Rik Daems is the current President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). He graduated from Brussels Solvay Business School and holds a Masters’ degree in Industrial Location & Development from the Free University in Brussels. He started his career as associate expert for the UN in Central America. After serving as financial and economic advisor to the Belgian Minister of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), he became a member of the Belgian Parliament in 1987. Initially elected to the Chamber of Representatives, since 2014 he has been a member of the Belgian Senate, where he has also chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Committee on Alternate Financing of Public Investment. He first became a member of the Belgian delegation to the PACE in 2007 and was appointed Chairperson of the delegation in 2015 and group's leader in 2017. Mr Daems also served as Belgian Minister for State-owned enterprises, Public Holdings, Telecom and SME from 1999 until 2003. He was Mayor of the City of Aarschot from 1989 until 1995. In 2000, he was Chairperson of the European Council of Ministers for Telecommunication. Along with politics, his interests include contemporary art and winemaking.

Audrey Azoulay has been the Director-General of UNESCO since November 2017.

Involved in the cultural sector since the start of her professional career, she has, among other things, worked on the financing of the French public audiovisual sector and the reform and modernization of French film support systems. She has also served as an expert with the European Commission on issues concerning cultural and communication.

As Cultural Advisor to the President of the French Republic, she notably initiated, in 2014, the design of a plan for the protection of heritage at risk, which she then implemented in 2016 as Minister of Culture and Communication.

A former student of the French Ecole Nationale d’Administration, she graduated from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and holds a Diploma of Business Administration from Lancaster University (United Kingdom).

With her longstanding commitment to intercultural and intergenerational dialogue for promoting education for all and the dissemination of scientific and cultural knowledge, Audrey Azoulay is continuing this commitment as the Director-General of UNESCO.

Among her priorities at the head of the Organization, she is placing a particular focus on education, especially for women and girls, as a powerful lever for development. She notably launched the initiative "Revive the Spirit of Mosul", which focuses on the human dimension of reconstruction through education and culture. UNESCO has also initiated a global conversation with the public and private sectors and civil society to define ethical principles for a humanist approach to artificial intelligence.

Peter Noorlander is a consultant on human rights and media law. Educated at the University of Maastricht and Nottingham University, he has more than 20 years' experience working with NGOs, foundations, intergovernmental organizations and national authorities in various countries around the world. He has written and lectured on a range of topics related to media law and freedom of expression and is co-author of the Council of Europe’s Human Rights for Legal Professional course on Freedom of Expression. His expertise is internationally recognized; in 2015, Columbia University awarded its inaugural Award for Excellence in Legal Services to the Media Legal Defence Initiative, which Peter co-founded and led. Peter Noorlander is on the board of trustees of Privacy International, which advocates for a world where technology will empower and enable us, not exploit our data for profit and power; and of Doc Society, a non-profit committed to enabling great documentary films and connecting them to audiences globally.