The World Forum on Democracy & Peace

“The Growing Threats for Democracy & Global Peace”

(Launch Event, Berlin; July 27th - 31st, 2022)

Ali Ahmad Jalali

Vice President of the ICD for Central & South Asia; Former Interior Minister of Afghanistan; Distinguished Professor, Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University, USA

Dr. Ali Ahmad Jalali was born in 1940, in Kabul, Afghanistan. He has been a US citizen since 1987, and currently resides in Maryland with his wife and two children.
In January 2003, Jalali returned to Afghanistan and was appointed Minister of Interior under the Transitional Government. Ali Ahmad Jalali was re-appointed Minister of Interior in December 2004, where he served until September 2005.
Jalali, a former colonel in the Afghan National Army, served as a top advisor at the Afghan Resistance Headquarters in Peshawar during the Soviet invasion. He then worked as a writer and broadcaster for Voice of America, an international multimedia broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government. He held this position for nearly 20 years before being appointed to the posts of Director of the Afghanistan National Radio Network Initiative and Chief of the Pashto, Dari and Farsi services within the VOA.
Ali Ahmad Jalali earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the Afghan Military University in 1961. He also earned a diploma from the US Army Infantry Advance Course at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1964, a master’s in military science from the Staff College in Kabul in 1966, and graduated from the British Staff College in 1967. He has served as a professor at both the Military University and Staff College in Kabul, as well as at the Institute of Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, he is a Distinguished Professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies of the National Defense University, which is located in Washington, D.C.
Jalali is the author of several books, strategic analyses, and articles, including a three-volume military history of Afghanistan and an analytical review of the Mujahideen war against the occupying Soviet forces.

Atefa Qeyam

Former Deputy Minister of Education  & Special Advisor to the Minister on Gender Mainstreaming and Policy

Atefa Qeyam was born and raised in Afghanistan; she obtained her Bachelor of CIVIL Engineering faculty back in 2016. she also holds MBA in RIMT university INDIA, she has successfully completed Emerging Leader Program the program launched by US for 3 years.
She has been advisor to minister of education (Afghanistan) on gender mainstreaming and policy. She was able to significantly improve the policies and female participation in education programs. She was able to advocate and secure funds for education programs specially girls’ education when she was working in the role of adviser to minister of education.
She has a great working carrier so far, which she started with Project management and Human Rights, professional, with 8 years of experience in UN Agencies and other international organizations. These are a few many attributes that she has developed through her work in different fields.
also, she was part of Promotes Women’s Leadership, Human rights, women’s participation in peace process in the remote area. She delivered services to women regarding their role and responsibilities in government through the learning centres in the community. She served as a counsellor for women and children who are underwent civic abuse and child abuse. She is known a frequent face in the civic activities to her people dealing with cases about Human rights.

Didem Aydurmus

Ph.D. in Political Science; Member of the Executive Committee of the Left political Party (die Linke); Faculty Member, ICD Academy for Cultural Diplomacy

Dr. Didem holds a Ph.D. in Political Science (Istanbul Bilgi University) and Master in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Islam studies and Politics of South Asia (Ruprecht-Carls-University Heidelberg). She has lived and worked in the China, Turkey and the United States. She has expertise in the fields of degrowth, ecological politics, ethics, identity politics, racism, political systems and theory.
Besides academia, she is actively involved in civil society and politics in the areas of anti-racism, animal rights and the environment. In the past, she has worked in the European Parliament in Brussels and for the European Citizens Initiative “End the Cage Age”.
Dr. Didem Aydurmus is also active politically, currently she is serving as elected Member of the executive committee of the Left political Party of Germany (die Linke)

Dragoljub Popovic

Judge, European Court of Human Rights

Judge Dragoljub Popovic completed law studies and Master of Law at the University of Belgrade from 1970 to 1974 and from 1974 to 1976, respectively. He then practiced law in two commercial enterprises from 1976 to 1980. In 1984, Judge Popovic received a Doctor of Law from the University of Belgrade and completed a Third cycle degree in Comparative Law at the International Faculty of Comparative Law, Brussels the following year.
Judge Popovic became a Lecturer (Professor) of Legal and Constitutional History and Comparative Law at Belgrade University. He then practiced as an attorney in a Belgrade-based law firm from 1998 to 2000, before returning to academia in 2001 as a Visitor Professor at the Institute of Federalism of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Notably, Judge Popovic was appointed Ambassador of Serbia and Montenegro to Switzerland from 2001 to 2004. From 2004 to 2005, Judge Popovic was a Professor of Constitutional Law and Comparative Law at the Business Law School of Belgrade.
Finally, Judge Popovic has served as Judge of the European Court of Human Rights since 26 January 2005.

Francis Adams

UN-SDGs Policy Expert

Dr. Adams’ Academic Title is PhD in Cultural Diplomacy and Public Policy from UWS-UK, in cooperation with the ICD Academy for Cultural Diplomacy.
His experience in conducting ground-breaking academic research and in promoting inclusive development policy alongside international development cooperation covered ten (10) countries (Ghana, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, USA, Scotland and Germany).
He held various challenging research and top-level management positions for international organizations which include: the German International Development Cooperation (GIZ GmbH) and the UK-DFID, the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy-Berlin, the University of the West of Scotland and the British Council.

Naimatullah Momand

Former Senior Contract Compliance Adviser; Ministry of Mines & Petroleum of Afghanistan

Bachelor of law (LL.B); Master of Law (LL.M)

Gordan Bakota

Ambassador of Croatia to Berlin

Gordan Bakota serves as head of mission in Germany since 7 January 2020.
Previously he held the helm at the Embassy of Croatia in Austria, and has likewise been head of mission in Turkey (covering Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) as well as in Serbia.

Hans Köchler

President, International Progress Organization (IPO)

Ph.D. in Philosophy (the University of Innsbruck); since 1982 University Professor of Philosophy (with special emphasis on Political Philosophy and Philosophical Anthropology). He further holds an honorary doctor degree   from the Mindanao State University (Philippines).  Professor Köchler is the Founder and President (since 1972) of the International Progress Organization (I.P.O.), an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in consultative status with the United Nations.    Professor Köchler’s publication list contains over 500 books, reports and scholarly articles in several languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Persian, Spanish, Serbo-Croat, Turkish). His publications deal with issues of phenomenology, existential philosophy, anthropology, human rights, philosophy of law, theory of international law, international criminal law, United Nations reform, theory of democracy, etc.
Further information is found under: http://hanskoechler.com/koechler-bio1.htm

Hassan B. Diab

Former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Former Minister of Education and High Education

Dr. Hassan B. Diab is the former Minister of Education and High Education of Lebanon, a position to which he was appointed in June 2011 until February 2014.

Dr. Diab received a B.Sc with Honors in Communications Engineering from Leeds Metropolitan University in 1981. He also holds an M.Sc with Distinction in Systems Engineering from the University of Surrey, and a PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Bath, Uk. He is a chartered engineer in the UK Engineering Council and a registered Chartered Professional Engineer in the National Professional Engineers Register of Australia.

Prior to entering politics, Dr. Diab pursued a career in academia, eventually becoming Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon. In 2004, he was appointed as Founding President and Dean of the College of Engineering of Dhofar University in Oman. In 2006, Dr. Diab was appointed as Vice President for Regional External Programs (REP) at AUB. After leaving his ministerial position in 2014, he returned to his position as VP at AUB and was also the COO during 2014 at the same University.

Dr. Diab has over 30 years of experience in the academic field. He has over 130 publications for national and international journals, and has led over to 30 research projects sponsored through local and international grants. Dr. Diab has also served as a member of over 50 organizing committees of international conferences, and is an honorary member of the Advisory Board in several international biographical organizations. He has received 13 international and regional awards, including the Fulbright Research Award in 1988, and the Young Arab Scientists Shuman Prize in Engineering in 1992.  Dr. Diab is also a Founding Member of the first Arab Computer Society established in 2001, as well as the Founding Member of the IEEE Student Branch at AUB in 2001. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers, UK and the Institute of Engineers, Australia as well as a Senior Member in the Institute of Electrical & Electronic Engineers, USA.

Hrant Bagratyan

Former Prime Minister of Armenia

Hrant Bagratyan was the Prime Minister of Armenia from 1993 to 1996. He started his professional career as a senior scientific worker at the Institute of Economy of Armenian Academy of Sciences. From 1989 till 1990, he was the Head of Division at the Institute of Economy of Armenian Academy of Sciences. He was a member of the Pan-Armenian National Movement party and started his political career as the Minister of Economy of the Republic of Armenia and First Deputy of the Prime-Minister of Armenia in 1990.
Bagratyan graduated from the Faculty of Economy of the Yerevan State Institute of National Economy. He then did his Postgraduate at the Institute of Economics of NAS of the Republic of Armenia. He is the author of more than 52 scientific articles and has written 7 books. In " The Society and the State", published in 2000, he developed the theory of scientific technical cycles. Based on this theory he founded a new direction in economics, namely global macroeconomics or geoeconomics.
In 1995, he was named 'The Men of the Year' by the American Biography Institute and in 1996 was given the title of, 'The Man of the Millennium'. Since 2007, he has been a lecturer at the Russian-American University. From 2008 to 2013 he was a lecturer at the Kiev University in Ukraine, first in the Department of International Relations then he taught in banking.

Joseph Djaba

First secretary, Embassy of Ghana to Berlin

Master Degree in International Relations & Cultural Diplomacy (HFU & ICD Academy)
BA in Philosophy and Study of Religion
Politician,  Engaged in social developmental initiatives, involved in Communal civil service and participating in the Socio- economic issues locally.       

Katalin Bogyay

President, 36th UNESCO General Conference
Former Ambassador of Hungary to the United Nations // UNESCO

Ambassador Katalin Bogyay is an internationally acclaimed diplomat, author, university lecturer, and public speaker. She is the President of the United Nations Association - Hungary, the founder of ‘Women4Diplomacy’ international circle, founding member of the ‘Club of Women4Hungary’ and member of the Hungarian National Commission for UNESCO.  She served as Hungary’s 15th Permanent Representative to the United Nations between 2015-2020, as Hungary’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO (2009-2014) and was elected to President of UNESCO General Conference (2011-2013) in Paris. She was State Secretary for cultural diplomacy and international relations in education and science for Hungary between 2006-2009.  Katalin is the founding Director of the Hungarian Cultural Center in London Covent Garden (1999-2006) and the mastermind behind ‘Magyar Magic’, celebrated cultural season in the United Kingdom in 2003-2004.

Prior her diplomatic career she worked as a television broadcaster, film maker, music and theatre critic in Budapest and London. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in the UK, and a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Science in the US, an International Advisory Board member of the World Science Forum and the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD) and the President of The Arts and Cultural Diplomacy program at ICD.  She is an Honorary member of the London-based Imago-International Psychoanalytical Society and a Board member of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. Decorated by many Hungarian and international high-level awards inter alia in 2012, Glasgow University awarded her an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters for promoting globally cultural diversity and cultural diplomacy, and in 2016 she was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa by Pannon University for her work in multilateral and cultural diplomacy.

Ambassador Bogyay was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit for her achievements in cultural diplomacy in 2014, and was awarded 2017 Women of Distinction-Global Leadership Award by international women rights organization ‘Celebrating Women International’, and Last Girl Leadership Award in 2020 by Apne Aap Women Worldwide women rights organization and the 2021 Countess Antonia Zichy Award for her outstanding role in international diplomacy and community building by the Hungarian Batthyany Foundation. She is an Honorary Citizen of Mór, her Hungarian hometown.

Lufter Xhuveli

Former Albanian Minister of Environment, Forests and Water, Agriculture and Food

Prof. Dr. Lufter Xhuveli graduated with in economics in 1962 from the Higher Agricultural Institute in Tirana. Following this he undertook a number of scientific and academic jobs, mainly in agriculture, including Agronomist in Chief at the Agricultural Cooperative in Kutali, Leader of Agriculture in the District of Berati, Dean at the High Agricultural Institute Tirana and Professor of Genetics of Plants at Agricultural University Tirana.

He also had a number of important articles published in a number of national and international journals and has authored or co-authored 8 school texts. In 1997 Prof. Dr. Lufter Xhuveli was elected for the first time to the Albanian parliament for the Environmentalist Agrarian Party. The party formed part of the governing coalition, under which Xhuveli became Minister of Agriculture and Food.
Between 1997 and 2001 his Ministerial duties included being Governor of Albania in International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). In 2001 he was re-elected and became Minister of the Environment, he was once again re-elected in 1995 and became Minister of Forests, and Water, Agriculture and Food.
Some of Prof. Dr. Lufter Xhuveli’s achievements include being named International Man of the Year in 1992/1993 by the International Centre for Biographies (ICB) in Cambridge, he was given the same prize in 1995 by the American Institute of Biographies. In 2005 he was given the Top 100 Scientist award by the ICB.

Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan

Ambassador of Bangladesh to Germany

H.E. Mr. Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, ndc has joined the Embassy of Bangladesh in Berlin as Ambassador of Bangladesh to Germany with concurrent accreditation to the Czech Republic, Kosovo and International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on 02 October 2020.
H.E. Mr. Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, ndc is a Senior Secretary (Retired, and Former Chairman of the National Board of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of Bangladesh. He started his career as a Civil Servant under BCS: Audit and Accounts Cadre, where he joined in January, 1981. Since February 2010 he held the positions of Secretary in the Bridges division, Ministry of Communication, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Economic zone Authority (BEZA), Member, Privatization commission and Secretary/Senior Secretary in the Ministry of Industries. Prior to these assignments he worked as Deputy Secretary, Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary in the Ministries of Commerce, Education, LGRD and Finance (ERD).
Ambassador Mr. Bhuiyan obtained Bachelor of Social Science and Masters  of Social Sciences in Economics from the Dhaka University. He also obtained Master of Arts (M.A) degree in Development Economics from Williams College, Massachusetts, USA. Among the number of professional trainings, the Ambassador completed NDC Course from the National Defence College, Dhaka, Asia-Pacific Course on Security Studies from Hawaii, USA and Managing at the top (MATT) course from Singapore and Dhaka. Apart from the significant training courses above, he underwent various short duration training courses on financial management, project management, MIS and other professional and administrative topics during service tenure.
Ambassador Mr. Bhuiyan is married to Mahfuza Begum.He has one son and two daughters. Mr. Bhuiyan authors three books. The latest : ?????????? ???? ? ????????????? ???? (2020)/ The Padma Bridge-Win of Honesty and Self-confidence (2020)
Ambassador Mr. Bhuiyan engaged himself to various philanthropic and social welfare activities during his term of service in Bangladesh.

Parwiz Khosraw

Governance Officer for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA  from 2005-2018
Director of Private Education at the Ministry of Education in Kabul from 2019-2021

BA in Law and Political Science

Regina Ingekem Ocheni

Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Nigeria to Berlin

Rui Duarte Barros

Former Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau

Mr. Rui Duarte de Barros (born 18 February 1960, Cadique, Tombali Region) is a Bissau-Guinean politician who was the Transitional Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau from 16 May 2012 to 3 July 2014.
He was Commissioner at the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (2003-2011), after holding a number of high-level positions in the Government of Guinea-Bissau, including Minister of Economy and Finance and Minister of Civil Services and Public Administration.
Mr. Barros is a computer scientist, with various qualifications from the Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia; USA (1994), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNINOVA), Lisbon, Portugal (1990); and the Instituto Superior Politécnico José António Echeverria (ISPJAE/CUJAE), Havana, Cuba (1984). He has taken many courses in public finance and has an honorary doctorate degree from the Arts, Sciences & Technology University of Lebanon (2013).

Samar Al-Barghouthi

PhD. Political Science, Cairo University, Egypt

Dr. Samar AlBarghouthi has the following academic background: PhD. Political Science, Cairo University, Egypt; Masters Degree in International Studies, Bir Zeit University, Palestine; Bachelor Degree in Business Administration, Bir Zeit University, Palestine
Dr. Al-Barghouthi is an academic, an author and a researcher. As a Palestinian, she focuses on studying the Palestinian culture of identity. She believes that education should start at an early age by reinforcing the young generation's sense of belonging in their culture, and heritage.

She published several books, novels, and plays for a juvenile on History identity, culture, and heritage.
Her first book for children "The Purple Bird, Palestine History in a Tale" was published in 2017. Forthcoming a book on Palestine cause and political terminology for children, another play for children on saving the environment is in print.
Out of her strong belief in the importance of advancing women's rights and equality, Al-Barghouthi published several articles on women's progress and leadership in the GCC countries.

Thomas Silberhorn

Member of the German Bundestag

Thomas Silberhorn is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Bavaria since 2002.
Silberhorn first became a member of the Bundestag in the 2002 German federal election. He has served on the Committee on European Affairs (2002-2013); the Subcommittee on Foreign Trade (2005-2009); and the Committee on Legal Affairs (2009-2013). In addition to his committee assignments, he is a member of the German-Japanese Parliamentary Friendship Group.
In 2014 Silberhorn served as the Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for interior, law and consumer protection. From 2014 to 2018, he was Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development. From 2018 until 2021, Silberhorn served as the Parliamentary State Secretaries at the Federal Ministry of Defence. Since the 2021 elections, Silberhorn has been serving as his parliamentary group’s spokesperson for Transatlantic relations.

Ulrich Brückner

EU Jean Monnet Professor at Stanford in Berlin

Dr. Brückner studied Political Science, German Literature, and History at the University of Würzburg and the Freie Universität Berlin. Working at the FU Berlin since 1987, he has specialized in European Integration. Dr. Brückner's PhD is on the role of the European Commission in the policy-making of the European Union. From 1997 until 2003, he also worked as a Jean Monnet Visiting Professor at Szczecin University in Poland, and since 1999, has taught as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University in Berlin and California, ECNU and Fudan University Shanghai, MGIMO Moscow, Sabanci University in Istanbul, the University for Economics in Bratislava, and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia. In 2003 he became an EU Jean Monnet Professor at Stanford.

Weronika Priesmeyer-Tkocz

Deputy Director, the European Academy Berlin (EAB); Faculty Member, ICD Academy for Cultural Diplomacy

Dr. Weronika Priesmeyer-Tkocz is the program coordinator of German part of the Czech-German Young Professionals Program and works at the European Academy Berlin as Programme Director. As a programme Director in the European Academy Berlin Dr. Weronika Priesmeyer-Tkocz plans and carries out seminars, information events and research projects.
Her focus of interest lies in particular on; current European political agenda,  democratization and transformation processes in Central and Eastern European countries, the European Neighborhood Policy/Eastern Partnership, Good Governance,  German and European policy towards the East and German-Polish relations and on German-Polish relations.
She studied International Relations at the University of Wroclaw in Poland and holds a PhD in Political Sciences from the Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2008 she has lectured at the Institute for East European Studies in the Freie Universität Berlin focusing both on European integration inside and outside the European Union and on the EU’s policy towards the East.