Our People
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Sarah St VincentExecutive Director
MoreSarah St Vincent
Sarah St Vincent is the Executive Director of Rights & Security International and is a human rights expert with deep experience addressing issues of national security, technology, and gender. Prior to joining RSI, she was the Director of Cornell University’s Clinic to End Tech Abuse, which provides computer security guidance to survivors of gender-based violence. She has also served as a researcher on US national security and surveillance at Human Rights Watch, where she produced groundbreaking reporting on intelligence surveillance and the use of surveillance evidence in the criminal justice system. A seasoned reform advocate, she has also addressed surveillance and other technology issues in a range of countries at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a Washington, DC-based tech policy organization.
St Vincent has long promoted human rights under global and regional human rights frameworks, including as a legal project manager at the Advice on Individual Rights in Europe (AIRE) Centre, where she developed expertise in EU law and the European Convention on Human Rights.
She holds a JD from the University of Michigan Law School, an MA in East Asian studies from Harvard University, and a BA from Swarthmore College.
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Josie DumbrellDigital and Privacy Rights Assistant
MoreJosie Dumbrell
Josie is RSI’s Digital and Privacy Rights Assistant. She holds a BA in Theology and Religion from the University of Birmingham, and an MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Josie has previously worked in the field of interfaith dialogue. She has also worked in a voluntary capacity for local equality organisations focused on community strategies for tackling issues such as radicalisation, gang violence and hate crime; and previously volunteered as a playworker with refugee children living in temporary accommodation.
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Nuria Garcia PalazonTeam Leader on Advancing Human Rights Movements
MoreNuria Garcia Palazon
Nuria is the Team Leader on Advancing Human Rights Movements. She is a human rights advocate with over 20 years of experience leading research and developing and implementing campaigns to address human rights violations in the Americas and Africa. Prior to joining RSI, Nuria worked as a human rights consultant for the UN and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. She also served as South America researcher at Amnesty International, where she published reports on transitional justice, counter-terrorism and human rights, freedom of expression and policing of demonstrations, gender, Indigenous People’s rights, and the right to health.
She holds a BA in Journalism from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, and an MA in Latin America’s Politics and International Relations from the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London.
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Brittany HernandezResearch and Advocacy Officer
MoreBrittany Hernandez
Brittany is Rights & Security International’s Research and Advocacy Officer. She holds an M.A. in Human Rights from the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, and a B.Sc. in International Relations & Diplomacy from Seton Hall University.
Brittany has previously worked at Catholic Charities, providing legal assistance and support to immigrants and asylum-seekers through the organisation’s Immigration Advocacy and Refugee Services programme.
While completing her Master’s, she worked as an intern with the United Nations Development Programme in Bonn, Germany, contributing to the United Nations Volunteers’ communications strategies. During her undergraduate studies, she also interned with the International Rescue Committee in the U.S., delivering hands-on support to resettled refugee families.
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Sabah HussainMigration and Citizenship Team Leader
MoreSabah Hussain
Sabah is the Migration and Citizenship Team Leader at Rights & Security International, working on issues to do with migration, citizenship and the Prevent strategy. She has worked as a journalist focusing on human rights, civil society and culture, and has worked with Reuters, The Telegraph and with broadcast television.
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Ouzra KarimiMigration, Citizenship & Belonging Intern
MoreOuzra Karimi
Ouzra Karimi is a researcher with a background in Migration Studies, Sociology and Anthropology. She has experience working in charity sectors as well as with asylum seekers and refugees across Greece, Bosnia and the UK, particularly in frontline support roles. She is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Oxford, focusing on Hazara women in the diaspora. Her work explores issues of migration, displacement, and community resilience through entrepreneurship.
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Renee KarununganCommunications Officer
MoreRenee Karunungan
Renee finished her PhD in Political Communication at Loughborough University and her MA in Media and International Development at the University of East Anglia. She specialises in strategic communications, having over a decade of experience working with different non-profit organisations.
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Patrick MaseboMigration, Citizenship & Belonging Intern
MorePatrick Masebo
Patrick is Rights & Security International’s intern. He is an experienced leader in the refugee sector, committed to creating positive change for refugees and migrant groups.
Patrick is specialised in co-production, research and evaluation. He currently leads an advisory and advocacy group of refugees and people seeking asylum as the Expert by Experience coordinator within the Step Change partnership in Greater Manchester.
He is the founder of a consultancy and service provider specialised in research, monitoring and evaluation in the asylum and refugee sector to support organisations , measure their impact and embed” lived experience of the UK refugee and migration sector” approach in their service design and delivery.
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Declan OwensNorthern Ireland Human Rights Officer
MoreDeclan Owens
Declan Owens is the Northern Ireland Human Rights Officer for Rights & Security International. He is a non-practising solicitor of the Law Society of England and Wales and a non-practising barrister after being called to the Bar by the Inner Temple. He previously worked as a litigation solicitor for Thompsons Solicitors in London and represented some of the largest unions in the UK, including Unite, Unison, the National Union of Journalists, and the Public & Commercial Services Union. He specialises in trade union law, human rights law, and environmental law following an LLB at Trinity College Dublin and an LLM in European and International Labour Law at the University of Amsterdam.
Declan has also worked for the International Centre for Trade Union Rights, the legal department of the International Trade Union Confederation, and the Bureau for Workers’ Activities of the International Labour Organisation. Declan is Chair of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers in the UK and is on the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. He has a passion for ecojustice and operates as CEO of a social enterprise called Ecojustice Ireland. He is an expert with the UN Harmony with Nature Agency on the Rights of Nature and in international environmental law, advocating the mainstreaming of human rights within ecojustice law and policy.
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Rosie SiwalFundraising Officer
MoreRosie Siwal
Rosie is the Fundraising Officer with Rights and Security International (RSI). She holds an MA in Corporate Social Responsibility from the University of Nottingham and a BA in Geography from the University of Birmingham.
Rosie has over 15 years of programme funding experience and has worked for Plan UK, Plan International in Sierra Leone, Oxfam Great Britain in India and the UK, as well as working as a long-term consultant with the Rockefeller Foundation on their climate change resilience initiative. Rosie recently completed five years as a volunteer caseworker for the British Red Cross’ Refugee Support Service and is currently training to become an Enquiry Adviser with Citizens Advice in her spare time.
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Jacob SmithFreedom of Expression and Belief Team Leader
MoreJacob Smith
Jacob is Rights and Security International’s Freedom of Expression and Belief Team Leader. He holds an LLM in Public International Law from UCL (2018-2019) and an LLB from the University of Surrey (2014-2018). He has a passion for the practical application of human rights and understanding the distinction between law and practice.
Jacob has previously worked with the international affairs think tank Chatham House, providing research assistance on COVID-19, climate change and Public International Law, and has also worked on a report for the International Committee of the Red Cross’ ‘IHL in Action’ project. Jacob has drafted briefings for a range of audiences as part of RSI’s advocacy efforts, including for Parliament, the Joint Committee on Human Rights, All-Party Parliamentary Groups, Independent Reviews and UN Special Rapporteurs.
Jacob is currently an Associate Lecturer at the University of Surrey and the University of the West of England, teaching modules on Data Governance, Human Rights, Humanitarian and International Law.
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Kinga PersNorthern Ireland immigration adviser
MoreKinga Pers
Kinga is currently providing immigration advice for Rights and Security International. She graduated in English and Fine/Applied Arts University of Ulster and has been involved in supporting newcomers in Northern Ireland for past 20 years. Work areas: community building, social inclusion, advocacy and interpreting, immigration advice, cultural exchange and equal opportunities for the migrant communities.
Our Board
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Steve EdwardsChair of the Board
MoreSteve Edwards
Steve Edwards is the chair of the board of Rights and Security International. Steve has been a management consultant for over 30 years. An experienced executive with significant international experience in managing clients, leading teams and in developing strategic plans to service clients and provide thought leadership.
He joined Price Waterhouse (PW) in 1978, a couple of years after graduating and became a Partner in their management consulting practice in 1989. He became part of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) when PWe merged with Coopers and Lybrand in 1998 and then subsequently joined IBM in October 2002 through the acquisition of PWC Consulting. He left IBM in July 2014. Since leaving full time employment Steve has been working with a number of charities in assisting them to develop business strategies and action plans.
His specialism is business transformation enabled by information technology and he has led a number of cross border consulting projects for major companies in the oil & gas and consumer products / pharmaceutical industries.
Steve Edwards has a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science, a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance and is also a member of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants and the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.
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Joanne MarinerBoard Member
MoreJoanne Mariner
A board member of Rights and Security International, Joanne Mariner currently serves as Interim Senior Director for Research, Advocacy and Policy at Amnesty International. She has investigated violations of international human rights and humanitarian law around the globe, including in armed conflicts in Sudan, Afghanistan, Colombia, Ukraine, and the Central African Republic.
Mariner has published numerous articles and opinion pieces about human rights issues such as indefinite detention, sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeeping troops, the criminal prosecution of suspected terrorists, and government efforts to stem the flow of funds to militant groups. In 2011, she was shortlisted for the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism. Mariner worked previously as the director of Hunter College’s Human Rights Program, and as the director of Human Rights Watch’s Terrorism and Counterterrorism Program.
Mariner received the American Society of International Law’s Distinguished Woman in International Law award in 2005. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is on the board of advisors of the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague, and the International Justice Resource Center. A graduate of Yale Law School, she served as a law clerk to Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
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Wilder TaylorBoard Member
MoreWilder Taylor
Wilder Taylor is a board member of Rights and Security International. He worked as Secretary-General of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) until March 2017. He has been a human rights activist and lawyer for 28 years, who started defending political prisoners in Uruguay and continued working both nationally and internationally in senior roles in the human rights movement.
Tayler was Legal Director of Human Rights Watch from 1997 to March 2007 and before that he worked with Amnesty International as a Legal Advisor and Director of the Americas Programme. Between 2007 and 2014 he was a member and Vice Chairperson of the UN Sub-Committee on the Prevention of Torture. Tayler has been regularly involved in high-level representation and interaction with governments, international institutions – such as the UN and the OAS — and the media. Tayler also has undertaken dozens of research and advocacy missions and has been active in standard setting exercises, particularly in the areas of states of emergency, the prevention of torture, enforced disappearances, impunity and human rights defenders.
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Miqdaad VersiBoard Member
MoreMiqdaad Versi
Miqdaad Versi is a board member of Rights and Security International. He is an independent management consultant with experience in strategy, stakeholder engagement and delivering solutions to clients. Following a degree in Mathematics at the University of Oxford, he has worked at the management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman Financial Services and within strategy at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
He is Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the largest umbrella body of Muslim organisations in the UK and a member of the Muslim Leadership Group for the Citizens Commission on Islam, Participation & Public Life (initiated by Citizens UK). With significant experience in working with Muslim communities at a local and national level, he leads much of the MCB work on counter-terrorism. He has media experience with most the major broadcast and print media, including Newsnight, The Times and AlJazeera English amongst many others, and is a contributor to The Guardian’s online comment section “Comment is Free”.
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Nadim HouryBoard Member
MoreNadim Houry
Nadim Houry is a board member of the Rights and Security International. He is also the executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI), a leading think tank on the Middle East and North Africa region. Prior to ARI, Nadim was at Human Rights Watch (HRW) for 13 years where he started and ran HRW’s Beirut office for a decade before taking on the role of director of HRW’s Terrorism and Counter-terrorism Program.
During his time at HRW, he oversaw at different times work on Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan. His own research over the years has covered a wide range of topics from abuses by security forces to labor rights. In recent years, he has conducted a lot of research and writing on ISIS and post-ISIS issues. He has published widely and is often quoted in local and international media. A passionate advocate for change in the region, he has addressed the Security Council and the European Parliament on challenges in the Arab world. A lawyer by training, Nadim worked in the UN as Deputy Counsel for the Volcker Commission which conducted investigations into allegations of corruption into the Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq and was previously a corporate lawyer in New York.
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Dina HashemFundraising Chair
MoreDina Hashem
Dina Hashem works as Director for Global Partnerships at Habitat for Humanity International. Ms. Hashem has an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from SOAS, University of London. Ms. Hashem’s professional career in the international humanitarian and development sector spans 20 years. She has successfully developed organisational strategic plans to unlock institutional funding partnerships globally that deliver impactful programmes for Habitat for Humanity International, Finn Church Aid (FCA), Overseas Development Institute and Plan International. She has solid experience in advancing collaborative partnerships by building congruent and high performing teams, often remotely, that achieve shared goals by fostering trust with key stakeholders. She led the start-up of a grants teams to increase the global income of institutional funding and was deployed to for short and longer term assignments to country offices to scale programming and funding for refugee response and rights-based development approaches.
She has a familial connection to the Middle East region and was able to effectively hit the ground running in building its capacity. She has developed tools and standardized processes socializing them into organizations through change management skills. Combined with delivering workshops in the country programmes to advance learning and enable national teams to produce quality proposals to scale complex programmes in concert with amplifying national voices to directly influence key decision makers on the most pressing issues. Pioneering a continuous and active strategy to influence significant partners and finding new opportunities to ensure visibility for the organisations she has worked with has been central to her career including stewarding, facilitating meetings and empowering or coaching colleagues to spot trends, see entry points and threats, trouble shooting and successfully securing strong growth.
Our Patrons
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Baroness Helena Kennedy KCPatron
MoreBaroness Helena Kennedy KC
Helena Kennedy KC is a campaigner for women’s rights and a distinguished lawyer who has been involved in many leading civil liberties cases. Baroness Kennedy is a member of the House of Lords.
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Michael Mansfield KCPatron
MoreMichael Mansfield KC
Michael Mansfield KC is a highly successful barrister who has been involved in remedying many of the notorious Irish miscarriages of justice, including the cases of the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four.
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Bill Shipley SCPatron
MoreBill Shipley SC
Bill Shipsey is a Senior Counsel at the Irish Bar. The Founder of Art for Amnesty, Amnesty International’s global artist engagement project and a lifelong human rights advocate and activist.