The ILF Advisory Council

Allan Rock is a lawyer, former Canadian politician, diplomat and now President of University of Ottawa. He was Canada's ambassador to the United Nations (2004-2006) and had previously served in the Cabinet of Jean Chrétien, most notably as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.  Mr. Rock was appointed the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottawa by the Board of Governors of the university.  He will begin his tenure July 15, 2008.

Eric Fischl is a contemporary artist who has exhibited his work at the Whitney Museum, MOMA, Smithsonian, Rockefeller Center, Museum Haus Esters in Germany and countless galleries around the world.  He has been a supporter and friend of the ILF for many years.

Vivien Stern is Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Prison Studies (ICPS) at King’s College, London. She is also Honorary President of Penal Reform International (PRI), a non-governmental organization which she co-founded in 1989.  From 1977 to 1996 she was Director of the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO). In 2003 she became the Convenor of the Scottish Consortium on Crime and Criminal Justice.  In 1999 she was appointed to the upper house of the UK Parliament, the House of Lords.  She has been a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights since 2004.

Juan E. Méndez is an Argentine lawyer and academic who served as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.  He is the President of the International Center for Transitional Justice in New York City.  A Professor of Law for five years at Notre Dame Law school, he has also taught international human rights law at Georgetown Law School, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and also teaches regularly at the Oxford Master’s Programme in International Human Rights Law.

Colin Gonsalves is the Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Network and a pioneer in public interest law in India. He has also developed the Indian People's Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights (IPT), an independent organization directed by retired Supreme Court and High Court Judges that investigates human rights violations and environmental degradation.  He is founder of the India Center for Human Rights and Law, an independent, information center for public interest law.  He has brought numerous, precedent-setting cases to the Supreme Court of India.