RAID Event - Biographies of Chair and Panellists

BIOGRAPHIES

CHAIR

MARK LAWSON

Mark Lawson is a journalist, broadcaster and author. He is a Guardian columnist and feature writer and theatre critic for The Tablet. He is the main presenter of Front Row, BBC Radio 4's nightly arts programme, and his interview series Mark Lawson Talks To ... runs on BBC4. From 1994-1995, he presented BBC2's weekly arts discussion show under the titles Late Review, Review and Newsnight Review. He has twice been voted TV critic of the Year and has won numerous awards for arts journalism. His novels include Bloody Margaret: Three Political Fantasies (Picador, 1991), Going Out Live (Picador, 2001) and Enough Is Enough (Picador, 2005).

PANELLISTS

JEREMY P. CARVER CBE

Jeremy Carver is a Board member/Trustee of Transparency International (UK). He is also a Consultant and Head of International Law at Clifford Chance LLP in London, where he was a partner in Clifford Chance (formerly Coward Chance) since 1974. Over nearly 40 years of international law practice, he has advised and represented numerous States in relation to maritime and territorial issues, treaty interpretation and application, disputes with corporations over oil and gas and other natural resources. He has advised governments and other authorities on numerous aspects of anti-corruption policy and implementation. He has also acted as strategic adviser to Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau on its national anti-corruption strategy. Other positions include President and member of Executive Council, International Law Association; Board member/Trustee, British Institute of International and Comparative Law; Trustee, Tiri - making integrity work; Board member, International Rescue Committee and Co-chair IRC-UK; Member of Council, University of Sussex; Member of Steering Board for UK NCP for OECD guidelines for MNEs.

PATRICIA FEENEY

Patricia Feeney is the Executive Director of Rights & Accountability in Development (RAID). Previously, she worked for Amnesty International and Oxfam. She has been a consultant for UNESCO, UNDP and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. She is a research affiliate of the University of Oxford’s Department of International Development and is a member of the Advisory Board of Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. She is the author of numerous reports and a book, Accountable Aid (Oxfam Publications, Oxford 1998).

RICHARD HERMER

Richard Hermer practices in the fields of domestic and international human rights law. For the past four years he has been identified as a ‘Star of the Bar’ and is recognized as a leading human rights lawyer. Over the past few years Richard has advised a variety of individuals and international human rights groups on the legal ramifications of the ‘War on Terror’, including legal claims arising out of detention at Guantanamo Bay. His recent international cases include a claim by Colombian peasant farmers against BP for environmental damage and a group action against oil traders for wide-spread pollution in the Ivory Coast.

JOAN SMITH

Joan Smith is a columnist, novelist and critic. She is the author of Moralities, the highly praised Misogynies and five detective novels, two of which have been filmed by the BBC. She has written columns for The Independent on Sunday and The Guardian and her reviews appear in the Financial Times, The Sunday Times and The Independent. She is one of the presenters on What the Papers Say and a regular contributor to BBC radio. She is a human rights activist and was the chair of the Writers in Prison committee in the English section of International PEN.