Advisory Network
Our work
At the sixth Freedom Online Conference in Costa Rica, the Coalition identified as a priority the need to create a strong mechanism for ongoing multistakeholder engagement. The FOC Advisory Network (FOC-AN) was established to play that role through regular engagement with FOC governments.
- Proactive Advice, where FOC-AN members proactively submit pieces of advice on certain topics and issues they consider the FOC should address, as well as recommend a topic for development of an FOC statement; and
- Reactive Advice, where FOC-AN members respond to the FOC’s request to comment on a certain issue, or input into documents in development, such as Joint Statements, Programs of Action, and other similar outputs.
FOC-AN Members widely contribute to the Coalition’s activities and events. Through regularly engaging with the FOC through Strategy & Coordination Meetings, learning sessions, and other ad hoc convenings, the FOC-AN play a crucial role in information and knowledge sharing efforts within the FOC. Coalition governments may also engage with the FOC-AN on a bilateral basis to receive ad hoc, immediate feedback on a specific topic, or work together to shape the outputs of regional forums on topics of relevance to the FOC’s mission. In addition, FOC Members may collaborate with the FOC-AN to respond to relevant consultation processes and seek to submit agreed-upon language sourced from consensus-based FOC documents.
To view the FOC-AN’s Terms of Reference, please click here.
FOC-AN Members
Elonnai Hickok
Tatiana Tropina
Tatiana Tropina is Assistant Professor in cybersecurity governance at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University. Previously, she worked as a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law.
In the past 10 years, she has been involved in both legal research and various applied cybercrime and cybersecurity projects at the international level, such as cybercrime study for the Global Symposium of Regulators (ITU, 2010), UNODC Comprehensive Cybercrime Study (2012-2013), research on the illicit financial flows and digital technologies for the World Development Report 2016, project with German Federal Criminal Police Office on improving mutual legal assistance on interception of electronic communications in the EU (2015-2018), and others. Her areas of expertise include international standards to fight cybercrime, digital investigations, self- and co-regulation to address cybersecurity issues, and the multi-stakeholder approach to cybersecurity.
Tatiana has a number of publications to her credit, including a monograph on cybercrime. She holds a doctoral degree from the Far Eastern Federal University (Russia) and Master’s degree from the University of Strathclyde, UK.
Adeboye Adegoke
Adeboye is Program Manager at Paradigm Initiative. He leads the organisation’s Digital Rights Programs in Africa, which include advocating for rights-respecting digital policies in Africa through policy interventions, stakeholder engagements, capacity building, strategic litigations, coalition building, and media campaigns. He also led advocacy for the passage of the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill by Nigeria’s parliament.
Adeboye is an Alumni of the African School on Internet Governance. He has written several articles and authored many reports. He is a co-author of the Digital Rights in Africa report by Paradigm Initiative. Adeboye has strong legislative engagement and policy influencing experience, having worked and influenced many legislations and policies in Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
Alexandria Walden
Alexandria is the global policy lead for human rights and free expression at Google. Alexandria drives Google’s work on business and human rights to support responsible approaches to policies across all Google’s products. Based in Washington, DC, Alexandria coordinates policy and strategy on a broad portfolio of issues including human rights, freedom of expression, and controversial content, including hate and harassment. She also represents Google at the Global Network Initiative (GNI) and Freedom Online Coalition Advisory Network.
Prior to joining Google, Alexandria was a Director at The Raben Group, where her work focused on civil rights, women’s rights, criminal justice reform, transparency, and judicial issues. Alexandria worked on various human rights issues in her time with Center for American Progress; U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary, and U.S. House of Representatives in the Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights & Liberties; U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; U.S. Department of Labor; and Bay Area Legal Aid. After law school she was also a Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow.
Alex holds a B.A. in political science from American University and a J.D. from University of San Francisco School of Law.
Allie Funk
Allie Funk is Freedom House’s Senior Research Analyst for Technology and Democracy, where she serves as an expert on human rights in the digital age, with a particular focus on free expression, privacy, surveillance, and censorship. She leads Freedom on the Net, the organization’s annual assessment of internet freedom, and her writing has been published in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, WIRED, the Hill, the Diplomat, and Just Security, among others. Prior to joining Freedom House, Allie worked at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers on issues relating to U.S. surveillance, the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, and the right to counsel, and worked with Human Rights First’s foreign policy team. She holds a master’s degree in human rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Amalia Toledo
Amalia Toledo is a tech, law, and policy fellow at the Wikimedia Foundation and an independent expert who examines how technology development and policy can impact and benefit the exercise of human rights and gender equality. She has contributed to national and international policy initiatives and has made presentations in a number of international, regional, and national spaces on a range of Internet policy and human rights issues. She has conducted research and written on issues related to access to knowledge, freedom of expression, privacy, cybersecurity, surveillance, and the relationship between gender and technology.
Previously, Amalia was project coordinator and researcher at the Karisma Foundation (Colombia) and project officer at the UNESCO Office for Iraq.
Amalia graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a B.A. in History, obtained her J.D. from the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, and earned a Master Degrees in International Law and International Relations from the Complutense University of Madrid and another Master Degree in International Studies from the University of the Basque Country.
Berhan Taye
Berhan Taye is an independent researcher, analyst, and facilitator who investigates the relationship between technology, society, and social justice. She is currently a Senior Advisor at Internews’ Greater Internet Freedom (GIF) Project and leads GIF’s digital rights policy and advocacy work in more than 40 countries. Berhan also co-hosts the Terms and Conditions Podcast.
Before joining Internews, Berhan was the Africa Policy Manager at Access Now and led the #KeepItOn campaign, a global campaign fighting against internet shutdown with a coalition of more than 220 member organizations worldwide. Berhan has held numerous research and fellowship roles with Open Technology Institue (OTI), Research Action Design (RAD), Mozilla Foundation, Design Justice Network, and others. She is currently a fellow at Stanford University. Presently, Berhan serves on the advisory board of the Open Tech Fund (OTF), Access Now, and the steering committee of Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) initiative.
Berhan earned a BA in International Relations and Human Rights from Malmö University and an MA in Public Policy and Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame. Berhan has lived, studied, and worked in Kenya, Canada, the US, South Africa, Sweden, and Ethiopia.
Bernard Shen
Bernard Shen is an Assistant General Counsel on human rights in the Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs department at Microsoft. His work focuses on Microsoft’s policy and practice on human rights across its products and technologies, and on engagement with external stakeholders on human rights issues and policies. Bernard has previously served in a variety of roles providing legal counsel for various Microsoft products and technologies including Windows and cloud services. Bernard serves as a Board Alternate on the Board of the Global Network Initiative.
Before joining Microsoft, Bernard was an in-house attorney at a leading e-commerce company in the U.S., and before that practiced law at a law firm where his practice focused on business and IP transactions, particularly in the mobile network operator industry. He worked in a business capacity in the telecommunication industry before becoming an attorney.
Cecilia Choeri
Edetaen Ojo
Edetaen Ojo is Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda in Nigeria, which works to promote and defend freedom of expression. Mr. Ojo has worked on Freedom of Information, freedom of expression, media development, Internet freedom, human rights and democracy issues in Nigeria, regionally and internationally for over 20 years. He is Co-chair of the National Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in Nigeria and also currently chairs the Steering Committee of the African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX), a network of freedom of expression organizations in Africa; and a member of the Board of Directors of International Media Support (IMS), an international media development organization based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In 2013, he served as a member of the International Advisory Committee for UNESCO’s project on “The Safety of Online Media Actors Doing Journalism” and was also in 2013 named an Internet Freedom Fellow by the U.S. Government.
Emma Llanso
Emma Llansó is the Director of CDT’s Free Expression Project, which works to promote law and policy that support Internet users’ free expression rights around the world. The Project’s work spans many subjects, including online child safety, human trafficking, privacy and online reputation issues, counter-terrorism and “radicalizing” content, and online harassment. Emma leads CDT’s work in advancing speech-promoting policies, which includes legislative advocacy and amicus activity aimed at ensuring that online expression receives the highest level of constitutional and fundamental rights protection. Emma leads CDT’s efforts to preserve strong intermediary liability protections in the U.S. and to advance these key policies abroad.
The Project also works to develop content policy best practices with Internet content platforms and advocates for user-empowerment tools and other alternatives to government regulation of online speech. Emma earned a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Delaware and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
Emilar Gandhi
Currently Facebook’s Stakeholder Engagement Manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Emilar Gandhi has been a human rights activist on freedom of expression, freedom of information and rights to association and assembly since 2003. Prior to her role as Stakeholder Engagement Manager for EMEA, Emilar served as Public Policy Head for Southern Africa at Facebook. Her current portfolio of policy issues includes safety and security, privacy, internet shutdowns, freedom of expression, regulation and public-sector use of social media.
Before joining Facebook, Emilar was Africa Policy Coordinator for the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) where she led ICT public policy issues on the African continent focusing on human rights, technology and internet governance. She has written several articles and reports on the intersection of technology and public policy and provided various trainings on the same subjects. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the National University of Science and Technology and an MA Degree from Stellenbosch University.
Fiona M. Alexander
Ms. Fiona M. Alexander is both Distinguished Policy Strategist in Residence in the School of International Service and Distinguished Fellow at the Internet Governance Lab at American University. She serves as an advisor to the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board and is a Mentor for the International Telecommunication Union Woman in Cyber Mentorship Program. For close to 20 years, Fiona served at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the U.S. Department of Commerce where she was Associate Administrator for International Affairs. In this role, she was the principal official responsible for the analysis, development, and execution of international Internet, cyber and communications policy within the Executive Branch of the United States government (USG). Prior to joining NTIA, Ms. Alexander was a Senior Consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. She has a Master’s Degree in International Relations from American University, Washington, D.C. and is co-founder of Salt Point Strategies, a consulting group that provides public affairs advice, strategy, and advocacy to clients navigating the emerging high-tech economy.
Frane Maroevic
Frane Maroevic is Director of the Content and Jurisdiction Program at the Internet and Jurisdiction Policy Network, working with a broad range of stakeholders to jointly develop policy standards and operational solutions to pressing legal challenges at the intersection of the global digital economy, human rights and security.
Previously he was the Director for the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) Representative on Freedom of the Media, promoting freedom of expression and media freedom as well as monitoring compliance of the 57 participating States with their international human rights commitments. He started his career in journalism at the BBC World Service in London. He worked in Bosnia and Herzegovina just after the end of the war, as the Spokesperson for the European Commission and subsequently the Director of Communications for the High Representative and EU Special Representative. Both roles included a strong focus on media development and establishment of media regulation and self-regulation. In 2010, he joined the OSCE, first as the Deputy Spokesperson, and in 2013 as Senior Advisor and from 2015 the Director of the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.
Hanane Boujemi
Hanane Boujemi is senior tech policy expert with more than a decade experience in the economic and legal aspects of Internet Policy and Governance. She is currently leading academic research on Blockchain technologies addressing soft power management and accumulation within distributed governance and how Blockchain can empower democracy. Mrs. Boujemi’s professional career includes positions as a senior policy analyst with senior various UN institutions including ITU, UNESCO and UNESCWA. She also managed Internet Governance MENA Programme (iGmena) promoting human rights online in the Middle East for 5 years, and was responsible for its overall design and implementation.
Mrs. Boujemi has extensive experience in issues mapping and policy analysis, she is also an avid creator of tech tools, which respond to policy challenges in developing countries context. She is the co-chair of the UN’s DC on Internet Rights and Principles and an advisor for various non-profits.
Helen Harris
Helen Harris leads Amazon’s policy engagement with global NGOs and other third parties in support of digital inclusion and digital rights. Prior to joining Amazon, Helen worked at a strategic advisory firm, where she crafted and implemented proactive external strategic engagements for a variety of multinational clients. She has worked at several international organizations, including the United Nations, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Helen earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of International Affairs from Columbia University and studied for her PhD in political science at George Washington University.
Jason Pielemeier
As Policy Director, Jason is responsible for working with GNI’s diverse members to develop and articulate GNI’s policy positions, and engaging with policy makers and other stakeholders to enhance protections for free expression and privacy globally.
Prior to joining GNI, Jason was a Special Advisor at the U.S. Department of State, where he led the Internet Freedom, Business, and Human Rights section in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. In that role, Jason worked with colleagues across the U.S. government, counterparts in other governments, and stakeholders around the world to promote and protect human rights online.
Jason is a graduate of Northwestern University and Yale Law School. Between degrees, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer and later led an innovative land titling and conservation project in rural Guatemala. After law school, he worked as a law clerk for the Honorable Raymond J. Dearie in the U.S. Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and as an Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
Jason can be reached at jpielemeier@globalnetworkinitiative.org.
Juan Carlos Lara
J. Carlos Lara is a Chilean lawyer, specialising in law and technology, currently working as the manager of the Public Policy and Research team at Derechos Digitales, a non governmental organisation based in Santiago de Chile that promotes and defends digital rights in Latin America. He has worked as a consultant in intellectual property for public and private entities, has been a research assistant at the Centre of Studies in Cyber Law at the University of Chile, and is currently an LL.M. candidate at UC Berkeley. In Derechos Digitales, he leads research and policy analysis on technology and data privacy, equality, freedom of expression, and access to knowledge and human rights in online platforms.
Kyung Sin "K.S." Park
Kyung Sin PARK (“K.S. Park”), Professor of Korea University Law School (A.B. in Physics, Harvard University, Class of 1992; and J.D., UCLA Law School, Class of 1995), the co-founder of Open Net Korea and a former commissioner of Korea Communications Standards Commission, the country’s Internet/broadcasting content regulation body, has written academically and been active in internet, free speech, privacy, defamation, copyright, etc. Organized and testified in the successful constitutional challenge to Internet Real Name Law, False News Crime Law, etc. One of the drafters of Manila Principles of Intermedia Liability and Necessary and Proportionate Principles.
Laura O'Brien
Laura O’Brien is a lawyer from Canada. She is currently based in New York City, where she works as UN Advocacy Officer at Access Now. In her role, Laura works at the intersection of
human rights and technology to help in the organisation’s mission to defend and extend the digital rights of users at risk worldwide through advocacy at the United Nations and similar multilateral institutions.
Laura has previously worked with human rights experts and international organisations based in Córdoba, Geneva, New York City, Ottawa, and Toronto. She holds an LL.M. from Columbia Law School, where she graduated with honors as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and with a Parker School Certificate of Achievement in International and Comparative Law. She also holds a J.D. from the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law, an M.A. in International Development from the University of Kent, Brussels School of International Studies and a B.A. in Social Justice in Peace Studies from King’s University College at Western University.
Liz Orembo
Liz Orembo currently serves as Communication and Engagement Officer at the Global Cybersecurity Capacity Centre (GCSCC) based at the University of Oxford’s Department of Computer Science. In her role, she works closely with stakeholders in building national cybersecurity capacity through the Cybersecurity Capacity Maturity Assessment Model (CMM), and supporting research works from the CMM that include human-centric cybersecurity approach, country cooperation in building national and regional cybersecurity capacities and cybersecurity awareness. Prior to this role, Liz led programs on stakeholder engagement programs for the ICT policy making communities in Kenya and advocated for digital and civic rights through research, training and engagement, as a program associate at the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet).
Liz Orembo is a Kenyan national with backgrounds in communications and public policy.
Matthew Shears
Matthew’s chief areas of focus are Internet policy and governance, cybersecurity and human rights. From 2014-17 Matthew served as co-chair of the Freedom Online Coalition working group on human rights and cybersecurity, and has been involved in the IANA transition and enhancing ICANN’s accountability over the last few years. His extensive engagement in internet governance has involved the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) since 2005, including the High-Level review meeting in December 2015; the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT); and the Brazil NETmundial meeting. He regularly attends the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) and was a member of the first MAG. Matthew has also worked for the Internet Society, AT&T, Seattle-based broadband satellite start-up Teledesic, and Cisco Systems.
A UK national, he received his MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics and his BA in International Affairs from George Washington University.
Mehwish Ansari
Mehwish Ansari is Head of Digital at ARTICLE 19. There, she leads the Global Digital Program and provides support to the organization’s regional digital programs. As part of the Global Digital Program, she works with her team to build human rights considerations in the design, development, and deployment of Internet infrastructure. In particular, she has participated in the International Telecommunication Union since 2016 as a human rights expert with the delegation of the United Kingdom. Before joining ARTICLE 19, Mehwish worked with the Speech, Privacy & Technology Project and the Human Rights Program at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). She holds an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy from the University of Oxford.
Michael Samway
Michael Samway is president of The Business and Human Rights Group, where he advises technology companies on ethical decision-making regarding free expression, privacy, public safety and national security. Samway spent ten years (2000-2010) at Yahoo!, where he was a vice president and deputy general counsel, founded Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program, and was a founding board member of the Global Network Initiative. He has also testified before Congress on Internet freedom.
Samway is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he also chairs the board of the Master of Science in Foreign Service Program. He has been a senior lecturer at Duke Law School and is a former visiting scholar at the Center for Business and Human Rights at NYU’s Stern School of Business. Samway received BSFS/MSFS degrees from Georgetown University in 1991, was a Fulbright scholar in Chile, and received JD/LLM degrees in comparative and international law from Duke Law School in 1996.
Rebecca Mackinnon
Rebecca MacKinnon is an independent writer, researcher and advocate for global digital rights. Author of the award-winning book, Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom, she was the founding director of Ranking Digital Rights, and is also a co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices. She is on the Board of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists and was also a founding board member of the Global Network Initiative.
Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, MacKinnon was CNN’s Bureau Chief and correspondent in China and Japan between 1998-2004. She has taught at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and held fellowships at Harvard’s Shorenstein and Berkman Centers, the Open Society Foundations, and Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy. She received her AB magna cum laude from Harvard University, was a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan, and currently lives in Washington DC.
Sebastian Smart
Sebastian Smart is regional director for the Chilean National Human Rights Institution and lecturer at Universidad Austral de Chile. He has worked in different NGOs in Chile, United Kingdom and Haiti on issues related to economic, social and cultural rights and human rights in the digital environment.
He holds a PhD in Latin American Studies and Human Rights from University College London and a MA in Human Rights at the same University. He is a lawyer from Universidad Católica de Chile and has published several articles and reports on human rights, particularly on issues related to business and human rights and technology.
Tracy Navichoque
Tracy Navichoque is the Program Manager at the Stanford University Global Digital Policy Incubator (GDPi). She holds an MA in Public Diplomacy from University Southern California and BA with honors in History and International Studies from Northwestern University. She was a Fulbright Scholar to Uruguay.
Veronica Ferrari
Verónica is Global Policy Advocacy Coordinator at the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), where she coordinates the organization and members’ involvement in various global policy spaces.
Before joining APC, she served as a senior policy advisor at the Government Secretariat of Modernization in Argentina, where she led the work with the OECD on digital government, open government, and innovation. In that role, Verónica also represented Argentina at the OECD Public Governance Committee and coordinated the work on gender at the G20 Digital Economy Task Force during the 2018 Argentinian Presidency.
Previously, she worked at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard, the Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information (CELE), and as a consultant with several digital rights organizations in Latin America.
Verónica holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires and a Master’s degree in Public Policy at Central European University. Her work focuses on freedom of expression, privacy, and gender and technology.
Victor Kapiyo
Victor is a human rights lawyer and a Trustee of the Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) an ICT policy think tank based in Nairobi. At KICTAnet, he supports advocacy and has authored or edited several publications on various aspects where human rights intersect with technology including internet freedom, privacy and cybersecurity.
Zach Lampell
Zach Lampell is a Senior Legal Advisor and leads ICNL’s global programming on the freedom of expression, including the emergence of new technologies and civic space. In addition to his work promoting the freedom of expression, Zach oversees several projects in Southeast Asia as part of ICNL’s Asia Program team. His work ranges from implementing and providing technical legal assistance to civil society organizations and governments around the world seeking to improve laws governing the freedom of expression, to research on how artificial intelligence affects civic space.
Prior to joining ICNL, Zach worked with East West Management Institute in Cambodia. Zach also served as the Deputy Director of the English Language Based Bachelor of Law Program at the Royal University of Law and Economics, where he founded the Center for the Study of Humanitarian Law, as well as being an Associate Legal Officer at the Khmer Rouge tribunal prosecuting senior leaders of the genocidal regime.
Zach holds a J.D. with a Concentration in International Law from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, and a Bachelor’s Degree from Wesleyan University. He is also a member of the New York State Bar.
