COUNCIL MEMBERS

is President of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a non-profit legal organization dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Michael Ratner was co-counsel in representing Guantanamo Bay detainees in the United States Supreme Court in 2004. His leadership in the arena of human rights continues to strengthen the role of the international rule of law to promote justice and oppose armed aggression. Over the last four decades CCR has lent its expertise and support to virtually every popular movement for social and racial justice. The CCR combats the illegal expansion of executive power and the American torture programs and represents victims of torture, rendition and domestic spying. He is the author of many books and articles, including The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld A Prosecution by Book, Against War with Iraq and Guantanamo: What the World Should Know and the textbook, International Human Rights Litigation in U. S. Courts. He has taught law at Yale Law School and Columbia University Law School. Ratner is also the co-host of the popular radio program "Law and Disorder." The recipient of many honors, he was also included in The National Law Journal’s list of “100 of the Most Influential Lawyers in America.”

is Human Rights Watch’s EU Director and Director of the organization’s Brussels Office, responsible for strategic advocacy vis-à-vis European governments, the European Union and other international and regional inter-governmental organizations since 1994. She has conducted numerous investigations into, and written reports about, human rights and humanitarian law violations in conflict zones around the world. Lotte Leicht has published articles in various newspapers and magazines. She is co-editor of the book "Monitoring Human Rights in Europe: Comparing International Standards and Mechanisms", Martinus Nijhoff, 1993. Contributor to the book "Handbuch der Menschenrechtsarbeit", Dietz, 1996, and “Droit de l’Homme & Democratie: relativité ou universalité” F.C.D. 1998.

Besides she teaches international humanitarian law and is member of several advisory boards such as the Advisory Board of the European Inter – University Centre for Human Rights and Democratisation, the Advisory Board of the North-South Committee of the Heinrich Boell Foundation in Berlin, the Advisory Council of the Kofi Annan Fellowship in Global Governance or the Board of Crisis Action in London.

Christian Bommarius studied law and is one of the most well known German journalists in the area of national security and human rights and civil liberties. For many years, he served as the correspondent for the German News Agency at the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. Now he is one of the senior editors of the Berliner Zeitung. He teaches journalism and is a frequent speaker at conferences. Bommarius has written several books, amongst others "Das Grundgesetz. Eine Biographie (2009)".

Dieter Hummel is a leading labour lawyer in Germany. He is part of a national network of prominent labour lawyers who are advising trade unions and defending social and labour rights on a legal and advocacy level. Hummel has written several books and articles on labour rights, trade unions, and social rights. As the long-time president of the German Democratic Jurists, he also works in the area of national security and human rights and civil liberties.