Francesca Albanese is an Affiliate Scholar of Georgetown University and Senior Advisor on Migration, Forced Displacement and Statelessness at the Arab think-tank Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD). She has authored numerous publications on the Question of Palestine, including, together with Lex Takkenberg, Palestinian Refugees in International Law (Oxford University Press, 2020). She regularly lectures on the question of Palestinian refugees, and forced displacement. Prior to this, she served in the United Nations, including the UNRWA Department of Legal Affairs and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. As of May 2022, she serves as the eighth (and first female) Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in the Palestinian Territory Occupied since1967.
Dr. Jalal Al Husseini is an academic researcher in the field of migrations in the Middle East, humanitarian management and broader political and socioeconomic Middle Eastern topics.
Diana Buttu is a Palestinian-Canadian lawyer and a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization. Best known for her work as a legal adviser and a participant in peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian organizations, she has since been associated with Stanford University, Harvard University, and the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU).
Professor Michael Dumper's research interests are the Permanent Status Issues of the Middle East peace process, the Arab-Israeli conflict, religious institutions in the Middle East and the urban politics of the Middle East. He was recently a holder of an ESRC Large Grant Award entitled Conflict in Cities and the Contested State (2007-2013) and has recently been awarded a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship for 3 years (2015-2018) This latest award entitled Power, Piety and People is a comparative study of conflicts in "holy" cities.
Professor Ardi Imseis is Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University. He is a Member of the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, the UN Human Rights Council commission of inquiry mandated to investigate violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the civil war in Yemen. Between 2002 and 2014, he served in senior legal and policy capacities with the UN in the Middle East (UNRWA & UNHCR). He is the author of The United Nations and the Question of Palestine: Rule by Law and the Structure of International Legal Subalternity.
Damian Lilly is an independent consultant and Director of Protection at the Myanmar Accountability Project (MAP). He previously worked for the UN for more than 15 years in several countries and most recently served as Chief of the Protection Division in the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Senior Protection of Civilians Advisor in the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). He has published a number of academic, policy and other articles on different topics related to human rights, peacekeeping and humanitarian affairs. He is from the United Kingdom and currently is based in Italy.
Mouin Rabbani has published and commented widely on Palestinian affairs, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He was previously Senior Analyst Middle East and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group, and head of political affairs with the Office of the United Nations Special Envoy for Syria. He is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya Ezine.
Dr. Lex Takkenberg is senior advisor at Arab Renaissance for Democracy & Development (ARDD), Associate Professor at Fordham University, and heads Project20s. Between 1989 and 2019 he worked for UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in various field and headquarters positions, most recently at its Amman headquarters where he occupied the post of Chief, Ethics Office. Before joining UNRWA, he was the Legal Officer of the Dutch Refugee Council. A law graduate from the University of Amsterdam, he obtained a Doctorate in International Law from the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His publications include The Status of Palestinian Refugees in International Law (Oxford University Press, 1989). A revised and updated edition, co-authored with Francesca Albanese was published in 2020.
