Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) is an independent, non-partisan, international non-governmental organisation mandated in 1987 to ensure the practical realisation of human rights across the Commonwealth. CHRI promotes awareness and adherence to the Harare Principles, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other internationally recognised human rights instruments and declarations made by Commonwealth Heads of Government as well as domestic laws supporting human rights in the Commonwealth.
www.humanrightsinitiative.org
Commonwealth Legal Education Association
The Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA) was founded in 1971 and fosters and promotes high standards of legal education in the Commonwealth.
Much of its work focuses on human rights and good governance issues. It is a Commonwealth-wide body with a number of national and regional chapters including one in the Caribbean. CLEA can call on international experts on constitutions, good governance, human rights and human rights education in the Commonwealth, particularly as regards developing countries. It has particular expertise in the development of street law programmes (which tells people about laws that affect them in their everyday life "on the street") and the development of legal aid and advice programmes for use in small jurisdictions.
www.clea-web.com
Consultants
Peter Ashman, Caribbean Coordinator
Peter Ashman worked as the legal adviser for a British human rights NGO called JUSTICE for 15 years until 1992. He then provided management support for the European Commission’s grant programmes for human rights and democracy for 12 years in Brussels until 2004. For the next 5 years until March 2009, he was human rights and democracy adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. Since March 2010, among other things, he has been Caribbean co-ordinator for the project, and provided management support to the Commonwealth Foundation. His key skills are defining policy, creating methodologies for realising policy objectives, project management, designing guidelines for staff and delivering training.
Rosanna Mesquita, South Atlantic and Pacific Coordinator
Rosanna Mesquita trained as a solicitor and has completed a master’s degree in international human rights law. She has worked in the field of human rights since 1995; she was a human rights field officer and then legal officer for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Rwanda and has been a legal adviser for the UK based NGO, REDRESS. She has also worked for a short time within UK Government as one of their lawyers conducting public law litigation cases before the High Court and Court of Appeal.
In November 2007, she became a consultant to the project as the South Atlantic and Pacific Coordinator and has researched and written most of the project’s publications and documentation. Her key skills are analytical ability, practical planning and implementation, supporting institutional development and guiding the development of civil society.