Ms Cristiana CASTELLOTTI, Italy, Editor in Chief, Radiorai 3

Cristiana is a professional journalist since 1992. She has been working as a radio editor on Radio1, Radio2 and Radio3, three Italian radio channels operated by the state-owned public-broadcasting organization RAI. She is currently an editor-in-chief of two shows on Radio3:  Radio3Mondo and Tutta la città ne parla which deals with both national and foreign politics. RAI - Radiotelevisione italiana is Italy's national public broadcasting company, specialized in culture and classical music.

Mr Jean-Paul MARTHOZ, Belgium, Journalist at «Le Soir», Professor of International Journalism at Université Catholique de Louvain, Advisor of the Committee to Protect Journalists (New York)

Jean-Paul Marthoz is EU correspondent for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ, New York), member of the Advisory Board of the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN, London), vice-chair of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, and member of the editorial board of Index of Censorship magazine (London). A foreign affairs columnist at Le Soir he teaches international journalism at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL, Belgium). Jean-Paul Marthoz has been foreign editor and chief of the editorial page of Le Soir (1980-1991), director of the Media for democracy Program at the International Federation of Journalists (1992-95), European press director of Human Rights Watch (1996-2006) and editorial director of the foreign affairs quarterly Enjeux internationaux.

Ms Najiba SHARIF, Afghanistan, Journalist, Laureate of the Alsatian price for Democratic Engagement

Najiba Sharif debuted as a journalist for the Afghan National Radio and Television in 1982. After the fall of the Taliban regime, she became editor of the magazine Roz ("The Day"). The idea was to shed light on the lives of Afghan women. In 2004, she left Roz magazine, at the request of President Karzai, to become the Afghan equivalent of the State Secretariat for Women. Suffering from a progressive shift away from the people, in a government where she did not feel she was able to speak freely, she left the Secretariat of State in 2006 and was elected MP for 5 years, representing the Kabul region. Target of a fatwa Taliban, she moved to France before the end of 2011 as a political refugee - with Mulhouse base. Although in exile, Najiba Sharif continues to advocate for the rights of women and minorities in her country of origin.

Ms Işıl KARAKAŞ, Turkey, Judge at the European Court of Human Rights

Işıl Karakaş was a Professor of Public International Law. She was the Director of the Research and Documentation Centre on Europe and Head of Department of Public International Law at Galatasaray University, Istanbul. She was elected as a judge in respect of Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights in 2008. She has been a Section President since 1st January 2015.