Global leaders of inclusion, human rights and equality to serve on jury of the 2019 Global Pluralism Award
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Global leaders of inclusion, human rights and equality to serve on jury of the 2019 Global Pluralism Award
Ottawa, Canada – April 12, 2018 – A jury of international leaders, chaired by the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark, former Canadian Prime Minister, has been named to select the winners of the second Global Pluralism Award. The Award recognizes individuals and organisations who exemplify ‘pluralism in action’. In ground-breaking and creative ways, Award recipients are building societies where diversity is respected and valued. The Award is a program of the Global Centre for Pluralism, a non-profit organization founded by His Highness the Aga Khan in partnership with the Government of Canada dedicated to advancing positive responses to the challenge of living peacefully and productively together in diverse societies.
The independent jury is made up of distinguished experts from the Americas, Europe and the Middle East. Through their work in government, human rights, education, academia and the private sector, jury members have an intimate understanding of the extraordinary effort it takes to build societies where differences are valued and respected.
“I am honoured to chair a jury which so strongly believes in supporting the individuals and organizations promoting the benefits of diversity. Given the divisive times we are living in today, positive examples of pluralism offer hope and inspiration,” said the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark, Chair of the Award jury.
The jury will meet twice in 2019 to select three Global Pluralism Award winners and up to seven honourable mentions. Awards will be presented at a ceremony in Ottawa, Canada in November 2019 at the Global Centre for Pluralism. Winners each receive a prize of $50,000 CAD.
Jury members:
- The Rt. Hon. Joe Clark, former Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister of Canada, Canada (Chair)
- Paula Gaviria Betancur, Presidential Advisor on Human Rights, Colombia
- Siva Kumari, Director General of the International Baccalaureate, USA
- Tarek Mitri, Director of the Fares Institute on Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon
- Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary, Canada
- Pascale Thumerelle, Founder of Respethica and former Head of Sustainability at Vivendi, France
The Award is accepting nominations until April 30th, 2018 at award.pluralism.ca.
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For more information:
Calina Ellwand,
Global Centre for Pluralism
+1-613-688-0137
[email protected]
Global Pluralism Award Jury
The Rt. Hon. Joe Clark (Canada – Jury Chair) was elected eight times to the House of Commons of Canada, serving as Canada’s youngest Prime Minister (1979-1980) and one of the most distinguished Secretaries of State for External Affairs (Foreign Ministers) in Canadian history (1984-1991), then becoming Minister of Constitutional Affairs. Mr. Clark played a key role in some of the defining accomplishments for pluralism in recent history – the Commonwealth campaign against apartheid, the Ottawa conference which agreed on the “two plus four” formula to unite Germany at the end of the Cold War and the negotiation of the Charlottetown Accord in Canada (a complex Canadian constitutional accord among the federal government, the provinces and territories, and indigenous peoples). Today, as he sits on numerous Boards and Foundations, he applies that experience to promoting democracy and encouraging innovation and practical reforms in the developing world.
Ms. Paula Gaviria Betancur (Colombia) is the Presidential Advisor on Human Rights in Colombia, where she leads the implementation of the Colombian Strategy for the Guarantee of Human Rights 2014-2034. A lawyer by training, she launched and directed, for more than four years, the Victims Unit, a government entity responsible for reparations for eight million victims of the armed conflict. For this work, the World Bank awarded her the José Edgardo Campos 2016 Collaborative Leadership Award. Ms. Betancur contributed to the chapter on victims’ rights in the final Peace Agreement signed between the Government of Colombia and the FARC-EP, which granted a leading role to victims in the implementation of the agreement. Previously, she led initiatives with civil society organizations, such as Fundación Social. She served as head of the Communications Division of the Constitutional Court, as well as private secretary of the Ombudsman. She also directed the National Directorate for the Promotion of Human Rights of the Ombudsman’s Office.
Dr. Siva Kumari (USA) started as the seventh Director General of the International Baccalaureate (IB) in January 2014 and is the first woman to hold the post. Kumari joined the IB in April 2009 as Asia Pacific Regional Director. In May 2010, she was named the first Chief Operating Officer responsible globally for research, university recognition, school improvement and professional development. In this role she also managed the relationship with schools, governments and foundations across the three IB regions: the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Prior to joining the IB, Dr. Kumari served a 15-year tenure as the first Associate Provost for K-12 initiatives at Rice University, USA. Reporting directly to the President and the Provost, she oversaw over 80 outreach efforts for the university. She received competitive external National Science Foundation funding, local and national corporate foundation funding, and national and regional awards for her research work in teaching and learning.
Dr. Tarek Mitri (Lebanon) is the Director of the Fares Institute on Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut where he oversees the Institute’s efforts to develop policy research in the Arab region. Before that, he was the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Libya from 2012 to 2014. From 2005 to 2011, he served in four successive Lebanese governments as Minister of the Environment, Administrative Reform, Culture, Information and acting Minister of Foreign Affairs. Previously, he held various positions in the areas of Christian-Muslim relations, intercultural and interreligious dialogue. He has taught at the Université Saint Joseph, Balamand University, the University of Geneva, Amsterdam Free University, Harvard University and the American University of Beirut. He chairs the Boards of Nicolas Sursock Museum and the Institute of Palestine Studies. He is a member of the Strategic Council of Saint Joseph University and of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. He has authored a number of books and articles on contemporary Arab issues, religion and politics, interreligious and intercultural dialogue.
His Worship Naheed Nenshi (Canada) is currently serving his third term as Calgary’s 36th mayor. Prior to becoming mayor, he was Canada’s first tenured professor in the field of non-profit management at Mount Royal University’s Bissett School of Business and a trusted business advisor to corporate leaders in Canada and the USA. As mayor, Nenshi’s leadership has resulted in many positive changes for Calgary. He has transformed the municipal government to reinforce a culture of citizen-focused improvement and contributed to building more inclusive communities with initiatives such as “Enough for All,” a program to reduce by half the number of Calgarians living in poverty by 2023, “Trans Day of Visibility,” a day to build awareness of the challenges faced by transgender communities in Calgary and a refugee program that welcomes an average of 1,100 refugees per year to the city.
Ms. Pascale Thumerelle (France) is the founder of Respethica, a consulting company which offers guidance to companies and investors committed to social impact combined with long-term value creation. Pascale served as Head of Sustainability at Vivendi, a worldwide content, media and communications group (from 2001 to 2017). In this role, she actively contributed to define the scope of cultural industries and media’s responsibility to society. She notably led an integrated reporting process based on financial and extra-financial information to highlight how investments in culturally-diversified content created value for Vivendi and its stakeholders (artists, employees, local communities, shareholders, institutions, clients). In 2015, Ms. Thumerelle was selected to be part of the Global Diversity List (Top 50 diversity professionals in industry) launched by The Economist. This list recognizes leaders from the public and private sectors who have distinguished themselves worldwide through their commitment to diversity. In 2018, she became a member of the Corporate Social Responsibility Platform set up by the French Prime Minister.