Speakers

Government and non-governmental representatives, parliamentarians, officials of international organizations, academics and experts from 13 countries and religious authorities. They have distinguished themselves in their field of specialization and are recognised/i for the respect of human rights and gender equality. They are example leaders who have demonstrated a marked interest in strategic communication and result-oriented advocacy, strengthening women’s participation in forums, conferences and sector mechanisms to further support the implementation of the WPS – Women, Peace and Security Agenda, of international interest.

Hon. Nilofar Bakhtiar

Senator of the Government of Pakistan and President of the National Commission on the Status of Women

BIO

Hon. Aicha Nanette Conté

Minister for the Promotion of Women, Children and Vulnerable Persons, Guinea Conakry

BIO

Ms. Noemi Di Segni

President of the Union of Jewish Communities of Italy

BIO

Mr. Skender Doda

President IPA – International Police Association, Albania

BIO

Ms. IlhamAllah Chiara Ferrero

Member CO.RE.IS – Islamic Religious Community of Italy

BIO

Hon. Mimoza Hajdarmataj

CEO and co-founder of WPS – Women in Public Service, Albania

BIO

Amb. Cindy McCain

United States Permanent Representative to the UN Agencies in Rome, USA

BIO

Hon. Mbagnick Ndiaye

Former Minister of Culture and Communication, Senegal

BIO

NOA ( Achinoam Nini)

Artist, Israel

BIO

H.E. Nicole Bwatshia Ntumba

Deputy Director of Cabinet of the President, in charge of Political, Legal and Diplomatic issues,Democratic Republic of Congo

BIO

Sister Maria del Carmen Ocon

Vice-President of Solidarity with the South Sudan, South Sudan

BIO

Ms. Isabel Recavarren

Director at CEFIAL-UE & Panorámica Latino-Americana, Peru

BIO

Mr. Andrea Rossi

Director General FMSI – Fondazione Marista per la Solidarietà Internazionale, Siria

BIO

Hon. Magbule Sadri-Shkodra

Founder of Women With Impact Kosovo, Kosovo

BIO

Hon. Aïssata Tall Sall

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Senegal

BIO

H.E. Ergogie Tesfaye

Minister of Women and Social Affairs, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

BIO

Mr. Eduard Tschan

Country Representative Lebanon, IMC – International Medical Corps, USA

BIO

Nilofar Bakhtiar

Nilofar Bakhtiar is the Chairperson and Minister of State of the National Commission on the Status of Women in Pakistan.

She was Advisor to the Prime Minister and Federal Minister for Women Development, Special Education and Social Welfare (2002-2006) and Federal Minister for Tourism (2006-2007). She was elected to the Senate of Pakistan from 2006-2012 and pioneered ground-breaking pro-women legislation and policy on Honour Killing, Domestic Violence, Acid Throwing, and establishment of full-service shelter homes for vulnerable women and children.

Nilofar was the Chairperson of the Pakistan Red Cross and became the first woman ever to be elected to the Board of Lions Clubs International in the Association’s 83-year history. She has represented Pakistan at UN and SAARC forums and furthered the work of UNWomen and UNWorld Tourism Organization at global levels. She is also the Founder of Bardasht, a national non-profit dedicated to promoting peace and non-violence through the protection of human rights.

Aicha Nanette Conté

Aicha Nanette Conté is Minister for the Advancement of Women, Children and Vulnerable Persons of the Republic of Guinea. She carried out such a role starting from the Mohamed Béavogui Government (26 October 2021) and then for the Bernard Gumou government, in office since August 2022. She carried out her professional training as a specialist of children protection within UNICEF Guinea.

Noemi Di Segni

Noemi Di Segni is the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities since July 2016. In addition, she is responsible for the Bureau of the National Council of Chartered Accountants and Accounting Experts and a member of the executive of the World Jewish Congress and the European Jewish Congress.

Noemi Di Segni is now actively committed to community heritage preservation, cultural development, religious education, and freedom. Through networking, civil, and institutional alliances and cooperation with law enforcement, she worked to fight the re-emergence of antisemitism.

Skender Doda

Skender Doda was elected President of the IPA-Albania Section on 29 June 2018 and then reconfirmed on 29 February 2020. From April 2018 to November 2020, he was Director of the General Management Department of the State Police in Albania. During his career he served for several years in the departments and direction of the rapid intervention forces, head of the police station and director of the Shkodra police, deputy director of the Academy of  Order, chief specialist in the direction of planning, analysis, and strategy Studies.

IlhamAllah Chiara Ferrero

IlhamAllah Chiara Ferrero belongs to one of the principle Islamic organizations in Italy (COREIS) which focuses on religious needs of Muslims in various fields (worship, education, halal). She is active with Italian institutions and with civil society to relate harmoniously religious principles and democratic issues in a secular society context.

In the last twenty years, through courses and publications, she aimed at making known to the Westerners the richness of Islam and the value of Muslim women in order to overcome prejudices and unjustified fears.

She is a member of Interreligious Studies Academy which promotes many educational courses. She has developed many projects held in the al-Wahid Mosque of Milan where men and women from around the world meet. 

Mimoza Hajdarmataj

Mimoza Hajdarmataj is one of co-founder and the Executive Director of WPS Albania (Women in Public Service).

As she was graduate on electronic engineering on 1992, she started to work for the Telecommunication State Agency, for a period of 15 years, then became head of technical branch and Director of Tirana Regional Branch. In 2010 after finishing Master of Science on International Relations she served for a year as Director of Electronic and Postal Communication Directory at the National Agency for Information Society. In 2011, she was nominated by Prime Minister of Albania as the General Inspector of the Central Inspectorate where she successfully led the reorganization of the inspection bodies and the Reform on Inspection under the Regulatory Reform. In 2015 Mimoza Hajdarmataj was elected as the first parliamentarian woman, representing Kukësi, the northern region of Albania.

Cindy McCain

Ambassador Cindy Hensley McCain was sworn in by the Biden Administration to serve as Permanent Representative of the U.S. Mission to the UN Agencies in Rome on November 5, 2021. She has dedicated her life to improving the lives of those less fortunate both in the United States and around the world.

Mbagnick Ndiaye

Mbagnick Ndiaye was Minister of Culture and Communication of the Republic of Senegal in the Dionne Government (2014-2017), then, from 2017 onwards, Minister of African Integration, NEPAD and Francophonie.

He also held the position of Minister of Sport in other Senegalese executives (Mbaye and Touré).

He is President of the Senegalese Fencing Federation and the African Fencing Confederation. He is also a member of the executive committee of the International Fencing Federation.

He trained at the National Center for Popular and Sports Education in Thiès and graduated from the National Institute of Popular Education (INEP) Marly-le-Roi in 1983. He is a member of the Senegalese Olympic Committee.

NOA

Noa is Israel’s most highly acclaimed international singer, songwriter, percussionist, speaker, and activist.

Noa has released 16 albums, performed for three Popes and in many of the world’s most prestigious stages (there in Carnegie Hall and the White House).

Noa is considered Israel’s most prominent cultural advocate of dialogue and co-existence, her “Voice of Peace”. Among her many awards is Commander of Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, one of Italy’s highest honors.

Noa is Israel’s first Ambassador to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and she is active as board-member and public advocate of a score of Human Rights and Peace organizations in Israel and abroad.

Nicole Bwatshia Ntumba

Nicole Ntumba Bwatshia is a University Professor and Deputy Director of the Office of the Head of State, responsible for political, legal and diplomatic affairs in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After obtaining her law degree at the University of Kinshasa, she served as a magistrate for ten years until 2001. She defended her doctoral thesis in law at the University of Gand in Belgium in 2014, which allowed her to become a professor of public international law and international relations at the Faculty of Law of the University of Kinshasa where she currently teaches. She is also Dean of the Faculty of Law at a private university: William Booth University.

She was appointed Main Advisor to the Head of State in legal and administrative affairs in 2019, before assuming to this day, since April 14, 2021 the functions of Deputy Director of the Office of the Head of State.

She believes in the value and the potential of women. She fights for women’s rights in her country.

Suor Maria del Carmen Ocon

Maria del Carmen Ocon is the Vice-President of Solidarity with South Sudan, an inter-congregational reality that has been operating in South Sudan since 2008. Its mission is to develop autonomous institutions and programs in the pastoral, educational and health fields to contribute to the strengthening of the capacities of the people of South Sudan to build a just and peaceful society.

Isabel Recavarren

Isabel Recavarren is the founder of CEFIAL-UE, a project of CEFIAL (Centre for Training and Information in Latin America), which investigates Latin American issues and its relationship with the European Union. Recavarren was born in Lima, Peru and is a jurist, journalist, and lawyer. She is also director of Panorámica Latinoamericana and the Euro-Latin American Women’s Forum.

Andrea Rossi

Andrea Rossi is the Director General of the FMSI NGO in charge of the overall direction and management of the organization and responsible for developing strategic initiatives and transnational actions in over 50 countries worldwide, including South America, Africa, and South-East Asia.

Magbule S. Shkodra

Magbule S. Shkodra, in two government mandates, former deputy minister in the Ministries of Regional Development and Local Government, former president of the Kosovo Women’s Alliance, former vice-president of the political party, Founder of Women with Impact Kosovo, and Managing Director of Mayune Visuals.

Aïssata Tall Sall

Aïssata Tall Sall is a politician, lawyer, member of the political bureau of the Socialist Party, Minister of Communication under the presidency of Abdou Diouf, mayor of Podor since April 2009. She was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad on 1 November 2020, becoming the first woman to hold this position.

Ergogie Tesfaye

Honorable Dr. Ergogie Tesfaye is currently serving as a Minister of Ministry of Women and Social Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and she is a member of House of People’s Representative (MP), Member of National Counsel for Migration and Anti-Human Trafficking and member of National Counsel for Seqota Declaration. She is a Board Chair of Debretabor University and Co-Chair of the Ethiopian Broadcast Corporation. (EBC). She is also elected as Central Committee of Prosperity Party (Ruling Party).

Dr. Ergogie started her career with St. Mary University in Ethiopia in 2004 as a lecturer and Director of Gender and HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office. Dr. Ergogie has obtained her PhD in Anthropology, Specialized in Conflict Resolution, from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India in 2013; whereby she had conducted various research and produced publications accordingly.

Eduard Tschan

Eduard Tschan is a Swiss citizen who has worked in many countries as a human development specialist including Jordan, Lebanon, Haiti and the entire Middle East and North Africa region.  Eduard holds a PhD in Economics, from the University of St. Gallen and worked as a post graduate Fellow at Harvard University contributing to Professor Michael Porter’s book: “Competitiveness of Nations”. Eduard held leadership positions at the Swiss Red Cross, the American Red Cross in Washington DC, at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the UN and at the World Bank.  He was Country Representative for IFRC in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 and regional Director for the Middle East for IFRC in 2007-2009. He served a special adviser to President Clinton in the Special Envoys Office for tsunami in NewYork. He was also responsible for the Measles and Rubella partnership for Africa bringing together over 20 international partners and donors.