The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention - Members

Mr. Malick Sow (Chair-Rapporteur), has experience as a judge in Senegal for more than 30 years and is currently a judge of the Supreme Court of Senegal. He is also President of the National Commission on trafficking of persons in particular women and children in Senegal. He was the coordinator of the Senegalese Committee of Human Rights (the national human rights institution of Senegal) and chaired the Francophone Association of National Human Rights Commissions as its President between 2002 and 2007. Mr. Sow is also a member of the Follow-up Committee on the Implementation of the Robben Island Guidelines. He joined the Working Group on 1 May 2008.

Ms. Shaheen Ali (Vice-Chair), who became a member of the Working Group on 1 August 2008, is Professor of law at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and Professor II at the University of Oslo, Norway. Former responsibilities of Ms. Ali in Pakistan include Professor of law at the University of Peshawar, whose Women's Study Centre she headed as Director; Cabinet Minister in the North West Frontier Province; Chair of the National Commission on the Status of Women in Pakistan; Member of the Prime Minister's National Consultative Committee for Women; and Member of the Senate Committee on the Status of Women. She has received a number of awards including the Asian Women of Achievement Award 2005 (Public Sector) of the United Kingdom in May 2005, and the British Muslims Annual Honours achievement plaque in the House of Lords in May 2002. Ms. Ali has published extensively in the area of Islamic law, human rights, women and children’s rights.

Mr. Vladimir Tochilovsky, was appointed as the newest member of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on 1 May 2010. He is a former professor at Mechnikov National University in Odessa, Ukraine and has authored over 30 professional publications on various subjects including human rights. His latest publication is titled “Jurisprudence of the International Criminal Courts and the European Court of Human Rights: Procedure and Evidence.” Mr Tochilovsky was an advisor for the Preparatory Committee for the International Criminal Court and was an attorney for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. His main area of interest is in human rights and criminal justice with a particular focus on persons deprived of their liberty.

Mr. Roberto Garretón, is a Chilean lawyer and has been a human rights defender since the dictatorship of General Pinochet. He was the Ambassador of the first government after the dictatorship with the international organizations of human rights (UN, OAS) (1990-1994). Mr. Garreton was a founding member of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (1991-2000). His past experiences include being Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human rights in the UN on human rights in Zaire, after Democratic Republic of Congo (1994-2001) and Representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights UN for Latin America and the Caribbean (2001-2005) and member of the International Commission of Jurists (Geneva), 2008. He has also been a member of the Consultative Council appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the Prevention of Genocide (since 2006). Mr. Garreton rejoined the WGAD in 2008.

Mr. Mads Andenas is a Professor of Law at the University of Oslo and has senior academic appointments in the United Kingdom that include being Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and Director of the Centre of European Law at King’s College in London. He is a Fellow of the Institute of European and Comparative Law, University of Oxford and at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, School of Advanced Studies,University of London. He was also a visiting Professor in various universities including University of Paris I (Sorbonne) and the University of Rome La Sapienza. He became a member of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on 1 August 2009.

Database of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention