Brig. Gen. John Baker (U.S. Marine Corps) has been serving as the Chief Defense Counsel for the Military Commissions Defense Organization since July 2015. BGen Baker is a career Marine having served the last thirty years on active duty with key assignments including Chief Defense Counsel of the Marine Corps, Chairman of the DoD's Joint Services Committee on Military Justice, Deputy Circuit Judge, Staff Judge Advocate, Regional Defense Counsel, and Senior Trial Counsel. BGen Baker received a BS from Union College in 1989, an MBA from Averett University in 1993, a JD from the University of Pittsburgh in 1997, and an LL.M. from the Army JAG School in 2005.
Steven J. Barela is a Research and Teaching Fellow at the University of Geneva in the Global Studies Institute and a member of the Law Faculty. In addition to his Ph.D. in Law, he holds three master's degrees: M.A. degrees in Latin American Studies and International Studies, along with an LL.M. in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. He published a monograph on counterterrorism with Routledge in 2014, an edited volume on armed drones with Ashgate in 2015, and is the author of numerous articles, book chapters and blogs on national security issues.
Barbara Bernath is Secretary General of the Geneva-based Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT). She is an experienced international human rights advocate and trainer on changes to policy and practices that can prevent torture and ill-treatment, and graduate of the Universities of Strasbourg and Geneva.
J.M. Bernstein is University Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. Among his publications are Adorno and Disenchantment (2001) and Torture and Dignity: An Essay on Moral Injury (2015). He is now completing a work entitled Human Rights: A Marxist Defense.
M. Gregg Bloche, M.D., J.D., is Professor of Law at Georgetown University, has written extensively on conflict between the patient-centered and public functions of medicine and psychology. In a series of pieces for the New England Journal of Medicine, New York Times, and other venues, he was among the first to describe and assess the roles these professions played in America's post-9/11 misadventure in torture. He is the author of The Hippocratic Myth: Why Doctors Are Under Pressure to Ration Care, Practice Politics, and Compromise Their Promise to Heal, and he has held teaching and research appointments at the University of Chicago, UCLA, and Columbia law schools, as well as the Brookings Institution and the Harvard School of Public Health.
Susan Brandon, Ph.D., managed the HIG's research program from its inception in 2010 to 2018. Prior to that, she served as a research psychologist at the Department of Defense, the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychological Association, and the Psychology Department/Behavioral Neuroscience Program at Yale University.
Bob Brecher is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Brighton, UK, and Director of its Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics & Ethics. He is the author of Torture and the Ticking Bomb (2007) and writes widely on torture, "terrorism", neo-liberalism and a range of topics in both applied ethics and moral theory.
Laure Brimbal received her Ph.D. in Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, CUNY in 2016 and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Iowa State University. Her research focuses on interrogation techniques, lie detection, and law enforcement decision making and has been funded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation/High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (FBI/HIG) and the American Psychological Association (APA). She has conducted research on the Strategic Use of Evidence technique, methods for priming disclosure in interviews, the effectiveness of rapport and trust building tactics in intelligence interviews, and how to increase the use of these evidence-based practices in the field.
Ray Bull is Professor of Criminal Investigation at The University of Derby. In 2014 he became President of the European Association of Psychology and Law; in 2012 he was made the first Honorary Life Member of the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group; in 2010 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society "for the contribution made to the discipline of psychology" (an honor only 40 living psychologists hold); in 2008 he received from the European Association of Psychology and Law the Award for Life-time Contribution to Psychology and Law. He has authored/co-authored a large number of research publications and regularly conducts workshops/training on investigative interviewing around the world.
Mark Fallon is a national security expert, counterterrorism specialist, and author of the book Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon and US Government Conspired to Torture. His government service spans more than three decades with positions including NCIS Deputy Assistant Director for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security Senior Executive. He is the Chair of the International Association of Chiefs of Police IMPACT Section, a member of a Global Steering Committee developing universal standards for non-coercive interviewing, and is on the Advisory Council of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL) at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy. She is also the Faculty Director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL). She edits the Oxford Series in Ethics, National Security and the Rule of Law, along with Jens Ohlin, and has been the editor of several volumes in the series. She is a frequent television and radio commentator on matters of national security and ethics, and publishes regularly on a variety of topics in legal theory and national security.
Gloria Gaggioli is a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Professor at the Law Faculty of the University of Geneva. She is specialized in international humanitarian law and human rights law. Prior to joining the University of Geneva, she served as Legal Adviser in the legal division of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Pavle Kilibarda is a PhD candidate at the University of Geneva and a teaching assistant at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. He has previously worked as a researcher at the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights and legal training associate at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva.
Col. Steven Kleinman (U.S. Air Force, Ret.) has 30 years of operational and leadership experience as an intelligence officer with assignments worldwide and is the recipient of Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency elite human intelligence collector awards. He is a recognized subject matter expert in human intelligence operations, intelligence support to special operations, counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, strategic interrogation, resistance to interrogation, and the evolution of violent extremism.
Karin Loevy is the manager of the JSD Program at NYU School of Law, a researcher at the Institute for International Law and Justice (IILJ) and a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow with the Laureate Program in International Law (Melbourne Law School). Her book, Emergencies in Public Law: The Legal Politics of Containment, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2016. Her current book project is in a history of international law in the Middle East.
David Luban is University Professor in Law and Philosophy at Georgetown University, and Distinguished Chair in Ethics at the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership, United States Naval Academy. His book Torture, Power, and Law (Cambridge University Press) won the American Publishers Association PROSE Award for for Professional and Scholarly Excellence in philosophy. He writes on professional ethics, international criminal law, and human rights; currently, he is writing a book on the moral and legal thought of Hannah Arendt.
Christian Meissner is Professor of Psychology at Iowa State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive & Behavioral Science from Florida State University (2001) and conducts empirical studies on the psychological processes underlying investigative interviews, including issues surrounding eyewitness recall and identification, deception detection, and the development of rapport and trust in interrogations.
Nils Melzer is the current UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. He is Professor of International Law at the University of Glasgow and also holds the Human Rights Chair at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Melzer has authored award-winning and widely translated works on cutting-edge issues of international law and has previously served as Senior Security Policy Adviser to the Swiss Government, Senior Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Research Director of the Competence Centre for Human Rights at the University of Zurich, and as Legal Adviser and Deputy Head of Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in various zones of conflict and violence.
Juan Méndez is a Professor of Human Rights Law, Washington College of Law, American University. Professor Méndez is the former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (2010-16) and Commissioner, International Commission of Jurists, since 2017.
Giuliana Monina is researcher at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights - Human Dignity and Public Security Department. She joined in 2016 and has since focused on several research projects on the topics of torture and ill-treatment, including the second edition of "The United Nations Convention against Torture: A Commentary" (forthcoming), to which she contributed as co-editor and author. Giuliana Monina has completed her legal studies at the University of Bologna. Before the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, she was a practicing lawyer in Italy and worked with several human rights organizations.
Alberto Mora is a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and served as Navy General Counsel during the George W. Bush administration. In 2006, he was awarded the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation Profile in Courage Award for his opposition to torture while in government.
Katherine Newell is Subject Matter Expert, Detention and Interrogation Issues, Military Commissions Defense Organization. She formerly served as the Counterterrorism Counsel for the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch, and as an officer in the U.S. Air Force.
Manfred Nowak is Professor of International Human Rights at the University of Vienna, where he is the Scientific Director of the Vienna Master of Arts in Human Rights and Founder of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Human Rights. He serves as Secretary General of the Global Campus of Human Rights in Venice. Manfred Nowak has carried out various expert functions for the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the EU and other inter-governmental organizations, amongst others as Independent Expert leading the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty (2016 - present), UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (2004 - 2010), UN Expert on Enforced Disappearances (1993 -2006) and as one of eight international judges in the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo (1996 - 2003). He has published extensively on international law and human rights, including various language editions of legal Commentaries to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention against Torture.
Andra Nicolescu is the Legal and Advocacy Advisor, Association for the Prevention of Torture. Ms. Nicolescu is the former Assistant Director, Anti-Torture Initiative, American University Washington College of Law.
Simon Oleszkiewicz currently works as an assistant professor at the University of Twente (NL). He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Gothenburg in 2016 and has completed post-doctoral projects at the University of Gothenburg (SWE) and Iowa State University (US). Simon's research interest is on human intelligence gathering, where he studies the influential effects of information disclosure approaches, trust-building tactics, and adaptability during unexpected situational demands.
Jens David Ohlin is the Vice Dean and Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. Professor Ohlin specializes in international law and all aspects of criminal law, including domestic, comparative, and international criminal law. His latest books include Criminal Procedure: Doctrine, Application, and Practice (2019); International Law: Evolving Doctrine and Practice (2018); and Criminal Law: Doctrine, Application, and Practice (2nd edn 2018).
Shane O'Mara is a psychologist, neuroscientist and Professor of Experimental Brain Research at Trinity College, Dublin. He is a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Galway (BA, MA) and of the University of Oxford (D.Phil.); he is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (FAPS) and an elected Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA). His research interests are in the brain systems supporting learning, memory and cognition, and as well as in stress and depression; he has published more than 130 papers in these areas, in addition to the book, Why Torture Doesn't Work: The Neuroscience of Interrogation (2015).
John T. Parry is Associate Dean of Faculty and Edward Brunet Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark Law School. He is the author of Understanding Torture: Law, Violence, and Political Identity (2010), as well as numerous articles on torture, international extradition, and other topics.
Asbjørn Rachlew, Ph.D. is a Police Superintendent and has worked as a homicide detective for eight years, including the role as advisor to the team interviewing the suspect in the terror attacks in Oslo and Utøya in 2011. Rachlew is a guest researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (University of Oslo) and engaged in the development of global standards for Investigative Interviewing.
Steven Reisner is a psychoanalyst and political activist in New York. He is a founding member of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology, Advisor on Psychology and Ethics for Physicians for Human Rights and past-President of Psychologists for Social Responsibility. He was a leader in the successful movement to remove psychologists from their central role in abusive CIA and military interrogation and detention practices. Dr. Reisner has published in the New York Times, Slate, and in various academic journals, and is co-author of three PHR monographs on health professionals and torture.
Darius Rejali is a professor of Political Science at Reed College, the author of the award winning book, Torture and Democracy (2007) and Torture and Modernity: Self, Society and State in Modern Iran (1994). Iranian-born, Rejali has spent his career reflecting on violence, specifically, on the causes, consequences, and meaning of modern torture in our world. Rejali is an internationally recognized expert on government torture and interrogation and he has submitted testimony for Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib related cases.
Michael Skerker is an Associate Professor in the Leadership, Ethics, and Law Department at the U.S. Naval Academy. His research interests include police, military, and intelligence ethics. He is the author of An Ethics of Interrogation (2010) and is currently working on a book entitled The Moral Status of Combatants: A New Theory.
Stephen Soldz is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, and research at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis. He was a leader in a movement to remove psychologists from coercive interrogations. He is the author of over 100 articles on related issues and served as past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, an advisor to Physicians for Human Rights, and a co-founder of the Coalition for an Ethical Psychology.
Mary E. Spears is a capital defense attorney who has represented clients at all stages of the legal process, from trial to appeal to post-conviction proceedings, with a particular focus on U.S. federal capital proceedings. She is currently Assistant General Counsel of the Military Commissions Defense Organization and has served as defense counsel for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a former CIA detainee charged with capital crimes before a U.S. military commission in Guantánamo.
Mark Thomson is the former Secretary General of the APT (2001-2018). Experienced human rights advocate and diplomat especially in measures to prevent torture and strengthen the impact of national human rights defenders. Mr Thompson is a graduate of the Universities of Essex and London.
Brig. Gen. Stephen N. Xenakis, M.D. (U.S. Army, Ret.) is an adult, child, and adolescent psychiatrist and retired from the U.S. Army in 1998. He serves on the Executive Board of the Center for Ethics and Rule of Law (CERL) at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, the editorial board of the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, and is an Adjunct Professor at the Uniformed Services of Health Sciences (USUHS) of the military medical department.
