Andreas Accardo heads the Institutional Cooperation Unit at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). The FRA is an independent EU agency providing advice to the EU and its Member States on fundamental rights law and policy. Andreas leads the Agency’s cooperation with EU institutions, national governments and human rights bodies, civil society, and international organisations. He is responsible for the Agency's programmes on the rule of law, democracy and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, including FRA’s work on civic space. Prior to joining the Agency, Andreas worked on institution-building programmes with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in field missions in the Western Balkans.

Pavel Antonov is Executive Editor and co-founder of BlueLink.net, a civic think-and-action network based in Bulgaria, advancing democratic participation, environmental sustainability and a supportive rights-based digital civic space. He leads investigations, editorial work and digital support for civil society, and has trained over 50 cohorts of journalists and environment/rights defenders across CEE and neighboring regions. A Board Member at APC.org, his research focuses on civic resilience online and ethical and professional norms of journalism and digital communications. Holds a PhD in Social/Media Geography from the Open University (UK).

Astrid Bergmål (born 1982) currently serves in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, having previously held the position of State Secretary in the Ministry of Energy. Prior to this, she was State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, a role she assumed when the Støre Government took office on 14 October 2021.

She has extensive experience in both public administration and the private sector, including serving as Head of Virke Reiseliv and as Political Adviser to the Labour Party’s parliamentary group. From 2011 to 2012, Bergmål was Political Adviser in the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. She also served as a Deputy Member of Parliament for Rogaland from 2001 to 2005.

Bergmål holds a law degree from the University of Oslo and Université Robert Schuman in Strasbourg (2001–2007). She is married and has two children.

Alain Berset became Secretary General of the Council of Europe on 18 September 2024.

Prior to that, Mr Berset was an elected Minister in the Swiss government (Federal Council) between 2012 and 2023. During that time, he headed the Federal Department of Home Affairs as Swiss Minister for Health, Social Affairs, Culture, Equality and Anti-Discrimination, and was Minister for Public Health throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Mr Berset also served twice as President of the Swiss Confederation (2018 and 2023), during which he represented Switzerland on the United Nations Security Council and at the Council of Europe’s 4th Summit of Heads of State and Government, where he signed the Reykjavik Declaration on behalf of his country.

Before joining the Federal Council, Mr Berset was a member of the Council of States, the upper house of the Swiss Parliament. He was elected as its youngest member in 2003 and went on to serve as its President, from 2008 to 2009. He was also Vice-Chair of the Socialist Group in the Federal Parliament, 2005-2011.

Prior to elected politics, Mr Berset held academic roles in economics at the University of Neuchâtel and the Hamburg Institute of International Economics and worked as an independent communications and strategy consultant for associations, companies and non-governmental organisations.

Alain Berset was born on 9 April 1972 in Fribourg (Switzerland). He has MSc in political science and a PhD in economics, both from the University of Neuchâtel. He is married with three children.

Antoine Buyse is full professor of human rights in a multidisciplinary perspective and director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He is a member of the human rights committee of the Dutch Advisory Council on International Affairs and was a member of the Council of Europe’s Expert Council on NGO Law. He is executive editor (and former editor-in-chief) of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights. He founded and hosts the ECHR Blog. His research focuses on the ECHR, civic space, backsliding of human rights and the rule of law, and the position of human rights defenders and civil society.

Daniela Cujba – Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Moldova to the Council of Europe. She joined the Ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Moldova in 2002 and started her diplomatic carrier in the Office of the National Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for the South-Eastern Europe. From September 2004 she served as Head of the Directorate for Political Relations with EU, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In June 2007 she was appointed Ambassador, Head of the Mission of the Republic of Moldova to the EU. After completing her mission in Brussels she returned to the Ministry, in January 2012 as Director of the General Directorate for European Integration. In this capacity Daniela Cujba was involved in the negotiation process of the Association Agreement with the European Union, as well as in the process of coordinating at national level the fulfillment of the necessary criteria for obtaining the visa liberalization regime with the EU. She held for short periods positions as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and European integration and then as State Secretary at the MFAEI responsible for the European integration. Her mandate as Permanent Representative of the Republic of Moldova to the CoE started in January 2022. 

As Chief Coordinator for Cooperation with Civil Society Partners, Bartosz Cyran oversees the coordination of activities undertaken within the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights of Poland relating to the Commissioner’s engagement with non-governmental organisations, grassroots initiatives, and social movements.
Prior to joining the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights, he worked in the Department of Legislation and Public Affairs at the Office of the General Counsel to the Republic of Poland.
Bartosz is currently pursuing a PhD at the Interdisciplinary Doctoral School of the University of Warsaw, where his research focuses on the intersection of criminal law and the philosophy of action. 
 

Tania VAN DIJK is a legal advisor with the European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters, since 2022. She started her career with the Council of Europe in 2005 with the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) and subsequently held various positions for the Council of Europe in Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. She previously worked for the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands.

She holds degrees in law and political science from the European University Institute in Florence (Italy), Leiden University and Erasmus University Rotterdam (the Netherlands).
 

Caitríona Doyle is career diplomat in the Irish Foreign Ministry. She has served as Ireland’s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe since August 2023, during which time she has chaired the GR-Dem working group. She was previously posted to Ireland’s bilateral Embassy in Paris during the Sarkozy and Hollande Presidencies. She has also served in Embassy Washington and in the Irish Consulate General in Chicago during the second Bush administration. She studied law in Trinity College Dublin.

Dave Elseroad (he/him) is the Head of Advocacy and the Geneva office for the Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF), an Oslo-based INGO which has been active in the promotion and protection of human rights for more than 30 years. HRHF serves as the secretariat for a network of more than 85 human rights organisations across the Council of Europe region. In his role, Dave serves as a member of the organisation’s leadership team and directs HRHF’s advocacy at the United Nations, European Union, Council of Europe, and OSCE in cooperation with local partners. Dave has worked across the Council of Europe region for more than 20 years, in roles focused on human rights, public health, and weapons nonproliferation. He earned a master’s degree in international development management from the American University’s School of International Service and a bachelor’s degree in political science, with a focus on post-Soviet economic and political transition, from St. Mary’s College of Maryland (USA). Dave has also completed post-graduate work exploring the intersection of policy advocacy and humanitarian engagement.

Since 2011, Director of CNVOS – the umbrella body of Slovenian NGOs uniting over 1,700 sectoral networks and organizations, from the Red Cross and Olympic Committee of Slovenia to environmental, human rights, and cultural NGOs. CNVOS operates across four pillars: advocacy, information service, capacity-building, and grant-making. Expert in NGO law, policy, and public administration reform. Co-author of numerous NGO-related legal acts and national strategies. Member of several governmental advisory bodies. As consultant and evaluator for the OECD and European Commission, he works across the Western Balkans and European Neighbourhood on civil society development and evidence-based policymaking, recently coordinating national civil society strategies in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Eve Geddie is Director of Amnesty International's European Institutions Office, where since 2019 she has led Amnesty's engagement of the EU and the Council of Europe on critical human rights issues across the European region and globally.
Eve has 20-years experience working in civil society at national, European and International level focusing on human rights, migration, antidiscrimination and gender equality. 

David Goessmann is Head of the Open Governance Unit within the Innovative, Digital and Open Government (INDIGO) Division of the OECD. He brings over 12 years of experience promoting democratic governance and citizen participation across a wide range of country contexts. Since joining the OECD in 2013, David has developed particular expertise in policy coordination, regulatory governance, and monitoring and evaluation. His current work focuses on issues related to open government, including civic space, citizen and stakeholder participation, transparency, and accountability.

Prior to joining the OECD, he held positions in the diplomatic and development sectors (including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development), as well as in the private sector (banking and consulting).

David holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a B.A. from the Université de Genève, and has conducted field research in Brazil.
 

Matjaž Gruden is Director for Democracy at the Council of Europe, which includes Council of Europe activities and programmes in the area of education, including education for democratic citizenship, youth cooperation, civil society, media freedom, culture and cultural heritage.

Matjaž Gruden previously served as Director of Policy Planning, Deputy Director of the Private Office of the Secretary General, political adviser and speechwriter for the Secretary General and President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Prior to his career at the Council of Europe, he was a diplomat at the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, posted in Brussels. He holds a law degree from the Law Faculty of the University of Ljubljana, as well as a post-graduate degree in EU law from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.

@CoeGruden

www.coe.int/DDP

https://www.coe.int/en/web/media-freedom

Eszter Hartay is a human rights lawyer and expert on NGO law and civic space. She serves as Director of Law and Policy at the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL), where she has worked on legal and policy reform for more than 15 years, helping shape frameworks that support civil society organisations’ legal environment and sustainability across 16+ countries. Her work spans CSO legal frameworks, state–civil society cooperation, public participation, financial sustainability, climate action, and regulatory issues including anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. She also monitors emerging trends affecting civic space, such as the use of digital technologies and AI for fundraising and civic engagement, and contributes her expertise as a member of the CINGO Expert Council on NGO Law within the Council of Europe. She graduated at the Hungarian Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Law and passed the Bar Exam. Before moving into civil society law, Eszter practised as a corporate lawyer.  

Ambassador Vebjørn Heines is the Norwegian Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe. He has worked on Human Rights and humanitarian issues, international humanitarian law and peace and reconciliation processes throughout his career, including at the Permanent Mission of Norway to the UN in Geneva, as deputy director of humanitarian affairs in the Norwegian MFA, at the Norwegian embassy in Nairobi, as the Norwegian special representative for Somalia, as alternate political coordinator for Norway in the UN Security Council in New York and as Policy Director for Democracy and Human Rights in the Norwegian MFA.

Anu Juvonen is the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Civil Society for Switzerland’s Chairpersonship-in-Office in 2026 and Executive Director of Demo Finland – Political Parties of Finland for Democracy, an impartial multiparty democracy support organization involving all of Finland’s nine parliamentary parties. She was seconded by Finland to the Council of Europe as a Policy Advisor (2021–2024) on democracy, specifically on civil society matters.
Anu Juvonen is also the President of the European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) and a member of the Human Rights Delegation of the Finnish National Human Rights Institute (NHRI).  She has worked for over 20 years in the field of democracy support, development policy, and international affairs mainly in CSOs, working and living in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Ethiopia, and holds both MA and BA (Hons) degrees from the University of Sussex, UK. She was also the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Civil Society during Finland’s Chairpersonship-in-Office in 2025.
 

Giorgi Kldiashvili is a founding member and Executive Director of the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI). He has more than 15 years’ experience of working on government accountability, openness and anti-corruption policies in Georgia and internationally. Giorgi has been carrying out projects, studies, assessments and providing trainings for different international and governmental institutions and non-for-profit organizations. At IDFI Giorgi Kldiashvili worked and has publications on topics such as freedom of information, anticorruption policy and good governance, accountability and transparency, e-Governance and e-Democracy, open data, civil service and public administration, media and internet.

As an expert, he has been involved in international projects in the area of anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism, with a particular focus on the NPO sector.

In addition to his work in applied policy research with IDFI, as a historian by specialty, he has academic credentials as a researcher, undertaking studies in American and Soviet Studies. He is a professional archive researcher, conducting research in historical archives on the 20^th Century history in Georgia and abroad for more than 20 years.

Giorgi holds graduate degrees in Contemporary History and worked as a professor at the Institute of American Studies at Tbilisi State University.

Giorgi Kldiashvili was a CSO Steering Committee Member of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in 2017-2020.

Dr. Maria-Andriani Kostopoulou is the President of GREVIO. She is a member of the Governing Board of the Marangopoulos Foundation for Human Rights and an international human rights consultant.  For several years, she served as member of the Consultative Board of HELP Programme and is currently the HELP Info Point for the Athens Bar Association.  She has authored around 50 publications on human rights issues. She holds a PhD and four Masters’ degrees. In the past, Dr. Kostopoulou served as Chairperson of the CoE Steering Committee for the Rights of the Child, the Ad Hoc Committee for the Rights of the Child and the Group of Experts on Responses to Violence against Children. She also served as a member of the Lanzarote Committee and of the Executive Committee of senior experts of the European Network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination.

Giulia Lucchese is a Legal Adviser in the Council of Europe’s Freedom of Expression and CDMSI Division. She serves as Co-Secretary to the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI) and previously acted as Secretary to several expert committees. In this role, she supported the drafting of key standard-setting instruments, including the Guidance Note on the Implications of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Freedom of Expression (2024-2025), the Recommendation on Countering the Use of Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (2022-2023), and the Recommendation on Combating Hate Speech (2020-2021).

Claudia Luciani began her career in the Directorate of Political Affairs as political adviser on South-East Europe, minorities, the Russian Federation and South Caucasus. She served in the field, took part in high level negotiations, was engaged in the accession and monitoring processes of the new member States and became Director of Political Advice and Cooperation. She was subsequently appointed Director of Programmes to implement the reformed co-operation structures including the elaboration and adoption of country specific Action Plans and neighbouring policies. As Director of Democratic Governance and Diversity she oversaw the areas of culture, cultural heritage and inter-cultural cities, governance issues, elections assistance and civil society. She later served as the Director of Anti-discrimination and Governance focusing on national minorities and minority languages monitoring mechanisms and Roma and travellers. In 2018 she became Director of Human Dignity, Equality and Governance responsible for the Istanbul and Trafficking Conventions as well as the Gender Equality Commission. Claudia is an expert on democracy and democratic governance and has organised annually the World Forum for Democracy. Since January 2024 she is the Director of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities where she focuses on Ukraine and the Congress’ contribution to the New Democracy Pact of the Secretary General.

Estelle Massé is a Policy Officer at the Fundamental Rights Policy Unit of the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers of the European Commission where she particularly focuses on civic space. Estelle first joined the European Commission as part of DG Justice’s International Affairs and Data Flows Unit. Before that, she was the Global Data Protection Lead at the international NGO’s Access Now where her work focused on the protection of human rights online with a specific focus on data protection, privacy, and surveillance policies. Estelle graduated with a Master in European Law from the University of Granada, Spain.

Tom has been an activist and advocate for the past ten years, volunteering and working in organisations at the local, national and international level. He is a Board Member at the European Youth Forum, the largest network of youth organisations in the world, and a Trustee at the Leadership Skills Foundation. 

Tom works at Brunswick Group where he advises some of the world’s most systemically important organisations on tackling societal issues. Previously, Tom was as a research assistant to the Director of the Cambridge University Centre for Governance and Human Rights. He holds a degree in Human, Social and Political Science from Cambridge University.

David is the Secretary to the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee for Human Rights (CDDH), an intergovernmental committee working under the authority of the Committee of Ministers on issues relating to the functioning of the system of the European Convention on Human Rights and the development of European human rights standards and policy. The CDDH has a long history of collaboration with civil society and was responsible for drafting the 2018 Committee of Ministers recommendation, as well as a recent report on its implementation. As Head of the Human Rights Intergovernmental Co-operation Division, David also oversees the Council of Europe’s work on access to official documents, through the work of the Tromsø Convention monitoring bodies. 

David previously worked in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Before coming to the Council of Europe, he trained as a barrister and worked for NGOs in London representing asylum seekers.
 

Aarti Narsee is the Senior Policy Officer & Lead for Rule of Law Advocacy at the European Civic Forum, a pan-European network of nearly 100 associations and NGOs across 29 European countries, working to protect civic space, enable civic participation and build civil dialogue for more equality, solidarity and democracy in Europe. Aarti leads the coordination of ECFs flagship Civic space report, which presents and analyses yearly trends in civic space across Europe.

Dr. Michael O'Flaherty was elected by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in January 2024. He is the fifth Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. The Commissioner's mandate lasts for six years and is non-renewable.

An Irish human rights lawyer, Commissioner O'Flaherty has served as the Director of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (2015-2023), as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (2004-2012), as Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (2011-2013), and in various posts at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, notably in setting up operations in conflict-affected countries such as Sierra Leone and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Commissioner O'Flaherty has held professorships of human rights at the Universities of Nottingham (U.K.) and Galway (Ireland), where he has also led their Human Rights Centres. He is currently Adjunct (Honorary) Full Professor at the University of Maynooth and at University College Dublin. He has published widely in the field of human rights.
 

Ambassador, Dr. Sini Paukkunen-Mykkänen is the Head of Mission at the Permanent Representation of Finland to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg from September 1, 2023.

Prior to her current position Sini served as the Director of the Unit for Policy Planning and Research at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (2015-2023). The unit is responsible for policy planning, analysis, foresight and research activities, including cross-sectoral coordination within the government.

Sini has broad expertise in the fields of human rights, multilateral cooperation (Geneva, New York + OSCE) and in development policy. She is very familiar with the European Union affairs having served at the Permanent Representation of Finland to the EU during 2003-2007. Sini has also served in Cairo and in Bogotá. She joined the Foreign Service in 2001  after having worked several years in Africa.

Sini received her PhD degree of Political Science from the University of Helsinki, Finland, in 2007. She has also complementary Masters' Degrees in Social Anthropology and in  Theology.

Tara Petrović leads work on Europe and Central Asia for the CIVICUS Monitor, a participatory research platform tracking civic space conditions in 198 countries and territories. She is a human rights lawyer and civil society activist based in Belgrade, Serbia. The CIVICUS Monitor is a collaboration between CIVICUS, the global alliance of civil society organisations and activists which connects more than 17,000 members across over 175 countries, and a network of over 20 research partners. The Monitor is a cutting-edge research tool providing reliable, up-to-date data on fundamental freedoms worldwide, drawing on updates from civil society partners to track threats and give insight into the ways in which our right to participate is being realised or challenged. 

Michal Piško is the Director of Transparency International Slovakia, a leading anti-corruption civil society organisation promoting openness, accountability and public participation. He joined TI Slovakia in 2015 and became Director in 2021. His work focuses on strengthening civic space, empowering active citizens, and developing tools that support effective public oversight. TI Slovakia’s watchdog activities have become key benchmarks for improving governance in Slovakia. He also contributes to public debate and legislative consultations on open data, political finance, access to information, and anti-corruption. Before joining TI, he spent 11 years as a domestic affairs journalist at the Slovak daily SME, where his work earned the Slovak Journalism Award.

Alexis Prokopiev is the Vice President of the Association Civic Tech Europe (ACTE), a non-profit organisation representing the civic tech sector at the European level. He leads the organisation’s advocacy and communications efforts, helping to shape the future of democratic innovation across the continent.
Based between Paris and Brussels, Alexis also led the European civic-tech company Make.org’s initiatives from 2019 to 2026, advancing participatory democracy and innovative governance solutions. His career spans academia, public institutions and civil society: he has taught Public Economics at Sciences Po Paris, worked for the French National Assembly, and collaborated with several NGOs.

Anna Sevortian has over 20 years of experience in supporting civil society and addressing human rights issues in Wider Europe through her work with international NGOs. She has been serving on the Standing Committee of the Council of Europe’s Conference of International NGOs since 2021. As of 2024, Anna has worked full-time as an expert and consultant with non-profits and philanthropies in Europe, Central Asia, North America, and West Africa specialising in governance, leadership and facilitating change. She co-leads the Human Rights Compass initiative and curates arts-based civil society projects. Anna holds Mid-Career MPA from Harvard Kennedy School and a degree in Journalism.

Dr. Seema Shah is the head of the Democracy Assessment team at International IDEA, which produces the Institute's annual flagship Global State of Democracy report and two datasets on democracy around the world (the Global State of Democracy Indices and the Democracy Tracker). 

She previously served as the research and strategy lead for the International Rescue Committee's humanitarian innovation department in the Middle East region. Prior experience also includes leading electoral integrity-related research and advocacy for a coalition of Kenyan civil society organizations in Nairobi.

Seema has also worked on election violence, media development, campaign finance reform, human rights research and advocacy, and standard-setting for electoral integrity in DRC, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and the United States. 

Daniel Simons, a Dutchman based in Denmark, is Senior Legal Counsel at Greenpeace International. He leads a team of lawyers that advises on campaign publications and protest actions, handles incoming litigation, and advocates for civic space protections. His ongoing cases include a €55m SLAPP suit, and a case where activists face 5 years’ imprisonment. Previously, he worked as a legal officer at Article 19 and the Open Society Justice Initiative, focusing on freedom of expression and assembly. Daniel studied law in Amsterdam and New York, and is a member of the Bar of New York. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Arena for Journalism in Europe and the Steering Committee of the Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE).

Joanna joined ARTICLE 19 in 2016 and is currently Head of Programmes and Strategy for Europe. She focuses on freedom of expression issues across the region – including media freedom, civic space, and digital rights. She is an experienced project coordinator, trainer, and researcher. In her current role, she leads regional strategy and multi-country initiatives supporting civil society, journalists and human rights defenders, with a particular focus on supporting communities at risk of digital repression and shrinking civic space. She also contributes to ARTICLE 19’s work on advancing international freedom of expression standards and policy frameworks.

Niklas Wilhelmsson is Head of the Democracy and Election Unit in Finland and Deputy Director of the Department for Democracy and Public Law at the Ministry of Justice in Finland. Wilhelmsson has almost 20 years of experience working with democracy, elections and civil society issues within the Finnish government. Wilhelmsson has a long experience of working with democracy, transparency, elections and civil society.

Wilhelmsson has a broad experience of international collaboration in the field and has amongst other worked as a temporary expert on democracy, elections and transparency issues in Western Balkans, in EU´s eastern partnership countries and on an OECD mission in Biscay (Spain). Wilhelmsson holds a PhL in Political Science and has before joining the government worked as a researcher and acting lecturer at the University of Helsinki. Wilhelmsson has published several research articles on democracy and elections.

Wilhelmsson is the Vice-Chair of the Steering Committee on Democracy (CDDEM) of the Council of Europe.