EU Watch

​Ariadne Director Julie Broome And Former Polish Ombudsman Adam Bodnar Join Liberties As Board Members

Press release

by LibertiesEU
Board members press-04

Berlin, February 23 2022 - The General Assembly of the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) has approved the appointment of Ariadne Director Julie Broome and former Polish Ombudsman Adam Bodnar as new board members with effect from March 2022.

”We are excited to welcome our new board members, who will help us accomplish our mission to have human rights and freedom fully implemented in Europe. Specifically, in her new position Julie Broome will help us grow more sustainably, while Adam Bodnar will support our advocacy efforts in our democracy and justice campaigns”, said Liberties Board Chair Andrea Menapace.

The Civil Liberties Union for Europe is a Berlin-based civil rights organisation campaigning with member organisations in Brussels and across 18 EU countries. Liberties leads the most extensive, independent report on the rule of law in the EU, recently publishing the 2022 Report. They are also lead campaigners on digital rights issues, including the Digital Services Act, the upcoming Media Freedom Act, the AI Regulation, the EU regulation addressing terrorist content online, targeted advertising or copyright.

Julie Broome has been Director of Ariadne since 2016. She has over 20 years of experience in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors, with a particular focus on human rights and transitional justice. She served as Director of Programmes at the Sigrid Rausing Trust, where she oversaw grantmaking to human rights organisations in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas, and previously managed technical rule of law assistance programmes in Central and Eastern Europe and Eurasia with the CEELI Institute in Prague and the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative. She holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, an LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex, an MA in International Studies from the University of Washington, and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. She has an interest in bridging research and practice and is currently the chair of the advisory board of the Human Rights Data Analysis Group.

Adam Piotr Bodnar is a graduate of Warsaw University (magister iuris) and the Central European University in Budepest (LL.M. in Comparative Constitutional Law). In 2006 he was awarded a PhD by the University of Warsaw in the field of constitutional law, and in 2019 he obtained his habilitation title for the book on enforcement of the ECtHR judgments. In 2004-15 he was associated with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, first as a co-founder and coordinator of the Strategic Litigation Program, and then as head of the legal department and vice-president of the board. He served as an expert of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. In 2013-2014 Adam was appointed as a member of the board of directors of the UN Fund for the Victims of Torture. Adam was the Polish Ombudsman for Citizen Rights from 2015 until July 2021. He is now professor of law and the Dean of the Law Faculty at the SWPS University in Warsaw, as well as visiting professor at the University of Cologne. He comments on human rights’ situation in his regular columns in “Gazeta Wyborcza” and NaTemat.pl.

Current members of the board at Liberties include Program Director of the Croatian Center of Peace Studies (CMS) Sara Lalic, Director of Programs at the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) Mate Szabo, Executive Director of the Romanian Helsinki Committee (APADOR) Georgiana Gheorghe, President of the Board of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) Krassimir Kanev, and Executive Director of the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (CILD) Andrea Menapace.

ENDS.

See bios of all board members

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