Board of Directors

Roberta Cecchetti is a children's rights expert with a 25-year career and wide international experience in child protection, safeguarding and defending children's rights. She has worked with non-governmental organisations and United Nations agencies, including 15 years with Save the Children.

Ms Cecchetti has contributed to the drafting and testing of international statistical classifications on alternative care and violence against children, and has provided technical expertise on safeguarding and child protection in investigations into sexual abuse in public schools.

Ms Cecchetti's consultancy work extends to a range of organisations, where she has conducted evaluations of national child protection systems in several countries, developed regional advocacy strategies on alternative care for children, and provided technical leadership for governance reviews of multi-stakeholder alliances.

Ms Cecchetti's career includes key roles at Save the Children International, where she led child protection policy and advocacy, and served as UN representative and head of office in Geneva. She also coordinated country programmes for Save the Children Italy and managed the child rights programme at the World Organisation Against Torture. Early in her career, she managed projects at the European Forum for Child Protection in Brussels, helping to manage pan-European projects. Throughout her career, Ms Cecchetti has demonstrated a strong commitment to promoting children's rights and ensuring their protection in various international contexts. She was President of Child Rights Connect for three years and of the Global Detention Project for five years.

Based in Geneva, Ms Cecchetti has worked throughout her career in various countries and speaks Italian, English, French and Spanish.

Born in rural community in Manitoba, Canada, Darrel Nadeau grew up on the family dairy farm. It is in this small yet proud French-speaking community that Darrel gained his family values and work ethic. Darrel went on to complete a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Manitoba. After one year in the private sector, Darrel accepted a position as a Foreign Service Officer with the Government of Canada. Here he gained insight on the public service, international affairs, human rights and diplomacy. After serving nearly 4 years in Ottawa, Darrel decided to return to Manitoba and completed a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) and a Certified Management Accountant (CMA/CPA) designation. He would go on to work for 6 years as a Manager in Finance and Administration for the Canadian Centre for Child Protection as well as nearly 6 years as Executive Director of Festival du Voyageur, Western Canada’s largest annual French-language event.

In April 2023, Darrel was appointed Vice-President, Visitor Experience at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, where he oversees the continuous improvement of the visitor experience as well as the growth of self-generated revenue activities. His portfolio has recently expanded to include the museum’s public programming, community engagement and Indigenous relations. Darrel is also volunteer Treasurer of the Montreal-based International Bureau for Children’s Rights. His work at the museum and in the community are centered around his passions for purpose-based organizational management, human rights, and arts and culture.

Called to the Quebec Bar in December 1980, Ms. Murphy has devoted her career to criminal and penal prosecutions within the Quebec government.

In 1981, she joined the team of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) in Montreal as a prosecutor, where she focused on the treatment of young offenders. From 2003 to 2007, she served as Deputy Chief Prosecutor at the Montreal Youth Bureau before taking on the position of Chief Prosecutor until June 2012, when she was appointed Deputy Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions of Quebec. In July 2014, she assumed the position of Acting Director of this institution until her appointment by the Conseil des Ministres as Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions in January 2015. She will hold this position until her retirement from the institution in February 2021. At the time of her departure, the institution had over 1300 employees, including approximately 700 prosecutors.

Ms. Murphy has acted as a speaker, facilitator and trainer for prosecutors, professionals and students throughout her career. She has also accompanied numerous Quebec delegations to promote the Quebec model of intervention with young offenders abroad. In addition to her expertise in the treatment of young offenders, in 2003 she managed the modernization of the computer infrastructure in this field of activity.

In September 2021, Ms Murphy took part in a high-level workshop in Dakar organized by IBCR, in collaboration with UNICEF and Save the Children Sweden, bringing together international experts in children's rights.In 2012, she created the Bureau des affaires de la jeunesse within the DPCP in order to improve and standardize the processing of youth files throughout Quebec. In September 2014, she was awarded the distinction of Advocatus Emeritus of the Quebec Bar for the excellence of her career.

Ghizlane Benjelloun is an associate professor of child psychiatry and head of department at the Ibn Rochd University Hospital Centre in Casablanca, Morocco. She is a founding member and president of the Moroccan Society of Child Psychiatry and Associated Professions (SMPPA) and organizer of a university degree on baby psychology and psychopathology.

She is also a teacher at the Faculty of Medicine and provides specialized consultation in the accompaniment of children and adolescents who are victims of psychological and sexual physical violence. Her department actively collaborates with child protection units. For example, it participates in programmes with judges and judicial bodies to improve listening to child victims of abuse. She has facilitated several conferences and seminars on violence, including training for psychologists and social workers who assist children of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Ghizlane Benjelloun is currently vice-president of the Observatoire National des Droits de l'Enfant in Morocco and sits on the board of AEPEA (Association Européenne de Psychopathologie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent) and the UNION des Femmes du Maroc. She is also a member of the founding committee of the Lalla Meryem Chair.

As an author, she has published Être parent : de la grossesse à 3 ans (Being a parent: from pregnancy to age 3), published by La Croisée des Chemins.

In 2024, she was named Personality of the Year in Morocco by the United Nations.

Ms Stina Belfrage, a Swedish national, is Global Head of Internal Audit for a Swiss group. She is a professional in finance, strategic audit and risk management, and has supervised operations in over 40 countries.

She is an expert in cultural diversity and inclusion, supervision, governance and fundraising, helping organizations to ensure their compliance, success and long-term viability. She also lends this expertise to several boards of directors.

She speaks Swedish, French and English.

Luis Ernesto Pedernera Reyna was a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, with a mandate for the period 2017/2021. He was Chairman of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, elected by acclamation and becoming the first Latin American and Spanish-speaking person to chair this body. He was Vice-President of the UN Meeting of Chairpersons of Treaty Bodies. He was the coordinator of the General Debate Day "Strengthening Children as Human Rights Defenders" held in 2018.

He is a member of the working group on individual petitions of the Third Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. He has visited countries in different regions of the world at the invitation of States, national human rights institutions, children's ombudsmen, United Nations agencies and civil society organizations to help disseminate and implement the conclusions and recommendations.

Member of the Academic Committee of the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Juvenile Justice of the University of Geneva and the Institut de droit de l’Enfant. He is a guest lecturer in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Uruguay and abroad and the author of numerous articles on children's rights in specialized and academic publications.

President of the Scientific Committee of the World Congress on Juvenile Criminal Justice to be held in Mexico in 2021. She is a member of the Governing Board of the African Child Policy Forum. He was executive secretary of the Uruguayan Coalition for the Follow-up of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. He was a member of the National Honorary and Consultative Council for Children and Adolescents, a coordinating body created by the Code for Children and Adolescents in Uruguay. He was a member of the Board of Directors of IELSUR (Instituto de Estudios legales y Sociales del Uruguay). He was a member of the Coordinating Council of the Latin American and Caribbean Network for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (REDLAMYC), where he represented the Southern Sub-Region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay).

He has a vast experience in monitoring the adolescent criminal justice systems, has visited and coordinated work teams for the inspection of children's detention centers, in Uruguay and other countries, working specifically in the fight against torture.

In 2011, he founded the National Commission against the Lowering of the Age of Imputability, which worked to stop the constitutional reform that in 2014 attempted to judge adolescents by the adult criminal justice system.

Ms. Kourany has outstanding expertise and a keen interest in human rights and global security issues. She began her career with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where she spent ten years working in various African countries.

She then joined the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, specializing in international law and human rights. Her work focused on major issues such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and UN Security Council Resolutions 1662 and 1882 on children and armed conflict. Ms. Kourany was a key player in Canada's efforts to extend the definition of children affected by armed conflict to include more vulnerable young people.

Internationally, she has represented Canada at key forums, including the United Nations General Assembly, the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council. As Chief Negotiator for Canada, she chaired the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme Reform Committee and led major governance initiatives in the extractive industries.

During her career, she also served as special assistant to the Prime Minister's personal representative for the G8 in Africa. She oversaw the implementation of the 2002 Kananaskis Accord within the framework of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and the African Union. Before retiring in 2019, she held the position of Head of the Secretariat coordinating Canada's fight against Daesh as well as the crises in Syria and Iraq.

Ms. Kourany is multilingual and fluent in French, English, Spanish and Arabic, strengthening her effectiveness in multicultural and international contexts.

Mrs Hermine KEMBO TAKAM GATSING, Cameroonian by nationality, is a Magistrate by profession. She has worked at both operational and strategic levels. She is a member of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. She is also involved in human rights training for judicial and penitentiary personnel, with specific themes on the rights of the child, child-friendly justice, the rights of refugees and the rights of convicts. She has had the opportunity to work with authorities in over 30 African countries to strengthen their policies on children's rights. She speaks French and English.