Statement

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.

  Statement

Taavo Lumiste is Deputy Permanent Representative of the Permanent Representation of Estonia to the Council of Europe. He currently serves as the Chair of the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society of the Council of Europe.

Mr Lumiste has 20 years of experience on multilateral policy making from different multilateral organisations, varying from NATO to the United Nations and different UN agencies in Geneva, amongst others the WHO (served as EURO regional coordinator 2015-16, represented the EURO region in the Member States’ WHO reform working group, and served as the Geneva-based deputy to the Estonian representative in the WHO High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth), UNCTAD (as Group D coordinator led one of the four main Geneva-based negotiating groups for UNCTAD XIV Conference in 2016 tasked with negotiating the Nairobi Maafikiano outcome document; served as the Vice President of the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board during 2015-2019 for four rotations, chaired several Working Party meetings and co-chaired the first Intergovernmental group of experts meeting on e-commerce and digital economy), ILO etc., as well as WTO. Since 2013 he also serves as member of the Social Council of the “Interesting School” initiative under the aegis of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. He has found his passion on global health, on youth and education innovation, as well as on the broader development policy agenda, wherein also his academic interests lie.

Chairing the Steering Committee on Media and Information Society of the Council of Europe his focus is, inter alia, on the fields of freedom of expression, SLAPPs, media and internet governance and media literacy.

 Presentation

Alexander Bielefeld is Director Global Policy & Strategy (Men’s football) at FIFPRO – Football Players Worldwide. Alexander has been working for a decade on matters affecting the world of work of players and has represented player’s collective interests at the highest levels of international professional football. In his current role he represented professional players in international employment negotiations on matters including workload, peak performance, health and safety, financial regulations, human rights, technology and data as well as other strategic labour rights matters. He also coordinates relations with other player unions and public institutions. Alexander has been previously working as a consultant for Burson-Marsteller and holds degrees in international (sports) politics and Management from College of Europe, CDES Limoges and INSEAD amongst others.

  Statement

Mhairi Maclennan is 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, where the athlete's voice is heard.

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 practice sports.

She has successfully fought for change through her own organisation, Kyniska Advocacy, which campaigns for progressive policies in women's sport. Last year they worked with UK Athletics to implement lifetime bans for abusive coaches.

Mhairi believes that athletes having a basic right to a freedom of expression is key to creating lasting and meaningful change.

  Presentation

 Article by FIFPRO

Daniel Rietiker is a senior lawyer at the ECtHR where he has been dealing with high profile cases, inter alia, in the fields of freedom of expression, international child abductions, cases involving measures against persons suspected of international terrorism as well as sport-related cases. He is also an adjunct Professor of international law and human rights law at Lausanne University and Suffolk University Law School (Boston, MA). He holds a diploma in international relations from the Geneva Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies (IHEID) and a PhD from the University of Lausanne. In 2014, he was a visiting fellow at the Human Rights Program of Harvard Law School conducting research on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. His publications and past lectures cover various topics in the field of human rights and international law. He is a member of the advisory or academic board of several law journals, including the Hague Yearbook of International Law and the European Convention on Human Rights Law Review. He just published the book Defending Athletes, Players, Clubs and Fans, Manual for human rights education and litigation in sport, in particular before the European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg, 2022

   Presentation

Paulina Tomczyk (born 1987 in Poland) is the General Secretary of EU Athletes, the European federation of player unions and athlete associations. Working in the organization since 2015, she is responsible for coordinating the common policy of 32 member organizations and representing their voice at the European and international level. She has also been working on the management of European-wide collaborative projects, focusing on topics such as athlete rights, integrity, gender equality, good governance and dual careers of athletes.

Paulina is also an Executive Committee Member of World Players Association since 2018.

Paulina holds Master’s Degrees from Law (University of Gdansk, Poland), International Public Law (Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France) and European Studies (Aix-Marseille Université, France). In addition to her mother tongue, she speaks English, French and Spanish.

A former high-level athlete, she has a black belt (1st DAN) in judo and had been a member of Polish national team.

A graduate of Political Science from the Universities of Sofia (BG) and York (UK), Irena Guidikova has been working at the Council of Europe since 1994. Her carrier has taken her from youth policy and research, though the future of democracy in Europe, to cultural policy and inclusion and anti-discrimination. Her work involved producing standards on e-governance and e-voting, party financing and internet literacy, safeguarding diversity via film funding, and multi-level policies for intercultural integration of migrants and refugees. She has also been policy advisor in the Private Office of the Secretary General, the coordinator of the World Forum for Democracy and has lead the Inclusion and Anti-discrimination programmes of the Council of Europe, dealing with countering hate speech, LGBTI equality, migrant inclusion and minority rights. She is currently Head of the Children’s rights and Sport Values Department.

 Presentation

Rosarita Cuccoli is in charge of the “Sport and Media” cluster at the scientific committee of Sport and Citizenship, the European think tank that studies the societal impact of sport. Her professional and academic activity focuses on sports journalism. She is an associate member of Arènes, a joint research unit affiliated to the University of Rennes 1, the French School of Public Health (EHESP), France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Rennes Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Rennes), in partnership with the University of Rennes 2. She also has a long-standing experience as a business reporter, having worked since 2012 for the sport-related periodicals of the European Decision Makers Publications media group. Prior to that, she served as the secretary general of the Paris-based International Association of Sports Newspapers (IASN), part of the World Association of News Publishers. She has also taught for more than ten years disciplines related to sports, journalism and society at French grandes écoles including EMLYON, ESSCA and INSEEC, among others. In Italy, she has served as a teaching tutor at the University of Macerata. She has participated in European projects like Media Against Racism in Sport (MARS) and, most recently, the FIRE (Football Including Refugees in Europe) project, led by Sport and Citizenship. Rosarita holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rennes 1, with a thesis on sports journalism. She previously obtained an M.Phil in international relations from the University of Cambridge. She is first and foremost an alumna of the University of Bologna, her hometown, where she obtained a first-class honours degree in political science.

Jordan Higgins is the Press and Policy Officer at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), based in Leipzig, Germany. Before joining ECPMF, Jordan worked as Advocacy and Policy Manager at the Brussels-based Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD). Jordan holds an MSc in Journalism and Media in Europe from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) where he specialised in conflict reporting, media policy, and the impact of social media platforms on newsgathering and dissemination.

 Presentation

Mark Lichtenhein is the Chairman of the Sports Rights Owners Coalition (SROC), representing the collective interests of over 50 international and national sports bodies around their Intellectual Property Rights. SROC seeks proper recognition of the value of sport from Governments across the world, and effective protection for their rights under law.

Mark has worked in the sports and sports technology industry for some 25 years, from technology startups in the USA to the administration of European sports bodies. Working primarily in men and women’s golf, he has served both as Chief Executive of golf’s Ladies European Tour (LET) and as Managing Director of the European Tour’s television production and distribution company, European Tour Productions (ETP).

A software engineer by education, Mark previously held a number of positions in the European software industry with Siemens, Groupe Bull and Cap Gemini, before becoming the first Director of Business Development for the industry-led European Software Institute in Bilbao, Spain, co-funded by the European Union.

Andrew Moger is an international advocate for press freedom in relation to major organised news events of big public interest. With a background as a career journalist, news business manager and negotiator, he is the Chief Executive of the News Media Coalition (NMC) of publishing and news agency business from around the world.

Through the NMC, Moger engages with sports federations and leagues as well as clubs and their commercial partners, and public policymakers to challenge curbs on news operations and on-the-ground journalism.

He was based in the Middle East for nearly five years and travels widely to support Members and to speak at conferences on the importance and value of independent witnessed-based journalism.

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!

  Presentation (only available in French)

In 2016, before reaching the age of 30, single-handedly and with her own money, Aurélie Bresson founded Les Sportives, France’s first-ever women’s sport and multi-sports print magazine, which embodies her particular vision of life, sport and equality.

She has numerous contacts in the worlds of sport and education and runs Les Sportives with a team of volunteers, activists, experts and assistants. Within six years, Les Sportives has come to be recognised as a unique and authoritative publication offering a wealth of information on women’s sport. Outside of the media realm, the Les Sportives team helps public and private organisations with their strategies to promote feminisation and diversity through sport.

As well as being the founder and general manager of Les Sportives, Aurélie is also a speaker. She was a digital expert on the Candidature Committee for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and received the Sport Managers Award in the Media category in 2019.

She is also president of the Alice Milliat Foundation, Europe’s first-ever women’s sports foundation, under the umbrella of the French Sports Foundation (FSP). She also sits on the Consultative Committee of the Council of Europe’s Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS).

 Presentation

Professor Toni Bruce is a former sports reporter and columnist who has been researching media representations of sportswomen for over 25 years. A professor at the University of Auckland, she has over 80 research publications. She has led international teams of researchers, given talks around the world, and published 2 edited books and over 20 research articles specifically focused on media coverage of women’s sport. She was a Foundation Board member of Women in Sport Aotearoa and serves on the extended Board of WomenSport International.

 Presentation

Dr Payoshni Mitra is a former badminton player and coach turned gender and sport scholar, a prominent athlete rights advocate, and a leading campaigner in the abolition of sex testing policies in women’s sport. She has more than a decade-long experience of working closely with women athletes across Asia and Africa to enable them to address human rights violations in sports. Her advocacy work on inclusion and non-discrimination in sport has influenced important social, institutional, and structural changes on an international scale.

With her research and advocacy work, Dr Mitra has been able to help athletes win legal cases on complex gender issues on more than one occasion. She was instrumental in assisting Indian athlete Dutee Chand to regain her rights to compete in athletics and was one of the ten-member team who testified for South African Olympian Caster Semenya at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

She is a Director and Trustee at the Geneva-based Center for Sport & Human Rights and was appointed as the first-ever CEO of the newly established Global Observatory for Women, Sport, Physical Education and Physical Activity in January 2022.

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 a Board 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 ensures that topical thematic activities (such as gender equality, diversity, integrity and good governance in sport) and conferences (e.g. on combating hate speech in sport) are dealt with smoothly and effectively. In her spare time she works as a qualified fitness and Pilates instructor and is training in exercise referral.

Edouard Choquet is a professional basketball player since 2007.

Took part in FIBA TimeOut program from 2017-2019.

Master’s Degree Leadership & Management.

Launched Quan Sports in 2020. Agency created to provide a wide range of services for athletes (mental health, physical performance, transition, communication…).

Menno Ettema is Programme Manager at the No Hate Speech and Anti-Discrimination Cooperation unit, Anti-Discrimination Department of the Council of Europe. He was co-secretariat to the Experts Committee that drafted the Committee of Ministers Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)16 on Combating Hate Speech which was adopted in May 2022. In his function he brings together the organisations work on combatting hate speech and discrimination through standards setting, monitoring and capacity building programmes in cooperation with European partners and member States.

He previously worked as the European coordinator of the No Hate Speech Movement, a youth campaign of the Council of Europe to mobilise young people for human rights and against hate speech online (2016-17) and as an educational advisor (2010-2015) for the Youth Department of the Council of Europe.

He holds a Masters degree in Psychology of Culture and Religion of the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands.

  Statement

Nagin Ravand is a Danish-Afghan football coach and director who fled to Denmark from Afghanistan at the age of three. Nagin has played football her entire life on elite- and amateur level. She has created and directed several girls- and women’s football departments in the rural areas of Denmark to secure equal access to the playing field and is using her voice and resources to empower the female minorities of her community. Today she fights discrimination inside the world and structure of sports through her own organization. She is a member of the Committee of Diversity & Equality in her municipality and also an ambassador of the Danish FA. Nagin is studying a masters degree in criminology and holds a bachelor's degree in Education Science. She is also a UEFA licensed football coach. Her work on and off the football pitch has been recognized with multiple awards nationally and internationally and she aspires to become the first female Muslim leader in the international football structure.

A graduate of Aircraft Engineering from the University of Bucharest in Romania and the International Diplomacy and Business programme of the Georgetown University of Washington DC, Gabriela Matei has been working at the Council of Europe since 2007. Previous work with the USAID and the World Bank provided the experience needed for pursuing Public policy and Fiscal decentralisation reforms in South-East Europe, for developing Civil Society engagement in Eastern Partnership countries, as well as for enhancing the respect of human rights through work with Parliaments, ministries, prosecutors and the European Court of Human Rights. Her work to apply Council of Europe’s standards in the member states were at the core of each technical cooperation programme led by the Council of Europe with the governments, NGOs, in cooperation with the European Union, the Open Society Foundations, OECD, UNDP and European organisations. She uses her expertise and her interest in inclusion, safeguarding diversity, sport, to combat hate speech in sport and show that respect can be multiplied in our society through sport. Her objective is to make a difference, a sustainable societal change through #SportSpreadsRespect

  Statement

Alexandre Husting: Chair of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport (EPAS), Attaché for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport at the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the European Union and International and European Affairs Advisor at the Ministry of Sport of Luxembourg.

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!