Founding Patrons:
The Pears Foundation
Patrons:
Romeo Dallaire
Bob Geldof
Richard Goldstone
Clare Short
Marcus Storch
Desmond Tutu
Elie Wiesel
Governing Body:
John Montgomery (Chair & Trustee)
James Smith (CEO)
John Petrie (Trustee)
Max Marcus (Trustee)
Glen Ford (Director)
Aegis Team:
Dr James Smith
Chief Executive Officer
+44 (0)1623 836 627
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Dr. James Smith is co-founder and Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust, both in the UK and Rwanda. During the crisis in Kosovo in 1999, Dr. Smith initiated the East Midlands Kosovo Appeal and worked with the International Medical Corps in Albania and Kosovo as a volunteer physician. (He is a medical doctor, qualified Leeds, 1993). Dr Smith worked with the Rwandan Government and Kigali City Council to develop the Kigali Memorial Centre in 2004. Hundreds of thousands of genocide victims are buried there. The site is now an internationally renowned educational exhibition and documentation centre. He is also co-founder of the UK Holocaust Memorial and Educational Centre, where the lessons of history are applied to the prevention of mass atrocities and is visited by over six hundred students each week.
Melissa Pack
Senior Counsel - International Justice Programme
+44 (0)20 7481 1000
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Melissa Pack is a barrister and senior counsel on the international justice programme. She was called to the Bar in 1995 and worked in private practice from Chambers in London until 2002. Between 2002 and 2007 she worked as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). At ICTY she was a trial attorney on the Milosevic case (amongst others) and at SCSL a trial attorney on the Brima et al case.
Alain Werner
Senior Counsel - International Justice Programme
+44 (0)20 7481 1000
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Alain Werner is a Swiss lawyer admitted to the Bar of Geneva (2002) and senior counsel on the international justice programme. Since 2003 he has worked at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). AT SCSL he worked as a prosecutor on the Sesay and al case and the Charles Taylor case. At ECCC he represented civil parties in the Kaing Guek Eav case. He has also acted as a consultant for Human Rights Watch in the procedure against former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre.
David Brown
Head of Media and Communications
+44 (0)1623 836 627
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In his ten years with the Aegis Trust, David has worked on documentation, education and awareness campaigns with partner organisations from the Home Office to the United Nations. He has placed numerous stories and interviews with survivors and perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity into national and international print, broadcast and online media. From 2005-2009, he coordinated Aegis’ successful campaign to change UK policy on removal of Darfuri asylum seekers to Sudan.
Richard Newell
International Trips Coordinator
+44 (0)1623 836 627
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Richard is Aegis Student's International Trips Coordinator for Aegis Students, of which he was founding member, society president, campaigns director and steering commitee member. For more information on our annual trips to Rwanda and to Bosnia.
Rachel Cummings
Projects Coordinator
+44 (0)20 7481 1000
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Rachel Cummings runs advocacy, campaign and research projects for The Aegis Trust. This involves everything from arranging speaker tours, writing briefings and liaising with British MPs and peers in the All Party Parliamentary Group for Genocide Prevention. Before joining Aegis, Rachel worked as a researcher in parliament and led a coalition campaigning for improved civilian protection in Eastern Congo. She has a degree from Somerville College, Oxford University and studied International Humanitarian Law at the LSE.
Andy Fearn
Aegis Students National Coordinator
+44 (0)20 7481 1000
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Andy is responsible for running Aegis Students in the UK which involves devising and implementing educational and campaigning strategies to raise awareness of genocide and mass atrocities amongst young people as well as furnishing them with the advocacy skills and confidence to become active in genocide prevention.
Andy’s interest in the topic of genocide prevention began after a trip to Cambodia when he was 18 and continued throughout both his degree in history and his masters degree in human rights, during which he focussed on genocide and its causes. From these studies Andy believes that it is of huge importance that young people in the UK understand where divisive rhetoric can lead if allowed to go unchecked.
Before joining Aegis, Andy worked for Battersea Labour Party as a campaigns organiser and helped in raising awareness and producing literature for The Neda Foundation, an Iranian human rights/humanitarian aid NGO.
