisory Group of the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board.
Aruna Roy, Founder-Member, MKSS and NCPRI, India, and Professor of Practice, Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Aruna Roy is a prominent socio-political activist and is a part of many socio-political movements in India. After graduating with an M.A. in English Literature, she was in the civil service from 1968 to 1975. In 1975 she resigned from the Indian Administrative Service to work with the rural poor in Rajasthan. She moved to Devdungri, Rajasthan in 1987, along with Shankar Singh, and Nikhil Dey to collectively build a peoples’ organisation - the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS -1990). She has worked with democratic campaigns for the access of the poor to constitutional rights for equality and justice- the Right to Information, Employment , Food Security and PUCL. She worked as a member of the National Advisory Council from 2004-06, 2010-13. As member of the Council she played a crucial role in the passage of national legislations for the Right to Information and the Right to Employment (MGNREGA) in 2005. She is a prominent member of many campaigns, and currently the President of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW). She was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2000, the Nani Palkiwala Award and the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academia and Management in 2010, and listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by the TIME Magazine for 2011. She was conferred the degree of doctorate (honoris causa) by the University of Hyderabad (UoH) on 2nd October 2013. The MKSS Collective has received many awards including the Rule of Law Award in the World Justice Forum held in Barcelona, Spain in June 2011.The MKSS has been a part of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) an international platform, and was in the Steering Committee till 2014.
Alejandro Salas, Regional Director of the Americas, Transparency International, Berlin, Germany
Alejandro is a Mexican political scientist, with extensive experience in the fields of governance, development and civil society. Throughout his career he has worked in the public sector, politics, research and civil society. Alejandro leads the network of over 20 partner organisations from North, South and Central America as well as the Caribbean. Together with his team, he advises and support them in their efforts to fight corruption – from public awareness campaigns over research to legal activities. In addition, he manages the Americas related initiatives from the Secretariat in Germany. Before becoming Regional Director, Alejandro was Strategy and Development Manager at Transparency International. In this role, he developed the movement-wide strategy in consultation with around 100 organisations, 30 individual members as well as the Board of Directors, Secretariat staff and external stakeholders.
Abha Sur, Lecturer, Women and Gender Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, U.S.A.
Abha Sur is a scientist turned historian of science. She received her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Vanderbilt University and post-graduate training in the field of multi-photon ionization spectroscopy at SUNY, Stony Brook and at Yale University. She has published several articles in chemistry. Her more recent research focuses on the history of modern science in India from a subaltern perspective. Her book Dispersed Radiance: Caste, Gender, and Modern Science in India (New Delhi: Navayana, 2011) examines the confluence of caste, nationalism, and gender in science and unpacks the colonial context in which science was organized. Reviews and information about the book are available at navayana.org. Abha Sur was a fellow at the Bunting Institute at Harvard University and at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT. She is presently a lecturer in the Program in Women’s and Gender Studies and a research associate in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. Abha Sur is a longstanding member of The Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia, a voluntary organization based in Cambridge, MA since 1993.
Renata Terrazas, Researcher, Fundar Centro de Analisis e Investigacion (FUNDAR)
Renata Terrazas studied Political Science and Public Administration in the Political and Social Science Department, UNAM. She studied abroad in the University of California, Berkeley, and the Barcelona Autonomous University. Since 2008, she has worked in Fundar as a researcher on migration and transparency. Since 2013, she coordinates the Mexican Right to Information Index (IDAIM), which measures the quality of the transparency laws in Mexico. Ths index became an important input for the last transparency reform. For the last five years she has focused her work at the subnational level by working closely with social and political actors in the reform of transparency laws and institutions; strengthening capacities from civil society organizations by intense workshops on the strategic use of information for advocacy purposes; accompanying civil society´s advocacy strategies; and enabling public spaces for dialogue and decision making. She has developed several strategies for opening public information essential for participation processes in matters such as immigration and natural resources governance. She is currently working on a project on environmental transparency and participation, and transparency and participation on public appointment processes. For the last three years she has worked closely with local civil society organizations that are part of Open Government exercises at the subnational level. She has written several articles on transparency and the right to access information, and has a weekly collaboration in La Jornada San Luis newspaper.
Tess Tesalona, Vice-chair, International League of Peoples Struggles – Canada, Montreal, Canada
Originally from the Philippines, Tess Tesalona arrived in Canada in February 1988 as a domestic worker via Singapore where she worked for several years doing the same. She started my community organizing with PINAY during its formative years in the early 1990s. PINAY is the organization of Filipino women in Quebec that advocates for the rights and welfare of women compatriots, particularly the domestic workers. Tess was a union organizer with UNITE (Union of Needletrades Industrial and Textile Employees) from 1996-99. Around the same time, she and other Filipino organizers formed the Filipino Workers Support Group to address the growing problems of the rapidly increasing Filipino workers in the manufacturing and service sectors. Her experiences in these two lines of organizing contributed to the concept of a workers centre for un-unionized immigrant labour force. Together with like minded individuals, the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal was founded in 2000 for education and advocacy. One of alliances that IWC is part of, is the Women of Diverse Origins. They are among the founding members and remain actively involve. IWC is also a member of the International Migrants Alliance, formed in 2008, where Tess served as the Canadian representative in the first international coordinating body.Currently, Tess is the vice-chair of the International League of Peoples Struggle - Canada.
Éliane Ubalijoro, Professor of Practice, Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID), McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Éliane Ubalijoro, PhD, is the founder and executive director of C.L.E.A.R. International Development Inc., a consulting group harnessing global networks for sustainable systems development. She is a professor of practice for public and private sector partnerships at McGill University’s Institute for the Study of International Development, where her research interests focus on innovation and sustainable development for prosperity creation. Eliane teaches and advises in Leadership programs to help equip executives in international development with tools that support inner and outer sustainable transformation towards global prosperity. She was a facilitator in the International Health Leadership Development Programme (IHLDP) commissioned by the Kenya Red Cross and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance offered by Lancaster University’s Management School. She teaches leadership in the International Parliamentary Executive Education program run by McGill University (in English) and by Université Laval (in French) in conjunction with the World Bank Institute.
Rajesh Veeraraghavan, Assistant Professor, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., U.S.A.
Rajesh Veeraraghavan is an Assistant Professor of Science Technology and International Affairs (STIA) Program at Georgetown University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University and was previously a Fellow at the Berkman Center at Harvard University. He received his Ph.D at the School of Information at UC Berkeley. He was an active volunteer with Association for India’s Development. He works at the intersection of information technology, development, and governance, with a focus on India. His research combines both the design and study of technological solutions to development and governance problems. He is currently interested in understanding the role of information and technology in making systems of governance more participatory.
Ayesha Vemuri, Research Assistant and MA in Communication Studies and Gender and Women Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Ayesha Vemuri recently graduated from McGill University’s Department of Art History and Communication Studies with an MA in Communication Studies, with a focus on Gender and Women’s Studies. Ayesha’s thesis is entitled After Nirbhaya: Anti Sexual Violence Activism and the Politics of Transnational Social Media Campaigns. Her research focuses on the social media practices of feminist activists in India, how these travel transnationally, and whether and how they act as avenues for transnational feminist solidarity.
Marie Wilson, Commissioner, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (2009-2015) and 2016 Professor of Practice in Global Governance, ISID
Marie Wilson served as one of three Commissioners of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, following decades of experience as an award-winning journalist, trainer, and senior executive manager. Fluently bilingual in French and English, she has been a university professor, a high school teacher in Africa, a senior executive manager in both federal and territorial Crown Corporations, and an independent consultant in journalism, program evaluation, and project management. Dr. Wilson was appointed the 2016 Professor of Practice in Global Governance at the Institute for Study of International Development, McGill University, and a 2016-2017 Mentor for the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation. She is the recipient of a CBC North Award for Lifetime Achievement, a Northerner of the Year Award, and honourary doctorates from St. Thomas University, University of Manitoba and the Atlantic School of Theology. In 2016 she was awarded both the Order of the Northwest Territories and the Order of Canada.
Kenneth Winston, Lecturer in Ethics (retired), Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, U.S.A.
Kenneth Winston is a retired Lecturer in Ethics at the Harvard Kennedy School. He taught practical and professional ethics at HKS from 1986 to 2015 and served as faculty chair of the HKS Singapore Program from 2008 to 2015. Winston has written extensively on case teaching, professional ethics, and legal theory. His most recent book is Ethics in Public Life: Good Practitioners in a Rising Asia (2015). He co-edited Prospects for the Professions in China (2011) and edited The Principles of Social Order: Selected Essays of Lon L. Fuller (rev. ed. 2001). Winston has been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, a senior research fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a John Dewey senior fellow.
Acknowledgements
The conference organizers are grateful for the generous support of the Erin Jellel Collins Arsenault Trust, which funds the Program in Global Governance at the Institute of the Study of International Development at McGill University.
Special thanks to Vinay Jain, Suchi Pande, Nikhil Dey, Iain Blair, Sherryl Ramasahai, Moyukh Chatterjee, Sara Mahboob, Ayesha Vemuri, and Maxime Honigmann for all their help in coordinating many aspects of this workshop.
In addition, special thanks to all student volunteers from Professor Aruna Roy’s seminar, “Transparency, Accountability and Participatory Governance: Lessons from people’s movements in India.”
Aude Raffestin
Corrina Vali
Holly Norris
Matilde Alvarez Morera
Mandakini Akella Chandra
Nanda Kishore Daggupati
Nicki Siamaki
Robin Nyamekye
Samiha Sharif
Sonya Peres
Yohnny Raich
