Advisory Board
William Aceves
William Aceves is Secretary of CJA's Board of Directors and a Professor of Law at California Western School of Law, where he teaches Civil Procedure, Human Rights Law, Foreign Affairs Law, and Comparative Law. He is a member of Amnesty International USA’s Legal Support Network Steering Committee, and is a Consulting Attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association. Professor Aceves has represented several human rights organizations as counsel of record in cases before the First, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He writes extensively on international law and human rights, and is the principal author of the 2002 Amnesty International USA report, The United States: A Safe Haven for Torturers?.
Sherman Cohn
Biography forthcoming.
David Matas
David Matas is the Co-chair of the International Coalition Against Torture and Senior Legal Counsel of Amnesty International Canada and B'nai Brith Canada In 1969, he became a Middle Temple United Kingdom Barrister, and he was called to Bar of Manitoba in 1971. Mr. Matas was special assistant to the Solicitor General of Canada in 1971-1972. He has also served as a member of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Conference on an International Criminal Court 1998, the Canadian Delegation to the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, and since 1997 as the Director of the International Centre for Human Rights & Democratic Development. Mr. Matas has also taught constitutional law at McGill University, and Introductory Economics, Canadian Economic Problems, International Law, Civil Liberties, and Immigration & Refugee Law at the University of Manitoba.
Board of Directors
Mary Byrom
Mary Byrom is a classically trained international award winning designer and fine artist. She has won awards for sculpture, package design and painting. Since 2000 she has collaborated with international human rights groups and designed and directed large multi dimensional performance pieces to raise awareness of torture and persecution suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China. In 2003 she curated an international show of paintings by and for artists who were victims of torture. In 2005 she traveled to Sweden to guide and train representatives from 14 countries on presenting fine arts shows for raising awareness of human rights. She has a background of involvement in regional, state and national nonprofit cultural and arts organizations, grant writing and project coordination. She is a popular children's illustrator and American landscape painter.
Owen Daka
Owen Daka is a lawyer from S. Africa who has worked on several high profile human rights cases for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. As a well know human rights attorney with an international reputation, he has handled many landmark human rights cases, including a landmark case filed in S. Africa against a high ranking Chinese official for her role in the persecution of Falun Gong.
Perry Link
Perry Link is a Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University as well as the Princeton University is Associate Director of Princeton in Beijing. His publications are voluminous and include the best study abroad language instruction program in China. Professor link’s the "The Tiananmen Papers" (published in January by Public Affairs Press in New York) provide a first-time look behind the scenes at Chinese government decision making. Professor Link’s stature as a China expert is espcially evident from the wide range of article he has published. These include, On Leaving a Chinese Prison, April 11, 2002; China: The Anaconda in the Chandelier; June 29, 1989, The Chinese Intellectuals and the Revolt. Mr. Link is also the author of many books that include: The Uses of Literature: Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary System (2000); Pan Yang Sui Pi (1999); Evening Chats in Beijing = [pei-Ching Yeh Hua]: Probing China's Predicament (1992);Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular Fiction in Early Twentieth Century Chinese Cities (1981).
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