Archives

He is Professor of Administrative Law at the Law School of the University of Athens, Attorney at Law at the High Court and the Council of State of Greece, former President of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal and former Caretaker Alternate Minister for Foreign Affairs (2015) and Former Caretaker Minister of Interior, Greece (in 2007and 2009). He is also an Honorary Fellow at Wolfson College of the University of Cambridge and Doctor Honoris Causa at the NSPSPA in Bucharest, Romania, the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon in Portugal, at the Titu Majorescu Univeristy in Bucharest, Romania, the State University of Mariupol in Ukraine, and the USPEE in Chisinau, Moldavia. He is Vice-President at the Appeals Board of the European Space Agency, Member of the Appeals Board of  EUMETSAT, Member of the Appeals Board of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. He is Judge at the Administrative Tribunal of EBRD and holds the Chair of the Joint of the Appeals Board at IFAD in the UN. He is former Vice-President of the Organization of Intellectual Property, former Judge at the Supreme Court of Greece, former Arthur Goodhart Professor at the Faculty of Law, Cambridge University, former Yorke Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Law in Cambridge University.

He was born in Lefkas (Greece) and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Athens with a degree in Law. He holds a PhD in Law from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas and a PhD in History from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and a degree (Diplôme) of the École Pratique des Hautes Etudes-IVème Section, Histoire et Philologie.

He speaks fluently English, French, German, Italian and Greek and is the author of many publications in the area of public law.

He was awarded with the distinction of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur of the French Republic, the distinction of Cavaliere dell’Ordine di Merito of the Italian Republic, the La Croix d’Officier de l’Ordre du Merite de Hongrie and  was honored as Grande-Oficial da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique from the Portuguese Republic

Ms. Alia El-Yassir (Canada) has been working with UN Women since 1997. Prior to assuming her role as Regional Director a.i for the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, she was the Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia Regional Office and UN Women Special Representative in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), managing a complex portfolio of programmes and projects, as well as supporting the UNCT and HCT on establishing coordination mechanisms for tackling gender equality and women’s empowerment issues. She is part of the UNDG roster of gender experts and has supported other UNCTs in this capacity.

Before joining UN Women, she briefly worked with UNDP and was engaged in the education field. In addition to volunteering with a number of women’s and human rights NGOs, she has worked on educational media for children.

Alia El-Yassir graduated from McGill University in Montreal and pursued post-graduate studies in Education and Anthropology, with a specialization on Gender Studies at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

Ambassador Michael B. Christides has been  the Secretary General of the Permanent International Secretariat (PERMIS) of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey.

Born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1949, Ambassador Christides joined the Hellenic MFA in 1976 as first in his Class and served with distinction until his retirement in August 2014. Among other assignments he served as Ambassador of Greece to Bulgaria, to Turkey and to Argentina and held senior posts in the Hellenic MFA as Political Director for South East Europe, as Director General for International Organizations, International Security & Cooperation and as Director General for International Economic Relations.

Ambassador Christides has spent more than 20 years dealing with S.E. European and Balkan issues. He acquired a broad knowledge of the political and economic realities there and established a wide network of high-level political, business, academic and media contacts. He speaks fluent English, German, French, Italian and moderately good Spanish.

Mr. Mitrakos is Director General of the International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS). He holds an MSc in Politics and Communication from the London School of Economics (L.S.E.) and a BSc in Political Science and Public Administration from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Mr. Mitrakos has worked as Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic. He was also Special Advisor at the Ministry of Regional Development, Competitiveness and Shipping and the Ministry of State and Strategic Investments. Furthermore, he was a junior researcher at the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).