Guest Speakers

Click on the name of a guest speaker to get more information.

Guest speakers per committee:
Oudemanhuispoort, Saturday January 9th

Security Council
10.00 – 11.15 am – The Situation in Sri Lanka
H.E. Mrs. Grace A. Asirwatham
Ambassor of Sri Lanka to the Netherlands
Mrs. Grace A. Asirwatham assumed duty as ambassador of Sri Lanka to the
 Netherlands on 24th September 2008. She is concurrently accredited as Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the OPCW. Ambassador Asirwatham, a career diplomat, joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1988. Prior to her present assignment, Ambassador Asirwatham held the position of Director General of the South Asia and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has served as Ambassador in Nepal, Consul General at the Sri Lanka Consulate in Bonn and Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Bonn, Germany. Ambassador Asirwatham has also served in Islamabad, Pakistan at the Sri Lanka Embassy. During her diplomatic career, Ambassador Asirwatham served in different capacities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Middle East and African Division, Consular Division and South Asia and SAARC Division.
1.30 – 2.45 pm – Violence against Aid Workers in Peacekeeping Operations
Mr. Arjan Erkel
Gives consulting, lectures and workshops out of his experience.
Arjan Erkel graduated in 1997 as Cultural Anthropologist. He started his working career with Doctors without Borders in Tajikistan as logistical coordinator. After being project coordinator in Uzbekistan and Sierra Leone he started in April 2002 as country director in Russia. The main projects were in the North Caucasus due to the conflict between Russia and Chechnya. Unfortunately he was kidnapped by local criminals and later handed over to a group of Dagestani fundamental Islamic rebels. After 607 days of living between life and death in very small rooms and basements he was released and his second life started. Present day Arjan Erkel is a successful director of two small firms. His business activities vary between consulting, giving lectures and workshops motivating people to stand up for themselves and assisting them in creating a new freedom model.
3.30 – 4.45 pm – The Pakistan-Afghanistan Transborder Situation
Ms. Christa Meindersma LL.M
International lawyer with broad experience in international affairs and diplomacy.
Christa Meindersma LL.M is an international lawyer with broad experience in international affairs and diplomacy. Previously she worked as senior political adviser at the United Nations and the Netherlands’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Christa Meindersma has been involved in peace negotiations and policy advise in East Timor, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kosovo, Darfur, Nepal and New York. Christa is a member of the Committee on Peace and Security of the Advisory Council on International Affairs.
First Committee
10.00 – 11.15 am  – Reviewing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Mr. Sico van der Meer
Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’.
After graduating in History at the University of Nijmegen in 1999, Sico van der Meer worked as a journalist and as a Fellow of a think tank on civil-military relations. In 2006 he became a Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations “Clingendael”. Started as a researcher on Dutch defence policy, he soon also became involved in research on non-proliferation issues. In 2009 the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction became his core research theme, especially focusing on the political dynamics of proliferation. In October 2009 he also started a part time PhD research project on nuclear non-proliferation at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
1.30 – 2.45 pm – The Role of Private Military and Security Companies in Peacekeeping Operations
Mr. Drs. Kees Homan
Research Fellow at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’. Focuses on international Security.
Maj. Gen. (ret.) RNLMC Kees Homan (MA/ LL M) is former director of the Netherlands Defence College. His research at Clingendael Institute focuses on international Security Issues and a wide range of strategic and military studies. At present, General Homan’s research projects include Afghanistan, NATO’s new strategic concept and the effect of climate change on security. General Homan is a regular commentator for Dutch and foreign public news services.
3.30 – 4.45 pm – Combatting the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in Sub-Saharan Africa
Mr. Charles Culpepper MA
Policy analyst in the Defence Transformation Programme at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS)
Charles is a policy analyst in the Defence Transformation Programme at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS), and has a Master’s in International Relations from Webster University. He is a former Captain in the United States Army who led counterinsurgency missions during the Iraq War. He has been a contributing author and researcher on projects connected to the Netherlands’ Ministry of Defence’s Future Policy Survey and has conducted geopolitical risk analysis for the private sector. Charles has also assisted the Pax Ludens Foundation for Training & Research during international conflict and crisis management simulations. His research interests are varied and include among others, the role of Private Military Companies in asymmetrical conflicts, and the use of open dynamic simulation to facilitate geostrategic analysis and international diplomacy.
Second Committee
10.00 – 11.15 am – Global financial crisis threatens the vulnerability of least developed countries
Dr. Mohammed Mwamadzingo
Senior Economist at ILO’s headquarters in Geneva in March 2008.
Mohammed Mwamadzingo joined the Bureau for Workers’ Activities of the International Labour Organisation (ILO/ACTRAV) in 1997. He has been based at the Regional Office for Africa in Abidjan, at the Eastern Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory in Addis Ababa, at the Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa in duty station, Harare, Zimbabwe, and in ILO Area Office Pretoria, South Africa until March 2008. He was appointed the Senior Economist at ILO’s headquarters in Geneva in March 2008. Before coming to the ILO, he worked as a lecture in economics at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. During this period, he undertook numerous consultancy assignments with various organisations including the World Bank, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, United Nations University, UNESCO, International Development Research Centre, DANIDA, local companies, the Government of Kenya, and the ILO.
1.30 – 2.45 pm – Food versus Fuel
Prof. dr. ir. Arthur P.J. Mol
Chair and professor in environmental policy at Wageningen University.
Arthur P.J. Mol is chair and professor in environmental policy at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He is Scientific Director of Mansholt Graduate School of Social Sciences. He works extensively in Southeast and East Asia, East Africa, and the EU. His research interests are in social theory and the environment, globalization, informational governance, greening production and consumption, China, and biofuels. He is at the editorial board of nine international journals and two book series. He is board member of – among others – the WU Academic Board, the research committee Environment and Society of the International Sociological Association, and the Environmental Research Network Asia.
3.30 – 4.45 pm – Millennium Development Goal 1, target 1: Eradicate extreme poverty
Prof. Dr. Sweder van Wijnbergen
Professor of Economics at the University of Amsterdam.
Sweder van Wijnbergen is professor of Economics at the University of Amsterdam and founder and former CEO of Infomedics NV, an internet intermediary in the Dutch healthcare sector. He was professor at the London School of Economics until 1997 and Secretary General of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands from 1997 until 2000. Earlier he worked at the World Bank in Washington DC, where his last position was Chief Economist for Central and Eastern Europe (1989-1993) after working on Mexico during the Brady debt deal and the NAFTA negotiations. He has advised companies and governments in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Latin America on issues ranging from privatisation to macroeconomic policy and tax reform.
Third Committee
10.00 – 11.15 am – Witch-hunt in the 21st Century
Prof. Gerrie ter Haar
Professor of Religion and Development at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague that is part of Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Gerrie ter Haar is Professor of Religion and Development at the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague that is part of Erasmus University Rotterdam. As a scholar of religion she has 
written extensively about spirit beliefs in sub-Saharan Africa. Among her recent books is Imagining Evil: Witchcraft Beliefs and Accusations in Contemporary Africa (ed.) (Africa World Press, 2007). Her latest book is How God Became African: African Spirituality and Western Secular Thought Pennsylvania Press, 2009).
1.30 – 2.45 pm – The Effects of the Global economic downturn on Flows of Migration & Remittances
Mr. Joost van der Aalst
Chief of Mission of the International Organization of Migration.
Since October 2005 Joost van der Aalst is Chief of Mission (COM) of IOM in The Netherlands. As former COM of IOM-offices in Islamabad, Azerbaijan, and Rwanda he covers a wide scope of expertise in the field of migration. Joost van der Aalst gained his expertise from working in several IOM-missions since 1993 (Quelimane in Mozambique). During these fifteen years Joost van der Aalst worked on capacity building with Governments on Migration Management, Micro-credit support for rural development and Demobilisation and integration programmes. Previous to his assignment to IOM Joost van der Aalst worked amongst others at the Royal Netherlands Consulate in Sierra Leone, as consultant for UNICEF and as programme Co-ordinator for the Foundation Tilburg-Same.
3.30 – 4.45 pm – Iraq’s Cultural Herritage
Drs. Marja M. C. van Heese
Art historian at Leiden University.
Marja van Heese is an art historian (Leiden University). Since 1994 she has been an inspector in what is now the Collections and Archives Division of the Cultural Heritage Inspectorate, an independent Directorate within the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in The Hague. The Cultural Heritage Inspectorate focuses among other things on state-owned collections housed in national museums and in the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage as well as on objects protected under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act, EU-legislation on cultural goods and the UNESCO-Conventions 1970 and 1954. Within the Cultural Heritage Inspectorate, Marja van Heese is responsible for ensuring implementation of EU and international legislation on cultural goods. She takes a special interest in protection against trafficking in cultural property.
Human Rights Council
10.00 – 11.15 am – Millennium Development Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Prof. dr. Cees Flinterman
Honorary professor of human rights at Utrecht University.
Professor Cees Flinterman is presently honorary professor of human rights at Utrecht University. He also holds a special chair on the United Nations and human rights at Maastricht University. Since 2003 professor Flinterman is a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. He further is a member of the Standing Commission on Human Rights of the Netherlands Advisory Council on International Affairs. His other functions include: editor in chief of the Netherlands Human Rights Quarterly and chair of the Foundation True Heroes; Films on Human Rights Defenders.
1.30 – 2.45 pm – The Freedom of Religion versus the Freedom of Speech
Dr. Jeroen Temperman
Associate professor of international law at the Department of International Law, University of Amsterdam.
Jeroen Temperman is associate professor of international law at the Department of International Law, University of Amsterdam, and research fellow at the Amsterdam Center for International Law. He has published extensively in the field of international human rights law, more specifically on issues of religion–state relationships, freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression. His book “State-Religion Relationships and Human Rights Law: Towards a Right to Religiously Neutral Governance” is forthcoming (spring 2010). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Religion & Human Rights Journal.
3.30 – 4.45 pm – Upholding Human Rights while Countering Terrorism
Mr. Arjan Hamburger
Dutch human rights ambassador.
Arjan Hamburger became the Dutch human rights ambassador on 3 September 2007. This position was created in late 1999 to strengthen the human rights component in foreign policy and make it more coherent. Before starting his duties as human rights ambassador, Arjan Hamburger was Deputy Permanent Representative at the Netherlands Mission to the United Nations in New York from 2002 until 2007. He has also been director of the Africa Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1992 until 1998 he was Head of Economic Section, Netherlands Mission to the United Nations in New York. He started his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1973, where he held various positions, handling European affairs and UN affairs.

Clingendael Negotiation Simulation:
Oudemanhuispoort, Friday January 8th

1.30 – 5.30 pm
Mr. Paul Meerts
Director of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’.
Paul Meerts is Advisor to the Director of the Clingendael Institute and visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges), the University of Economics (Prague), and the UNESCO Institute for Water Education (Delft). As co-founder of Clingendael he has been Director of the Department of Training and Education (1983-1989) and Deputy Director of the Institute (1990-2006).

Opening ceremony:
De Rode Hoed, Friday January 8th

9.45 – 10.00 am
Ms. Sanne Snieder MSc
Chairperson of the UNISCA Board of Directors
10.00 – 10.30 am
Dr. Job Cohen
Mayor of Amsterdam
Before becoming Mayor of Amsterdam in 2001, mr. Cohen was a professor and rector magnificus at Maastricht University. From 1993 to 1994 Cohen served as Deputy Minister of Education and Science, after which he returned to Maastricht University from 1995 to 1998, again as rector magnificus. Also in 1995 he was elected as a member of the Upper House of the Dutch parliament. After a brief interim directorship in 1998 of the VPRO broadcasting organisation (public sector), he resigned from the Upper House of parliament and served from 1998 to 2001 as Deputy Minister of Justice under Labour Prime Minister Wim Kok, and introduced a new Dutch immigration law. Cohen resigned from the cabinet at the end of 2000. Mayor Cohen personally has brought the fight against poverty in urban areas back on the political agenda and is, again in close collaboration with his aldermen, working hard on improving the economic position of Amsterdam. The mayor is involved in international cooperation with countries like Surinam, Morocco, Turkey, Ghana, and the Netherlands Antilles (all of which are the countries of origin of major immigration groups in Amsterdam).
10.30 – 11.00 am
Prof. dr. ir. Louise O. Freso
University professor in Amsterdam, has been ranked 4th most influential woman of the Netherlands in 2009
Louise O. Fresco’s career has involved inter alia more than ten years of field work in tropical countries, travels to over 80 countries and a PhD cum laude in tropical agronomy at the Wageningen University.She held several leading positions within the FAO of the UN. The permanent theme of her life is a strong commitment to international development, agriculture and food. She also published seven books and over one hundred scientific articles. Currently, as a university professor in Amsterdam, she writes a newspaper column and she advises the Dutch government. Louise Fresco has been ranked the 4th most influential woman in The Netherlands in 2009 and is involved in a large number of cultural and social activities.
11.30 – 12.30 am
Prof. dr. Cees J. Hamelink
Emeritus Professor of International Communication at the University of Amsterdam and Emeritus Professor for Media, Religion and Culture at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam.
Dr. Cees J. Hamelink is Emeritus Professor of International Communication at the University of Amsterdam and Emeritus Professor for Media, Religion and Culture at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam. He is currently Professor for Management of Information and Knowledge at the University of Aruba, Professor of Human Rights and Public Health at the VU, and Visiting Professor of Free Speech at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is also the editor-in-chief of the International Communication Gazette and Honorary President of the International Association for Media and Communication Research. He is author of 17 monographs on communication, culture, and human rights. Professor Hamelink received life-time achievements awards from the International Communication Association and the World Association for Christian Communication. He has been consultant to many national governments and to agencies in the UN system. He was special adviser to the UN Secretary-General for the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003 and 2005.