BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Fateh Azzam, Board Chair 
Fateh Azzam is currently Regional Representative for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Middle East, based in Beirut. Previously, he was Director of the Forced Migration and Refugee Studies Programme at the American University in Cairo, worked as Programme Officer for Human Rights at the Lagos and Cairo offices of the Ford Foundation and was Director of the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq in Ramallah. He is also active on the boards of several international organizations including the International Council on Human Rights Policy. Fateh received an LLM in International Human Rights Law from Essex University in 1992, and has published widely in Arabic and English in the fields of human rights and theater. He was the Director of the Nuzha - El-Hakawati Theatre in East Jerusalem and spent many years teaching, directing and acting with theatre groups in the U.S. and the Middle East. He is a Founding Member of the Arab Human Rights Fund.
May Abboud, Board Secretary
A retired Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, May has taught at several universities in the United States and Lebanon. She earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts, and a Masters degree in Computer Science from The George Washington University. May is a co-founder of Association Najdeh, which she directed for three years, including during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. May is now a full-time ceramic artist whose work has been shown in several group exhibits in Lebanon. In 2009 she won the “Salon D’Automne” award of Sursock Museum, and has been a resident artist in Kecskemet, Hungary and Vallauris, France. She is a Founding Member of the Arab Human Rights Fund.
Atallah Kuttab, Board Treasurer
Dr. Atallah Kuttab is currently the Chairman and Founder of SAANED for Philanthropy Advisory, the first of its kind in the Arab Region. Atallah holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London. He spent three years working in engineering consulting in the private sector and 10 years in education, which included planning, teaching and research at Birzeit University in Palestine and at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. Atallah was a GTZ technical consultant for informal sector employment in Zambia for three years, and served with Save the Children for 11 years, most recently as Middle East Regional Manager, covering operations in Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan. His management specialty areas are in staff management, fundraising and in forging private sector/ non-government sector relationships to further development efforts. In the period 2005-2011, he was Director General of the Welfare Association, the lead foundation supporting Palestinians primarily in Palestine and Lebanon. He is a Founding Member of Arab Human Rights Fund and Founding Member of the Arab Foundations Forum. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of Alliance Magazine, Global Philanthropy Leadership Initiative, and WINGS Founding Board.
Adam Abdelmoula 
Adam Abdelmoula is the United Nations Resident Coordinator and UN Development Program Resident Representative in Syria, and previously held the same position in Kuwait. Adam was also the Chief of the Middle East and North Africa Section of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. From 2004-2007 he was the Deputy Chief Human Rights Officer for UNMIL, Liberia. Prior to this, Adam was the Senior Human Rights Adviser and Team Leader for UNOHCHR/UNOHCI/UNAMI, Iraq (2003-2004). In addition, from 1999-2003 he served in Somalia for UNOHCHR as a Senior Human Rights and Rule of Law Adviser. Before his career began in the UN system, Adam worked for the Fund for Peace, the Institute of International Education, Human Rights Watch, and Lawyers Committee for Human Rights based in the USA. From 1989 to early 1991, he worked for the Arab Lawyers Union in Egypt. He practiced law in the Sudan from 1982 to 1989. Adam holds a PhD in Public International Law from Georgetown University Law Center (USA); a Masters in International Law and Human Rights from Harvard Law School (USA); and a Bachelor of Law (LLB) from University of Khartoum (Sudan).
Fatima Almana 
Fatima Almana spent thirty years working for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), where she oversaw the production of numerous studies and workshops concerning economic analysis, the integration of gender into development policies, and the advancement of women. Fatima is a Saudi Arabian national.
Ghanim Alnajjar 
Dr. Ghanim Alnajjar is Professor of Political Science at Kuwait University and editor of the Gulf Studies Series Journal, UAE. From 1999 to 2002 he was Director of the Centre for Strategic and Future Studies at Kuwait University and has been visiting scholar at several universities such as Harvard University. Ghanim has lectured on an occasional basis in more than 43 universities, academic institutions, and think tanks across the world. He introduced, through the Kuwaiti Parliament, the concept of producing the first annual report on the human rights situation in Kuwait, and was appointed as the chairman of the committee that produced the first report. He has been active in the field of human rights protection for which he earned the International Monitor Award by Human Rights Watch in New York in 1991. Between 2001 and 2007 he was the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights in Somalia, appointed by the UN Secretary General.
Naima Benwakrim 
Naima Benwakrim is currently the Special Advisor to the President of the National Human Rights Council in Morocco. She has previously worked as a technical advisor on gender within the Office of the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, and is a member of the Central Authority for the Prevention of Corruption. She is a former activist in a number of women’s and human rights organizations and networks for the advancement of the status of women. The former director of l'Espace Associatif - Maroc, she has worked for state human rights institutions (the Office of the Minister for Human Rights, and the Equity and Reconciliation Commission, then the Advisory Council for Human Rights). She has also worked in the Office of the Minister in Charge of the Condition of Women, and Protection of the Family and Children.
Amal Ghandour
Amal Ghandour's career spans two decades in research and communications strategy. She is Communication Advisor to Mr. Fadi Ghandour, President of Aramex International, and strategy advisor to Ruwwad, a regional community development initiative. An author (About This Man Called Ali) and a blogger as well, she holds a BSFS from Georgetown University and an MS in International Policy from Stanford University. Amal is a member of the Board of Trustees of International College (IC) and sits on the Advisory Board of the Gerhardt Center, American University of Cairo (AUC).
Hanny Megally 
Hanny Megally is currently the Chief of the Asia, Pacific, Middle East and North Africa Branch in the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Previously, he was Vice-President for Programs at the International Center for Transitional Justice. He has more than 33 years of experience in the field of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, beginning his professional career at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in 1977. From 1984 to 1994, he headed the Middle East Research department at Amnesty International, based in London. Subsequently, he ran the Ford Foundation's social justice program in the Middle East from the Foundation's Cairo office, and from 1997 to 2003 he was the Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. He joined ICTJ in 2004 to set up and direct the Middle East and North Africa program. In the following years he visited and helped establish ICTJ's programs in Iraq, Israel/OPT, Lebanon and Morocco and led delegations on visits to Algeria and Bahrain. Hanny has traveled widely in the region, including leading human rights research missions and conducting high-level meetings with heads of state and government officials.
Yousry Moustafa 
Yousry Moustafa is the Project Coordinator of the German International Cooperation (GIZ) Project: Promotion of Women’s Rights in Egypt. From 1997 to 2003, he served as the Executive Director of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. He also served as a human rights consultant and coordinator for the Arab Human Rights Fund and the Women and Memory Forum, a Cairo-based NGO. His work experience in the Middle East includes several years of work with local, regional and international Human Rights NGOs and research institutions. He has published several writings and research papers on human rights, citizenship and democracy, and identity politics in the Arab region. Yousry holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Pollution from Zagazig University, Egypt.
