Alar Karis: “Resistance to the European value space is on the rise. Globally, there is increasing pressure on a value system founded on democracy, the market economy, human rights, and the rule of law. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure the strength of democracy when addressing the heated conflicts that have emerged. The protection of human rights has never been more paramount.”

Estonia has chosen to apply for membership in the UN Human Rights Council for the term 2026-2028.

Alar Karis, the President of the Republic of Estonia, serves as the Patron of the Annual Conference on Human Rights.”

Liisa-Ly Pakosta is Estonia’s Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs. Her career has been notably diverse, spanning senior roles in both politics and the public service.

She has served as a member of the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) across several terms, taking on key responsibilities, including Chair of the European Union Affairs Committee and Vice-Chair of the Anti-Corruption Special Committee. She has also worked as the Gender Equality and Equal Treatment Commissioner and led the National Heritage Board. Her professional path ranges from serving as Deputy Mayor of Tallinn to roles in the media and education sectors.

Margus Tsahkna is Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is a member of Estonia 200 and has previously been associated with Isamaa/IRL. He has served in both the legislative and executive branches of government, including as Minister of Social Protection (2015–2016), Minister of Defence (2016–2017), and as a Member of Parliament (Riigikogu). He studied theology and law at the University of Tartu and pursued further studies in international law at the University of Toronto.

PhD Oksana Cherviakova is the Representative for Children’s Rights at the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights (the Ombudsman). She is a lawyer and academic, holding a PhD in Law and serving as an Associate Professor at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University in Kharkiv, where her work focuses on the law of armed conflict and accountability for the gravest violations.
In her role at the Ombudsman’s Office, she works to ensure that children’s rights are not overshadowed by war: she contributes to drafting legislative changes, takes part in monitoring and oversight visits, and supports children who have been returned from occupation or from Russia—helping secure safe assistance and a pathway to recovery.

PhD Stefania Di Stefano is an international law scholar and postdoctoral researcher at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Cnam) in Paris, where she studies the regulation of online content moderation. Her current research focuses on the implementation of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) and how effectively it protects fundamental rights. In her doctoral work, she examined how international human rights law regulates the exercise of freedom of expression on social media platforms.

She is also a Visiting Lecturer at the Riga Graduate School of Law and, since 2022, has served as Co-convenor of the ESIL (European Society of International Law) Interest Group on International Law and Technology. In addition, she has worked as a Project Officer/Coordinator at the Geneva Human Rights Platform (Geneva Academy).

PhD Ben T. C. Warwick is a legal scholar and lecturer at Birmingham Law School (University of Birmingham). His work focuses on human rights law and its application within contemporary social and institutional settings. His background combines rigorous academic legal training with a practical leadership and management perspective, enabling him to approach human rights through the lenses of policy, organisations, and accountability.

PhD Christoph (Jan Christoph) Bublitz is a legal scholar at the Faculty of Law, University of Hamburg, working at the intersection of criminal law, human rights, and legal theory—especially where law meets philosophy and cognitive science.

His research asks how to protect mental autonomy and freedom of thought at a time when neurotechnologies and artificial intelligence can increasingly shape—or interfere with—perception, memory, and decision-making. He has led several interdisciplinary projects, including HYBRID MINDS, which examines the legal and ethical implications of brain–computer interfaces and other neurotechnologies.

Academician Hélène Tigroudja is Vice-Chair of the UN Human Rights Committee  and Professor of Public International Law at Aix-Marseille University. Her work focuses on how international law functions when things fall apart in real life—particularly victims’ rights, reparations, vulnerable groups, and post-conflict accountability. Alongside her academic role, she has been a member of the UN Human Rights Committee (the monitoring body for the ICCPR) since 2019 and has been elected for a second term; within the Committee she has also held leadership responsibilities, including rapporteur roles.

From a multipolar perspective, she brings a crucial “reality check” to the debate: if norms are universal, why are protection and enforcement so uneven? She shows how great-power rivalry, regional blocs, and double standards are not abstract arguments—they shape, very concretely, whether victims obtain justice, whether responsibility is established, and whether reparations actually move. In human terms, Tigroudja keeps the focus on what happens to people after a violation: how to make justice and repair work in practice, not only on paper.

Prof. Arthur Roberto Capella Giannattasio is a professor at the Institute of International Relations, University of São Paulo (USP). He teaches and researches international law with a particular focus on international—especially regional—organisations, and on the political and historical foundations of international legal order.

In human terms, his trademark is that he does not settle for ready-made slogans. He asks whose interests international law and the language of human rights actually serve, how claims of universality can in practice become selective—or even operate as a colonial tool—and what all of this means in a world where power relations are shifting.

Doctor of Law Elena Lukyanova is a Doctor of Legal Sciences and a full Professor of Law, specialising in constitutional and municipal law. She taught for more than three decades at the Faculty of Law of Lomonosov Moscow State University, and is widely known for her scholarship on constitutionalism, the rule of law, and the legal limits of state power.
From 2008 to 2013, she served as a member of the Russian Federation’s Civic Chamber. She later joined the Faculty of Law at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow, where she served as a professor at the Department of Constitutional and Municipal Law until August 2020, when she was dismissed after openly opposing the increasingly authoritarian direction of Vladimir Putin’s regime. Now based in Latvia, she is Professor and Co-Rector of FreeMoscowUniversity (Brīvā Universitāte, Latvia) and the author of more than 240 academic publications.

Academician Lauri Mälksoo is Professor of International Law at the University of Tartu and one of the Baltic region’s best-known legal scholars. His work connects the Baltic Sea region’s historical experience with today’s major debates in international law. He is a member of the Institut de Droit International and also serves on the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission.

Given his background—including the Baltic legal tradition associated with figures such as Friedrich (Fedor) Martens—Mälksoo’s particular strength is his ability to bring legal doctrine, historical memory, and geopolitical realities to the same table: how universal norms can endure even as the world becomes more “multipolar” and enforcement grows increasingly selective.

Kristina Vejnbender is a Prague-based investigative journalist specialising in post-Soviet countries and issues related to migration, soft power, propaganda, and disinformation. She works as a reporter for investigace.cz, an OCCRP member centre.

In 2024–2025, she investigated influence operations targeting diaspora communities and the development of the so-called “Russkiy Mir” (“Russian World”) infrastructure in Europe. Her work has examined, among other things, the role of youth programs (including Rossotrudnichestvo) in shaping identity, and how the rhetoric of “supporting compatriots” can intertwine with cultivating loyalty, building networks, and supporting propaganda. She has also covered funding channels operating in the context of sanctions (including Pravfond), as well as “grey zone” intermediaries and local influence conduits.

Another major focus of her reporting is the security of dissidents and independent journalists working in exile, including threats, cyberattacks, surveillance risks, and issues related to technological monitoring (including in the context of Pegasus). Kristina holds a PhD in philosophical anthropology; she is fluent in Czech, Russian, and English, and brings together source criticism, security awareness, and clear storytelling in her work.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is a Russian businessman and public figure, best known as the former head of Yukos and one of the most prominent Putin critics in exile. Arrested in 2003, he spent many years in prison—an experience that made him, for many, a symbol of how power can bend the law. After his release in 2013, he has lived abroad and has supported democratic initiatives and civil society.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he became one of the founders of the Anti-War Committee of Russia, which brings together Russian public figures in exile to oppose the war and to support those forced to leave Russia because of the regime and the war.

Pavel Khodorkovsky is a U.S.-based nonprofit leader and analyst whose work focuses on U.S.–Russia relations, democratic developments, and humanitarian assistance. He serves as President of Khodorkovsky Foundation USA and leads the U.S. activities of the New Eurasian Strategies Centre (NESC), helping to develop independent strategic thinking on Russia’s future.

He is also President of the Institute of Modern Russia (IMR) and, since 2022, has been involved with Project Sunrise, which delivers humanitarian aid—including medical supplies—to Ukraine, with a particular focus on frontline communities.

Kirill Martynov is the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Europe, an independent outlet operating in exile from Riga. He is in direct conflict with the Russian authorities: he has been designated a “foreign agent,” Novaya Gazeta Europe was declared an “undesirable organisation” in Russia (28 June 2023), and criminal proceedings were opened against him. In November 2024 he was arrested in absentia, and on 22 April 2025 he was sentenced in absentia to six years in prisonfor organising the activities of an “undesirable organisation.”

When speaking about Russia’s future, Martynov is soberly realistic: he argues that war and repression have become part of the system’s “new normal,” and that change can only come through a long process grounded in truth, accountability, and an honest societal reckoning—not a sudden “miracle turnaround.”

Sergei Metlev is the editor-in-chief of Rus.Postimees, the Russian-language edition of Estonia’s Postimees newspaper (since 2022). He has previously worked in both civil society and the public sector, including as an adviser in the Riigikogu and in roles connected to the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory.

Metlev argues that the future of Estonia’s Russian-speaking community is closely tied to loyalty to the Estonian state, the Estonian language, and a shared democratic civic space—and that Russia’s full-scale war in 2022 made these questions especially urgent. He has written about tensions surrounding support for Ukrainian refugees, and about how parts of the local Russian-language information environment and certain attitudes can fuel resentment and undermine solidarity. He has also supported the idea of restricting the local voting rights of Russian citizens as a justified step in the current security context, while emphasising that attitudes and loyalty within the community remain the key issue.

Aet Kukk is the Executive Director of the Estonian Institute of Human Rights and the Annual Human Rights Conference. She has been active in the field of human rights both in Estonia and in international cooperation projects abroad.

Aet Kukk is a member of the Chancellor of Justice’s Human Rights Council, the supervisory board of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, and the academic board for the master’s program in International Law and Human Rights at the University of Tartu. Since 2023, she has represented Estonia in the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI).

In 2022, the President of Estonia awarded her the Order of the White Star, in recognition of her work in human rights.

Terje Varem is a Projects Coordinato at the Estonian Institute of Human Rights, responsible for coordinating traveling exhibitions on human rights and organizing various events for the Institute. She is an experienced professional in her field, with extensive expertise in organizing events and conferences.