Belkis Florentina Izquierdo Torres – Aty Seikuinduwa. Indigenous woman from the Iku people of Colombia. Magistrate of the Chamber for the Recognition of Truth and Responsibility and Determination of Facts and Conduct and Vice President of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) in Colombia. Lawyer from the National University of Colombia, Master in Public Administration with emphasis in governance and public policies from the Higher School of Public Administration. She has worked as an auxiliary magistrate of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, advisor to the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, consultant to the United Nations Development Program and legal advisor to different public and private entities.
Cristina Hoyos, Head of the Latin America and Caribbean Unit in DCAF. Over 25 years of experience in development cooperation, diplomacy, and security, as well as peace negotiations and conflict resolution, including leading multilateral and bilateral negotiations (UN, World Bank, NATO, OECD and African Development Bank). Chairperson of the Network for Conflict Prevention and Development (OECD), Head of the Conflict Prevention and Transformation Division in the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and Advisor to the Colombian Minister of the Environment in the peace negotiations with the guerrilla Ejército de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) and Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and Head of International Cooperation at the Colombian Ministry of the Environment. Ph.D in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences in the Humboldt University of Berlin about the peace process with the FARC.
Reinhold Gallmetzer is an Appeals Counsel at the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC.He also founded the Center for Climate Crime Analysis, where he serves as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors. Previously, Reinhold served as an Associate Legal Officer at the ICTY, as a Judicial Training Officer with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and as a consultant to the Defence Office of the State Court in Sarajevo. Reinhold studied law at the universities of Innsbruck (Austria), Padova (Italy) and Glasgow (Scotland).
Anne Heloise Barbosa do Nascimento, Brazilian, is pursuing a Master's degree in Law at the Federal University of Pernambuco, in the line of research "Justice and Human Rights in Latin America". She's also the climate education coordinator at the Brazilian Center of Climate Justice. National articulator of the Brazilian youth-led organization Engajamundo, where she’s based at the climate working group. Youth Leader at the UN Women's Generation Equality Forum's Feminist Action for Climate Justice Action Coalition. She also represented Brazil at UNESCO's 13th Youth Forum.
Panel 1 will be moderated by Emily Kenney.
Emily Kenney is a Policy Specialiston Rule of Law andTransitional Justice at UN Women headquarters, where she worksin the Peace, Securityand Resilience Section on women’s access to justice in conflict-affected countries and accountability for conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence. Emily holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law, an M.Phil from the University of Cape Town in Justice & Transformation Studies, and a B.A. from Tufts University.
Nobesuthu Adelaide Ngwenya is a Senior Ecologist with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. She is also the President-Elect for the Zimbabwe Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology and is a member of various conservation groups and/or societies, where she volunteers towards making an impact in achieving a just society, where people and nature thrive. Nobesuthu holds an MPhil in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge. She is passionate about contributing to tackling the biodiversity crisis, the betterment of livelihoods and achieving sustainable development. Gender equality, opportunities for the girl-child, and career and leadership opportunities for women are issues that are very close to her heart. Nobesuthu’s vision is to be a part of a greener, resilient, adaptive world, where equity is held in the highest regard and poverty reduction is given high priority.
Joni Seager has been a leader in the fields of gender and environment for many years. In 2021 she collaborated with WWF to produce the first global synthesis and assessment of the gendered dynamics of illegal wildlife trafficking: http://www.genderandiwt.org/. She is currently a gender advisor on IWT for several UN agencies including UNODC and the Global Wildlife Program of the World Bank. She is a Professor at Bentley University in the Boston area, and an affiliate at York University, Toronto.
Dr. Gohar Petrossian is an Associate Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and the Deputy Executive Officer of the Criminal Justice Doctoral Program at City University of New York - Graduate Center. Dr. Petrossian is a crime scientist whose research focuses on the empirical application of crime science theories to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and other forms of wildlife crime. Dr. Petrossian has published over three dozen scholarly articles and book chapters on this topic. She is the author of the book The Last Fish Swimming: The Global Crime of Illegal Fishing. Dr. Petrossian’s research has been featured by Yale University’s Environment Review, National Geographic, PBS Nature, The Center for International Maritime Security, U.S. Naval Institute, Global Fishing Watch, and CUNY Newswire.
Dr. Ragnhild Sollund is professor of criminology at the University of Oslo, Dept. of criminology and sociology of law. She has been engaged in research on wildlife crime, particularly wildlife trafficking, since 2010. Sollund was partner to the EFFACE project, focusing on environmental crime in the EU, and has been leading the research project; Criminal Justice, Wildlife Conservation and Animal Rights in the Anthropocene (CRIMEANTHROP) (2019-2024) which focused on the implementation and enforcement of CITES and the Bern convention in Norway, the UK, Germany and Spain. She is the author of many books and articles in the field, including; The crimes of wildlife trafficking. Issues of justice, legality and morality (Routledge 2019) and Wildlife crime: A crime of hegemonic masculinity?.Social Sciences, 9(6), 93.
Panel 2 will be moderated by Tanya Wyatt.
Professor Tanya Wyatt is a green criminologist with nearly 20 years of experience researching Crimes that Affect the Environment. She joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Research and Trend Analysis Branch in November 2022. Professor Wyatt is the Lead Researcher on Crimes that Affect the Environment. Before joining UNODC, she was a Professor at Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK. During this time, she published nearly 100 books, journal articles, book chapters, and reports on Crimes that Affect the Environment. Prior to that, she was a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine and a police officer for nearly 5 years in the US. Professor Tanya Wyatt holds a BA in Biology from Mills College in Oakland, California, US and a Masters in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan, US. She earned her Doctorate in Criminology from the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK.
Marco Garcia, a dedicated international environmental lawyer from Universidad Diego Portales in Chile, has immersed himself in international environmental law for the past decade, specializing in ocean governance. Marco has supported public prosecutors in Ecuador, Argentina, and Peru, aiding their understanding of key conventions and treaties like UNCLOS and CITES. His research into Latin American legislative frameworks has laid the groundwork for capacity-building initiatives, strengthening the knowledge of regional environmental public prosecutors. Since 2020, he has lectured at prestigious law universities in Peru and Chile and contributed to crafting legal materials like a chapter on IUU Fishing for Argentinian prosecutors. Marco is an alumni of the prestigious Rhodes Academy of Ocean law and Policy and is currently finishing a chapter on criminal marine pollution, slated for publication in 2024.
Nupur Prakash is a gender equality and human rights law specialist with over 8 years of strong thematic expertise in feminist climate action and land rights, combatting sexual and gender-based violence, gender-responsive legal reform, amongst others. She is well-versed in international human rights and women’s rights frameworks, with the ability to engage in in-depth technical and strategic discussions on the issue. She has proven expertise in designing and implementing innovative programmatic initiatives ensuring the integration of gender equality objectives. She holds a LLM in International and Comparative Law from the George Washington University Law School.
Kat Henn commenced in the role of INTERPOL Assistant Director Illicit Markets on 5 February. She is of British and Polish nationality. She holds a master’s degree in Criminology, Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations, and a Military Academy Bachelor’s Degree in National Security. Kat has over 10 years working for Police in the United Kingdom specializing in operations and investigations relating to Crimes Against Children (including online undercover), Counter Terrorism (including surveillance) and Serious and Organized Crime. She also has 2 years’ experience working for the British Government (Cabinet Office) as a Manager of Crisis Response Team within the National Security Team and 4 years’ experience within UK Border Force managing the Sensitive Intelligence Unit. She has also managed large international operations aiming to disrupt commodity smuggling (drugs, firearms, people, illicit goods, etc.) to and from the United Kingdom.
Panel 3 will be moderated by Hanna Sands.
Hanna Sands has more than 20 years of experience working with gender issues in an international context. She currently serves as the Programme Coordinator for gender issues at UNOV/UNODC supporting the Offices in mainstreaming gender into all aspects of its work. Her previous experience includes working with gender issues at UNIDO in the context of women’s economic empowerment and gender dimensions of the fourth industrial revolution. Hanna Sands also guided OSCE’s implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda as well as other gender-related policy development and gender mainstreaming as a Gender Adviser at OSCE HQ. She worked with practical implementation of the WPS agenda in post-conflict settings and headed field offices for the Swedish INGO Kvinna till Kvinna in Serbia, Montenegro and Albania. She additionally worked with political and security analysis heading the early warning mechanism in the OSCE Mission to Skopje and has also formed part of the EU PHARE cross border cooperation programme in pre-accession in Czechia.
Livia Wagner works as the Coordinator for the Network of Experts and Thematic Lead on Human Trafficking at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Livia’s work covers the issue of human trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation, specializing on responsible supply chain management. She has done extensive research on natural resource trafficking, such as illegal gold mining/illegal logging and related organized crime forms with a special focus on Latin America. She also coordinates the Responsible & Ethical Business Coalition against Trafficking (RESPECT) Initiative, and coordinating GI-TOC’s Research Lead for the Tech Against Trafficking Initiative. She previously worked for the United Nations Global Initiative Against Trafficking in Persons (UN.GIFT), the Non-Governmental Organisation ECPAT, the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Mauritius. She holds a Master’s Degree in Development Sociology and International Relations from the University of Linz/Austria and is based in Vienna/Austria.
Panel 4 will be moderated by Hanny Cueva Beteta.
Hanny Cueva Beteta has more than 25 years of experience in development economics, governance, gender equality and women’s empowerment, conflict and peacebuilding, crimes that affect the environment, action against transnational organized crime and illicit drug production and trafficking, among others. She has more than 15 years of experience with the UN System at headquarters, regional and country locations.She is currently serving as Head of the Global Programme on Crimes that Affect the Environment in UNODC (Vienna, Austria), where she leads the development, implementation, fundraising and management of operations of the programme with presence in over 40 countries.Before joining the UN System, she was a researcher and lecturer at the Universidad del Pacifico in Lima, Peru, where she worked and published extensively on issues of poverty and development economics, as well as private and social evaluation of projects.
For more information on the Discussion Forum, please send an e-mail to UNOV/UNODC Gender Team at unov-unodc.gender@un.org.
