Ambassador Marie FONTANEL is Permanent Representative of France to the Council of Europe and since February 1, 2022, President of the Committee of Parties to the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (known as the "Istanbul Convention"). 

A feminist diplomat, she was also from 2017-2020 Advisor to the President of the Republic Emmanuel MACRON in the field of solidarity, health and gender equality. Inspector General of Social Affairs, Ms. Fontanel has over 18 years of professional experience in the evaluation of social and health policies. Co-author of a report in 2014 on the "Protocol for the prevention and management of violence against women", she has also taught social issues in various higher education institutions. 

She holds a Master's degree in International and European Law from the University of Utrecht (her final thesis was dedicated to European community Sex Equality law and the concept of indirect discrimination) and a Master's degree in Public Law from the University of Panthéon-Assas. She is also a graduate of Sciences Po Paris and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration and a certified coach from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Paris. Mother of 3 children, she is passionate about ballet and regularly practices dance herself.

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Jeroen Schokkenbroek studied law at the University of Leiden (Netherlands), where he taught constitutional and administrative law until 1993.

Since 1993, he has held various positions in the Council of Europe Secretariat, mainly in the field of human rights, including Head of the Human Rights Development Department and Head of the Secretariat of the Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.

He also served as Special Representative of the Secretary General for Roma Issues, and as Special Adviser to the Secretary General for Ukraine until his appointment as Executive Secretary of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT).

Since June 2018, Mr Schokkenbroek has been Director of Anti-Discrimination in the Directorate General of Democracy and Human Dignity of the Council of Europe. He has published various books and articles in the fields of human rights and constitutional law.

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Carolina Lasén Diaz is the Head of the Violence against Women Division. She joined the Council of Europe in 2005 and has held a variety of positions, including Head of the Gender Equality Unit,  administrator at the Anti-Trafficking Division and legal advisor at the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees. She is a law graduate from Complutense University (Madrid, Spain) and holds a Master in EU Law by Alcalá de Henares University (Spain).

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Mhairi Maclennan is the Directing Manager of Kyniska Advocacy, a non-profit who advocate, educate and offer support around stamping out sexual violence in sport through resources, campaigns, workshops and consulting. Mhairi is also an international GB athlete, specialising in 10k and cross country running. 

A survivor of abuse in sport, Mhairi’s passion is to help evolve sport so that it is a safe and equitable place for women to participate. Her vision is for a world where women’s sport is celebrated and respected in its own right, and where women can freely and fairly practise sports.

Mhairi also sits on the UK Athletics Safeguarding Advisory Panel and is a Trustee at Scottish Women in Sport.

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Dr Lombe Mwambwa, PhD (she/her) is Research Director at the Global Observatory for Gender Equality & Sport. She joined the GO in October 2022 with the support of the University of Lausanne (UNIL), one of the GO´s co-founding partners, where she is a member of its Institute of Sport Sciences. For the past 18 years, she has worked with sport associations, leaders of sport for development organisations, and sport policy makers in Southern Africa and in international contexts. An experienced development practitioner, her research, advocacy, and practice have focused on issues of inequalities within sport and on the use of sport to address societal inequalities. She is an Alum of the University of Zambia and the Southern African Regional Centre for Women's Law at University of Zimbabwe. Her doctoral research completed at the University of Chichester, UK, examined the experiences of women sport leaders within the African Union Sports Council. Dr Mwambwa is also Secretary General at the National Organisation for Women in Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation (NOWSPAR) in Zambia. Her areas of interest include women, leadership, and protection from violence, and she has supported leadership development, safeguarding & GBV protection initiatives in sport organisations across Africa, Asia, and Europe.

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Dr Tine Vertommen holds a MA in Ethics, a MSc in Criminology and a PhD in Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr Tine Vertommen heads the Forensic Psychology research team at Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Belgium. She is also appointed as the external expert consultant to the newly established Safe Sport Unit at the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC), where she is responsible for the knowledge transfer and the evidence-base development of the IOC’s tools, policies, and procedures to promote safe sport. Tine currently coordinates the International Research Network on Violence and Integrity in Sport (IRNOVIS), funded by the Research Foundation Flanders.

Her research focusses on the prevalence and prevention of interpersonal violence against children and adolescents in sport. She was responsible for the first large-scaled study into the prevalence of interpersonal violence in sport in the Netherlands and Belgium, and she co-developed the Interpersonal Violence in Sport Questionnaire, which serves as the foundation of most studies on interpersonal violence in sport worldwide. Dr Vertommen's latest projects focus on the development of bystander interventions to detect and prevent interpersonal violence in local sport clubs. 

At the international level, Dr Vertommen is a member of the Council of Europe's Safe Sport Pool of International Experts; the European Commission High-Level Expert Group on Gender Equality in Sport; and the Academic Advisory Board of the IOC Certificate course for Safeguarding Officer in Sport. Her valorization impact is demonstrated by IOC’s selection of Dr Vertommen as one of the 12 leading international experts drafting the forthcoming IOC Consensus Statement on Safeguarding in Sport (2023).

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Benjamin Carr began his professional career as a rowing coach in the United States. This role eventually brought him to Europe to work with the Swiss women’s national team. Making a switch to academia, he obtained a master’s degree in sports management from the University of Lausanne, where he has continued his research as a doctoral candidate. He is part of the Global Observatory for Gender Equality & Sport’s research team, where he focuses on bridging the gaps between athlete safeguarding literature and current coaching practices.

​​​Dr Susana Monserrat-Revillo is an academic in Sport Management at Loughborough University (UK).
BSc Sport Sciences, MSc Sport Management, Ph.D. Sport Management.

She has been lecturing and researching at Loughborough University since 2015 and previously at other Spanish universities. She also worked as a Local Authority sport manager and as a sport consultant specialising in sports facilities feasibility studies in Catalonia for several years.

She currently teaches at undergraduate (UG), postgraduate (PG), and Ph.D. levels on Research Methods, Critical Perspectives in Sport Management, Infrastructure and Facilities for Sports Development, and NVivo software. She supervises UG and PG research dissertations in the field of sport management.

She is particularly interested in research on managing public sport facilities and gender discrimination in sport organisations.

She has suffered double victimisation as a result of gender-based abuse.

​​​Charlotte Girard Fabre is Secretary General of IFSO, a handball and curling referee at national level and a former olympic ice hockey referee.

I am 41 years old, I have been a high-level sportswoman since the age of 13, and I wish to represent this new generation of committed women. The quest for excellence and the requirement of performance led me to referee at the Olympic Games in Sochi (Russia) 2014 and Pyeonchang (South Korea) 2018, and I sharpen my skills and expertise every day to honor my 10 Olympic rings.

A fighter at heart and an explorer of new horizons, I push my limits in sport as well as in my professional life today and tomorrow. Decision-making, time management and conflict management are among my areas of expertise. Resolutely focused on excellence and performance, I accompany your teams collectively to develop a disruptive and pragmatic approach.

An ardent defender of gender diversity and the place of women in our society, I am also passionate about civic engagement: elected Secretary General of the International Federation for Sports Officials, Secretary General of the French Association of Multisport Referees and Ambassador of several think-tanks, I have also chosen to act at the highest institutional level (Ministries, UNSS, FFHB,...).

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After more than two decades in professional sport on the French basketball team and more than 25 years in business, Paoline’s expertise was recognised when she graduated from the Communications Strategy and Corporate Reputation programme at HEC Paris and became a Tamento-certified Community Manager in 2010. A natural entrepreneur, in 2015 Paoline co-founded Sportail Community, of which she is now President.

Sportail Community is a Social and Solidarity-Based Enterprise (SSE) and state-recognised Social Utility Solidarity-Based Enterprise (ESUS) that aims to bring together top-level sporting talent, professionals and companies to help athletes successfully launch new professional careers.

Alongside her business work, Paoline participated in a series of seminars on the reform of French sports governance initiated by former Minister of Sport Laura Flessel and continued by her successor Roxana Maracineanu in October 2018.

Paoline sits on the Legal and Disciplinary Commission (CJD) of the National Basketball League (LNB) and the Board of Directors of the National Union of High-Performance Athletes (UNSHN). She is also a member of the Egal Sports Collective for gender equality in sport and of the Alice Milliat Collective for gender equality.

An elite athlete and one of the captains of the French basketball team, Paoline played for professional clubs after starting a sports-studies basketball training programme at the French National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP) in 1976 at the age of 14½, as part of the “Horizon 80” class. In 1984, she became the first female French student athlete to play in the NCAA Basketball Championship in the United States, representing Marist College.

Paoline Ekambi is one of the most iconic and high-profile players of her generation. At the tender age of 19, she was the first sportswoman of any discipline to appear on the cover of L’Equipe magazine.

SPORTING ACHIEVEMENTS

1st cap on French senior team at 18 years old
Participated in 5 European Championships
Participated in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for the 1980 Olympics Games in Moscow
French Junior Champion in 1981
Quarter-finalist in the 1981 European Ronchetti Cup
Vice-Champion at the 1981 European Junior Championships
3 times French Champion 1980 - 1983 - 1984
3 times French Danielle Peters Cup winner 1982 - 1983 - 1985
Participated in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul
Vice-Champion at the European Senior Championships in Italy 1993
Vice-Champion at the Mediterranean Games in La Grande Motte 1993

PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENTS

2021: made a member of the Ordre National du Mérite (National Order of Merit) by the French Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport
2012: inducted into the French Basketball Hall of Fame, which honours players who have left their mark on their generation and contributed to the greatest moments in the history of French basketball
1994: awarded the Bronze Medal for Youth and Sports
1993: recordholder (until October 2017) of most selections on the French Women’s team, with 254 caps over 20 years 
Paoline scored 2 560 points in her international career. She is one of the French team’s all-time top scorers.
1990: ranked among the top 15 women’s basketball players in Europe
1989: All-Star Team at the European Senior Championships in Bulgaria | “Miss Europe” award at the European Championships | Voted “Miss Europe” player of the year by Italian basketball magazine 
1986: All-Star Team & Eastern Conference Player of the Week (Marist College / NCAA / USA)
1979: Best rising star of the French NF1 Championship (now the Women’s Basketball League)

​​​Mhairi Maclennan is the Directing Manager of Kyniska Advocacy, a non-profit who advocate, educate and offer support around stamping out sexual violence in sport through resources, campaigns, workshops and consulting. Mhairi is also an international GB athlete, specialising in 10k and cross country running. 

A survivor of abuse in sport, Mhairi’s passion is to help evolve sport so that it is a safe and equitable place for women to participate. Her vision is for a world where women’s sport is celebrated and respected in its own right, and where women can freely and fairly practise sports.

Mhairi also sits on the UK Athletics Safeguarding Advisory Panel and is a Trustee at Scottish Women in Sport.

​Francine Hetherington Raveney is an expert in the fields of: sport policy, gender equality, diversity, project management, script analysis, audiovisual co-productions, and communication, amongst others. She obtained a Masters Degree in English and French Literature at The Queen’s College, Oxford University (1992-1996), a Masters Degree in Women’s Studies at The Queen’s College, Oxford University (1996-1997) and then carried out doctoral studies in France in politics and literature at Strasbourg University (1997-1998).

Since 2000, she has worked in a number of international organisations, including the Council of Europe, where she was a project manager for the Eurimages film fund for 11 years (2009-2020), and WHO Europe (2004-2005) where she was a Managing Editor. She is the founder, former Executive Director and currently an Honorary Member of the European Women’s Audiovisual (EWA) Network. She is also a member of the New Dawn Film Fund jury and regularly teaches pitching and gives presentations at festivals and universities throughout Europe.

Since April 2021 she has worked as the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS), where she oversees resources, works with the Governing Board and partner organisations to ensure that topical thematic activities (such as gender equality, diversity, integrity and good governance in sport) and conferences (e.g. on combating gender-based violence in sport) are dealt with smoothly and effectively. 

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Sophie Kwasny is the Head of the Sport Division of the Council of Europe (international organisation based in France). She is responsible for the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS) and for the promotion and implementation of ground-breaking legal instruments upholding the integrity and values of sport. Combating doping and the manipulation of sport competitions, and promoting an integrated safety, security and service approach at sports events are the key aims of the three Council of Europe Sport Conventions. She is a graduate of the Strasbourg Law University and has been working for the Council of Europe for 25 years on a variety of topics ranging from data protection to prisons’ reforms, or from the independence of the judiciary to nationality law. Her sole objective: Championing human rights in and through sport!