Our Team

About Liberties

Liberties brings you information, news and analysis on civil liberties in the European Union. We source original articles on EU and national issues direct from our member NGOs and our expert staff in Brussels and Berlin. Our website hosts different kinds of materials.

First, educational materials, like blogs, info-graphics and videos designed to allow members of the public to learn more about their rights and freedoms and what the EU and national authorities are doing to protect or harm their civil liberties.

Second, we host campaigns on the website to give the public the chance to act together on rights issues that we think need urgent attention.

Third, we provide news and analysis to update you on the latest developments in Brussels and in the countries where we have members.

Fourth, we provide legal analysis, policy papers and studies aimed at experts and decision-makers working on civil liberties in EU affairs. To help as many people as possible get access to our information, we translate our work into several European languages.

Members of Our Board

Nancy MacPherson (Independent Board Member)

Nancy is the former Managing Director for Evaluation at the Rockefeller Foundation where she was responsible for setting up and managing the Foundation’s evaluation system from 2008-2018. Prior to her work in philanthropy, she worked in Canada, Asia, Africa and Switzerland for 25 years in international development with indigenous peoples, not-for-profit organizations, and government and UN agencies. She set up and managed IUCN’s Program Evaluation System and served as Special Advisor to the IUCN Director General on Performance Assessment and Oversight. She played a key role in the establishment and nurturing of a number of global and regional development evaluation professional associations, and networks, notably, the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) and the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA). Nancy was a member of the teaching faculty at the World Bank’s summer International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) from 2001-2011 and she is the recipient of the 2015 American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) Enhancing the Public Good Award, presented to an individual whose evaluation work has substantially contributed to the public good.

Natalija Bitiukova (Board Member)

Natalija is a Deputy Director at the Lithuanian watchdog organization Human Rights Monitoring Institute. Before coming back to Lithuania in 2013, Natalija worked for the international human rights organizations Global Network for Public Interest Law (PILnet) and Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI). Natalija holds LL.M. in Human Rights Law from the Central European University and is Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe. She has contributed to a number of legislative initiatives in Lithuania, and authored a series of publications in the human rights field. In 2014, she launched a successful Digital Rights initiative to raise awareness on the new technological developments and their effects on the right to privacy in Lithuania.

Nina Kesar (Treasurer)

Nina is a board member of the NJCM (Netherlands Committee of Jurists for Human Rights) and chair of the NJCM working group European Law.The NJCM is the Dutch section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). She is the deputy director of Speakers Academy®, Europe’s leading knowledge institute for professional speakers. Nina has a law degree in business and corporate law from the Erasmus School of Law and a law degree in constitutional and administrative Law from Leiden Law School. Her current interests include freedom of speech, criminalisation of speech and privacy.

Małgorzata Szuleka (Board Member)

Małgorzata is a Lawyer and researcher at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Poland. She holds a Master’s degree in Law from Warsaw University. Since December 2009, she has been working at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR) where she is responsible for research projects (in cooperation with, among others, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights). She has carried out numerous research projects dedicated to the issues of access to justice, independency of justice, child rights protection, support system for victims of crimes and rights of persons with disabilities. She is also responsible for the communication strategy and advocacy regarding the situation in Poland.

Lydia Vicente (President of the Board)

Lydia Vicente is a Human Rights Lawyer. She is the Executive Director and co-founder of Rights International Spain. She has working experience with International Organisations as part of international peace-keeping missions in Kosovo and Timor-Leste in areas including justice sector reform, international criminal and humanitarian law. She also has experience in conflict-affected areas in the Middle East and North Africa region. Holder of legal qualifications (member of the Madrid Bar Association). She has extensive grass-roots experience, working with development NGO's and national and international human rights organisations both in Spain and in the field (India, Brazil, Bolivia, Kenya) on a wide range of sectors and human rights topics.

Andrea Menapace (Vice-President of the Board)

Andrea is the executive director of CILD (Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights). He previously worked for the Transparency & Accountability Initiative in London and was a researcher for Italy at the Open Government Partnership. Always active in the field of human rights, he began his career as a humanitarian worker before becoming a consultant and researcher for governments as well as non-governmental and international organizations. Co-founder of Diritto Di Sapere (Right To Know), the first Italian organization working on the right of access to information, he graduated in law at the University of Trento.

Core Team

Orsolya Reich - Advocacy Officer (o.reich@liberties.eu)

Israel Butler - Head of Advocacy (i.butler@liberties.eu)

Jascha Galaski - Advocacy Officer (j.galaski@liberties.eu)

Balázs Dénes - Executive Director (b.denes@liberties.eu)

György Folk - Editor-in-Chief (gy.folk@liberties.eu)

Vanja Prokic - Head of Communications (v.prokic@liberties.eu)

Jonathan Day - Head of Video Advocacy (jday@liberties.eu)

Eva Simon - Advocacy Officer (eva.simon@liberties.eu)

Member Organizations

Belgium

Member Organisation: Ligue des droits de l'homme (Belgique francophone)

Contact person: Camille Van Durme (cvandurme at liguedh dot be)

Bulgaria

Member Organisation: Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC)

Contact person: Raya Raeva raya dot raeva at bghelsinki dot org)

Croatia

Member Organisation: Centre for Peace Studies

Contact person: Lovorka Šošić ( lovorka dot sosic at cms dot hr)

Czech Republic

Member Organisation: Czech League of Human Rights

Contact person: Denisa Kramářová (denisa dot kramarova at llp dot cz), Dan Petrucha (dan dot petrucha at llp dot cz)

Estonia

Member Organisation: Estonian Human Rights Centre

Contact person: Liina Rajaveer (liina dot rajaveer at humanrights dot ee)

Germany

Associated Member Organisation: Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF)

Contact person: Luisa Podsadny (luisa at freiheitsrechte dot org)

Hungary

Member Organisation: Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU)

Contact person: András Szeles (szeles at tasz dot hu)

Italy

Member Organisation: Coalizione Italiana Libertà e Diritti Civili (CILD)

Contact person: Andrea Oleandri (andrea at cild dot eu)

Associated Member Organisation: Associazione Antigone

Contact person: Susanna Marietti (susanna dot marietti at associazioneantigone dot it)

Lithuania

Member Organisation: Human Rights Monitoring Institute (HRMI)

Contact person: Meta Adutaviciute (meta dot adutaviciute at hrmi dot lt) and Mažvydas Karalius (mazvydas dot karalius at hrmi dot lt)

Poland

Member Organisation: Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (HFHR)

Contact person: Małgorzata Szuleka (m dot szuleka at hfhr dot org dot pl), Natalia Wegrzyn (natalia dot wegrzyn at hfhr dot pl)

Romania

Member Organisation: Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Romania-the Helsinki Committee (APADOR-CH)

Contact person: Dollores Benezic (dbenezic at apador dot org)

Spain

Member Organisation: Rights International Spain (RIS)

Contact person: Lydia Vicente Márquez (lvicente at rightsinternationalspain dot org),

Sweden

Associated Member Organisation: Civil Rights Defenders

Contact person: Maria Granefelt (maria granefelt at civilrightsdefenders dot org)

Netherlands

Member Organisation: Netherlands Committee of Jurists for Human Rights (NJCM)

Contact person: Floor van Holsteijn (wgeur at hotmail dot com)

United Kingdom

Associated Member Organisation: Liberty – National Council for Civil Liberties

Contact: (pressoffice at libertyhumanrights dot org dot uk)

Translators

Bulgarian - Cveta Stoeva

Croatian - Martina Hrupic

Czech - Radovan Krámár and Denisa Slašťanová

Dutch - Silke Zwijsen

French - Grégoire Fournier

German - Florian Hülsey

Hungarian - Róza Vajda

Italian - Katarina Tepic

Lithuanian - Petras Borisovas

Polish - Hania Robaszkiewicz

Romanian - Oana Girlescu

Spanish - Ethel Odriozola Monzón

Swedish - Alice E. Olsson