Biographies of the members of the Group Eminent Experts on Yemen

Mr Kamel Jendoubi (Chairperson)(Tunisia)

Mr Kamel Jendoubi served as the President of the Independent Higher Electoral Commission (ISIE), which organized the first free and democratic elections in Tunisia, in October, 2011. He has served as a member and president of several human rights associations, including the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network and Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. He was also a member of the executive council of the World Organization Against Torture. Jendoubi spent 17 years in exile as a result of his human rights activism in Tunisia.

Ms Melissa Parke (Australia)

Ms Melissa Parke was a federal member of parliament from 2007 to 2016 and was appointed as minister for international development in 2013.   Parke spent eight years working for the UN as a senior lawyer, including with UNMIK in Kosovo and UNRWA in Palestine. She has served in UN headquarters in the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Management where she helped to establish the UN Ethics Office. Parke also served as Deputy Chief of Staff and legal adviser to the UN Independent Investigation Commission into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Dr. Ardi Imseis (Canada)

Dr. Ardi Imseis is a professor of public international law in the Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, and a barrister and solicitor. From 2002-2014, he served in senior legal and policy capacities with UNRWA and UNHCR in the Middle East, covering operations in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. An expert in international humanitarian and human rights law, he has been invited to address the Security Council in his personal capacity on various occasions, including on the protection of civilian persons in time of war and the 2014 Gaza conflict. He is former Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and Human Rights Fellow, Columbia Law School, Visiting Research Scholar, Department of Law, American University in Cairo, and Senior Legal Counsel to the Chief Justice of Alberta.

Privileges, immunities and facilities

The GEE shall enjoy the privileges and immunities accorded to experts on mission under Article IV of the 1948 Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the UN, and the OHCHR staff of the GEE shall enjoy the privileges and immunities of officials under Article V and VII of the Convention in the implementation of this mandate.

Former Members

Mr Charles Garraway, from the United Kingdom,served for 30 years as a legal officer in the UK Army Legal Services, as criminal prosecutor and then adviser in the law of armed conflict and operational law.  He was part of the UK delegations to the First Review Conference for the 1981 Conventional Weapons Convention and the negotiations on the establishment of an International Criminal Court. Until recently he was a member of the International Humanitarian Fact Finding Commission under Article 90 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. He is currently a Fellow at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex.