Realizing Rights: Our Board

Please note: This organization ceased operation in December 2010.
This website remains live as an archive of the work of the organization during its eight years of operation.

Mary Robinson (Chair)

Mary Robinson, the first woman President of Ireland (1990-1997) and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002), has spent most of her life as a human rights advocate. Since 2002, she has been Honorary President of Oxfam International and is a founding member and Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders.

Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi

Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the African Women's Development Fund (AWDF, Nigeria/UK), a fundraising and grantmaking organization that supports African women's organizations committed to advancing women's human rights and their political and economic empowerment. Prior to her work with AWDF, Bisi was Director of Akina Mama wa Afrika (AMwA), a pan-African NGO that coordinates programs for the development of women's leadership skills.

Robert Archer

Robert Archer has been Executive Director of the International Council on Human Rights Policy since 1997. He is a member of the steering group of 3-D Human Rights and Trade (Geneva) and chairs the expert group on human rights of the Global Governance Initiative (World Economic Forum and the Brookings Institution).

Charlotte Bunch

Charlotte Bunch, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership at Rutgers University, has been an activist, author and organizer in the women's, civil, and human rights movements for four decades. A Board of Governor's Distinguished Service Professor in Women's and Gender Studies, Bunch was previously a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a founder of Washington D.C. Women's Liberation and of Quest: A Feminist Quarterly.

Lynn Freedman

Lynn Freedman is Director of the Averting Maternal Death and Disability (AMDD) Program and of the Law and Policy Project, both in the Mailman School's Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University.

Alice Henkin

Alice Henkin is Director of the Aspen Institute's Justice & Society Program which she began in the 1980s to convene leaders from several disciplines and professions to help shape US policies regarding human rights, international law, transnational justice, and multilateral peacekeeping field operations.

Mohamed Ibrahim

Mohamed Ibrahim is the Chairman of Celtel International B.V. and founder of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation dedicated to supporting African leadership. Dr. Ibrahim holds a BSc in electrical engineering from the University of Alexandria, Egypt, an MSc in electronics and electrical engineering from the University of Bradford, and PhD in mobile communications from the University of Birmingham. He is a member of the Africa Regional Advisory Board of London Business School.

Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson is President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN, Managing Editor of Time Magazine and is the author of biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger.

Hina Jilani

Hina Jilani is Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and was the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders from 2000 until April 2008. Hina chairs the Board of the International Council on Human Rights Policy and has represented UN Agencies as an expert in specific fields of human rights.

Musimbi Kanyoro

Musimbi Kanyoro is the director of the Population Program of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The Population Program is dedicated to reproductive health and to the integration of those services with critical global health issues like HIV/AIDS, as well as other education and development issues. Musimbi previously served as the General Secretary of the World YWCA.

John Mutter

John Mutter is Deputy Director of the Earth Institute, and a Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. John received a B.Sc. in Physics and Pure Mathematics from the University of Melbourne (Australia), an M.Sc. in Geophysics from the University of Sydney (Australia), and a Ph.D. in Marine Geophysics from Columbia University (New York).John's research interests include the predictability of earth systems, and the role of natural sciences in sustainable development.

Peter Reiling

Peter Reiling is the Aspen Institute's Executive Vice President for Leadership and Seminar Programs and Executive Director of the Henry Crown Fellowship Program. Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, Peter was President and CEO of TechnoServe, an international organization helping entrepreneurs across Africa, Latin America, and Central Europe to build businesses in their communities.

Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General on a group of poverty reduction initiatives called the Millennium Development Goals.