Judging Committee

Megawati Sukarnoputri is an Indonesian politician who served as the fifth president of Indonesia from 2001 to 2004. She previously served as the eighth vice president from 1999 to 2001.

Megawati is Indonesia's first female president and the sixth woman to lead a Muslim-majority country. Megawati was instrumental in creating the Corruption Eradication Commission, an agency task to combatting corruption in Indonesia. She also set up a general election system for the first time, in which the Indonesian people can directly elect the president and vice president, in addition to electing candidates for the legislature. As a result, she was given the title "Mother of Upholding the Constitution".

She is the first and current (as of 2023) leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), one of Indonesia's largest political parties. She is the eldest daughter of Indonesia's first President, Sukarno.

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, was ordained a priest on 2 December 1967 and holds a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University.

In 1971 he entered the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and in 1974 he served at the nunciature in Madagascar. From 1977 to 1989, he worked at the Secretariat of State. In 1989 he was posted to the United States as counsellor at the nunciature and served as papal representative at the Organization of American States. From 1997 to 2000 was Apostolic Nuncio (papal ambassador) to Venezuela, and then to Mexico. From 2000 to 2007 served as Substitute of the Secretary of State.

Between June 2007 and the end of 2022, the cardinal has served as prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, which assists the 22 Eastern-rite churches in full union with Rome, as well as helping Latin-rite Catholic dioceses in parts of North Africa and throughout the Middle East.

On 24 January 2020, His Holiness Pope Francis approved his election as Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals.

Rebeca Grynspan Mayufis of Costa Rica was appointed the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on 13 September 2021. She is the first woman in the history of the institution to hold this position. She is also coordinator of the task team of the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance, set up by the United Nations Secretary-General to help support developed and developing countries face the economic shocks related to the war in Ukraine.

A renowned advocate of human development, Ms. Grynspan has helped to focus the world’s attention on relevant issues such as the reduction of inequality and poverty, gender equality, South–South cooperation as a tool for development and achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

She was also a delegate to the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, a group consisting of the Government of Haiti, former President of the United States of America Bill Clinton and other prominent international partners.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper is Chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent and bipartisan U.S. federal government agency that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief.

Rabbi Cooper has been a longtime activist for human rights causes on five continents. Rabbi Cooper is an acknowledged expert on online hate and terrorism and has helped produce and present the SWC’s renowned traveling exhibitions at the Vatican, the UN, Knesset, US Congress, Tokyo, New Delhi, and Buenos Aires. He is a founder of the Global Forum on Anti-Semitism.

He is a recipient of Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Community Service Leadership Memorial Award, a recipient of an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University. Newsweek/Daily Beast lists Rabbi Cooper and Rabbi Hier as No. 8 among the 50 Most Influential Rabbis in the US.

Irina Bokova served as the Director-General of UNESCO for two terms, from 2009 to 2017.

As Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova was actively engaged in the adoption of UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, most notably Goal 4 on “inclusive and equitable quality education and life-long learning for all”, advocating for the critical role of science for development, gender equality, as well as the protection of the world’s cultural heritage.

She was particularly active in promoting intercultural dialogue, mutual respect and cultural diversity, defending cultural heritage in conflict in Mali, Syria and Iraq and in denouncing extremists’ destruction of heritage as a tool of war, which lead to the adoption by the UN Security Council of several landmark resolutions on the link between maintaining peace, security and the protection of cultural heritage.

In 2016 Irina Bokova was on the Forbes list of the most influential women. In 2020, she was elected International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2021 - Honorary Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences (WAAS). Currently, she is a Member of the Board of “Ban Ki Moon Centre for Global Citizens”.

Judge Mohamed Abdelsalam played a pivotal role in the preparation of the Document on Human Fraternity, signed by His Holiness Pope Francis and His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb in 2019 in Abu Dhabi. In recognition of his efforts promoting tolerance and interfaith dialogue, Pope Francis awarded Judge Abdelsalam papal knighthood, making him the first Egyptian and Arab Muslim to receive such an accolade. He was a key member of the Constituent Assembly responsible for drafting Egypt’s new constitution in 2013 and has contributed to shaping Al-Azhar’s documents. Judge Abdelsalam has also been awarded the Commemorative Medal of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt.

In 2022, he was honored with the Astana Award by the President of Kazakhstan for his efforts in promoting dialogue and human fraternity. In 2023, he received the ‘Religious Tolerance Award’ from the Republic of Uzbekistan and was awarded the ‘Community Service Medal’ by the Ministry of Interior in the United Arab Emirates.

Judge Abdelsalam documented the journey to the creation of the Document on Human Fraternity in his book titled, ‘The Pope and the Grand Imam: A Thorny Path – A Testimony to the Birth of the Document on Human Fraternity,’ with forewords by Pope Francis and Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb. The book has been published in seven languages.

His Excellency also serves as Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Elders, Co-President of the Religions for Peace, and is a member of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, the Board of Trustees of the Al-Azhar World Center for Interfaith Dialogue, the King Hamad Global Center for Peaceful Coexistence, and the Egyptian Family House.

H.E. Mr. Miguel Ángel Moratinos is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General holding the post of High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) since January 2019- present.

In February 2020, Mr. Moratinos was designated by the United Nations Secretary-General as the UN Focal Point to monitor Anti-Semitism and enhance a system-wide-response. He carries out this portfolio in addition to his other responsibilities.

Mr. Moratinos has committed his professional and political career to international relations and development cooperation and peace and security notably as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain (2004-2010) and the European Union Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process (1996-2003). During his tenure as Foreign Minister, Spain presided over the UN Security Council in 2004, held the chairmanships-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe and the Council of the European Union.

Mr. Moratinos has received numerous recognitions, including the League of Arab States Award in March 2019 from the Secretary-General of the organization, Mr. Ahmed Abulgheit, in recognition for his role in strengthening Arab-Spanish relations. He is also the recipient of honorary doctorates from the Universities of Saint-Petersburg, Malta, as well as Ben-Gurion, Al-Quds and Tel Aviv universities.

Dr. Epsy Campbell Barr is a member of the Permanent Forum on Afro-descendants of the United Nations, is a former Vice President of the Republic of Costa Rica (2018-2022), the first Afro-descendant woman to hold this high position in the American continent, and Afro-Costa Rican leader, twice deputy (2002-2006; 2014-2018) and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship (2018). She is a human rights researcher and activist on issues related to women, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, human development, social inclusion, and the environment.

She has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as one of the most powerful women in Latin America and the Caribbean (2019), by the Strategy and Business Magazine as one of the most influential women in the region (2019), by the African Renaissance Network and from the Diaspora as one of the most relevant Afro-descendant leaders in the region (2019); and by the Most Influential People of African Descent Organization (MIPAD) as one of the most important women of African descent in the world.

She was a promoter in Costa Rica of the approval of the Inter-American Convention against Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Related Forms of Intolerance (2016); She is a member of the Committee that prepared the "Regional Human Development Report (IRDH) for Latin America and the Caribbean: Multidimensional Progress" (2016) coordinated by UNDP; Director of more than fifteen international investigations and author of 20 publications on social inclusion.

In her role as Vice President of the Republic of Costa Rica, she promoted the North Zone Development Strip Program, to promote greater human development in the North Huetar Region of the country, receiving migrant population. She oversaw the National Plan for the Economic Empowerment and Leadership of Women, to reduce gender gaps and generate greater opportunities.

His Eminence Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle of Manila, Philippines has served as Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples at the Holy See since 2019 when His Holiness Pope Francis appointed him to the position. Cardinal Tagle is also Gran Chancellor of the Pontifical University Urbaniana in Rome, Italy.

Cardinal Tagle hosts the television show “The Word Exposed,” a program run by the Jesuits of the Philippines. His Eminence is a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education and the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, and is a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

Previously, Cardinal Tagle served as the Archbishop of Manila from 2011 to 2019 and is now Metropolitan Archbishop Emeritus of Manila. He received his doctorate in theology from the Catholic University of America in Washington.

His Eminence was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church in 1982, and was proclaimed a Cardinal in 2012.

Mr. Kailash Satyarthi has been a tireless advocate of children’s rights globally for more than four decades. Through his organization, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, he has directly rescued more than 100,000 children from child labour, slavery, trafficking and other forms of exploitation. The Global March Against Child Labor, which he led, galvanized support in 103 countries resulting in the adoption of ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, which in 2020, became the only universally ratified convention in the history of the ILO.

He is also the founding president of the Global Campaign for Education, an exemplar civil society movement working to end the global education crisis, He has been at the forefront of driving child related agendas into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which resulted in the UN Secretary General appointing Mr Satyarthi an SDG Advocate in 2021.

In 2014, Mr Satyarthi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his lifetime of struggle against the exploitation of children and young people and for the right of all children to education. Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation is ensuring an end to exploitation of children in India and around the world by addressing the inequality, injustice and discrimination that lie at the core of child labor.

Alongside former child laborers and students, he also launched the 100 million campaign in 2016 to inspire and mobilize young people to stand up and act for their own rights and the rights of their peers. The campaign is a youth-led call to action for a world where all young people are free, safe and educated and works towards ending violence against children, eradication of child labour, and ensures education, breaking cycles of illiteracy and poverty for good.

Born in Gabes (Tunisia) in 1961, Dr. Ouided Bouchamaoui is the first woman elected in 2011, to the position of President of UTICA, the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (Confederation of Private employers).

Dr. Ouided Bouchamaoui is a member of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2015 for his success in the mission that led to the presidential and legislative elections and the ratification of the new Constitution in 2014.

Dr. Bouchamaoui undertook the role of Peace Emissary. Through her various speeches and interventions, Ouided Bouchamaoui explained how such an experience could generate know-how in dialogue and mediation: by reinventing codes, demanding new ways of acting, and establishing new patterns to think politics in the noble sense of the word, which is the citizen action at the service of the collective interest.

As President of UTICA, Dr. Ouided Bouchamaoui received from 2011 to January 2018, a multitude of official delegations, heads of State and Government, Ministers, as well as Representatives of the Highest International Authorities.

Dr. Bouchamaoui has become a very active member of civil society and recognized as a key actor on the economic and politic scene.

Judge Mohamed Abdelsalam is the Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Elders, an international independent organization dedicated to promoting peace within Muslim communities and between Muslim and non-Muslim communities.

He served as a special advisor to His Eminence the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Professor Ahmed Al-Tayeb and assisted in drafting the Document on Human Fraternity, a historic declaration signed by His Holiness Pope Francis and the Grand Imam on February 4, 2019 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Pope Francis awarded Judge Abdelsalam papal knighthood - “Knight Commander with Star of the Order of Pius IX” - for his services towards spreading tolerance and interfaith dialogue. He is the first Arab and Muslim to be awarded this accolade from the head of the Catholic Church.

He published “The Pope and the Grand Imam: A Thorny Path” book in Arabic, English, and Italian, recounting the journey leading up to the Document on Human Fraternity. The book has forewords by the Pope and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar.

He participated as a key member in the constitutional assembly charged with drafting and amending Egypt’s new constitution between 2012-2013 and participated in drafting Al-Azhar documents during the period from 2011-2018. He was awarded the Medal of the Constitutional Court by the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt in recognition of his distinguished representation of the Egyptian judiciary during his time at Al-Azhar and the Constitutional Assembly.

He is a member of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, Al-Azhar Center for Interreligious Dialogue, Religions for Peace organization based in New York, and the Egyptian Family House.

His Excellency Mahamadou Issoufou is the former president of Niger, serving from 2011 to 2021. He had previously served as Prime Minister of Niger from April 1993 to September 1994, when he resigned. He then became President of the National Assembly from February 18, 1995 to January 27, 1996, when a military coup put an end to the democratic process underway. During the period of political instability that followed the disputed elections of July 1996, His Excellency Mahamadou Issoufou was subject to persecution, including arrests, deportations, house arrest and other deprivations of liberty. After the 1999 presidential election, which he lost in the second round, he became the leader of the Nigerien political opposition until 2010. In 2011, Mahamadou Issoufou was elected President of the Republic of Niger. In 2013 he was appointed as co-chairman of the Presidential Task Force on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) single currency project. He has served as Chairman of the Climate Commission for the Sahel region in the COP 21 and Chairman of the High Level Committee for Food Security of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU)

His Excellency José Ramos Horta is a Nobel Peace Laureate who previously served as President of East Timor from 2007 to 2012. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his work towards a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor. Before becoming president, His Excellency Horta served as Prime Minister and Minister of Defense from 2006 to 2007 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation from 2002 to 2006.

After leaving office, Ramos-Horta was appointed as the United Nations' Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) in January 2013. In October 2014, he was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to chair the High Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. In her role as head of the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and women empowerment, Ms. Mlambo-Ngucka promotes the role of women in leadership and the end of discrimination and violence against women and girls, through coalition and movement building among global leaders in public and private sectors.

A longtime champion of women’s rights, Ms. Mlambo-Ngucka previously served as South Africa’s Deputy President, Minister of Minerals and Energy, and Deputy Minister in the Department of Trade and Industry Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka also worked as a teacher and gained international experience as a coordinator at the World YWCA in Geneva, where she established a global program for young women. She is the founder of the Umlambo Foundation, which supports leadership and education

His Eminence Cardinal Michael Czerny is the Under-secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Holy See's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, a position he has held since 2017. A member of the Jesuit order, Cardinal Czerny has worked to promote social justice in Canada, Latin America, Africa, and Rome. He founded and directed the African Jesuit Aids Network (Ajan), a support network for African Jesuits engaged in finding solutions to the HIV pandemic.

For ten years, until 2002, Cardinal Czerny served as secretary of the Secretariat for Social Justice at the General Curia of the Jesuits in Rome. On October 5, 2019, Pope Francis made him Cardinal Deacon of San Michele Arcangelo, Rome. He was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples on February 21, 2020.

Dr. Leah Pisar is Chair of Project Aladdin, which works to counter violent extremism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Muslim bigotry and to foster dialogue with the Muslim world at-large, and to address Europe’s “crisis of social cohesion.” It works with governments, civil society leaders, and educators throughout the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Asia. Launched in 2009 by Jacques Chirac, King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Shimon Peres, Abdoulaye Wade, Gerhard Schroeder and Prince Hassan of Jordan - with the support of the European Union and the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia, and several other nations - Project Aladdin has produced a considerable body of literature in Arabic, Farsi and Turkish, including the first translations of The Diary of Anne Frank (2 million copies in Arabic and Farsi sold or downloaded), as well as a series of books about the history of the Jews in Muslim lands, authored by respected Muslim and Jewish historians.

Dr. Pisar is an expert on transatlantic relations and on US and EU foreign policy, with substantial knowledge of the Middle East and the workings of the United Nations. She held several positions in the Clinton administration: At the White House as Director for communications at the National Security Council, at the U.S. Department of State in the Bureau of Public Affairs and at the U.S. Embassy in Paris as Special Assistant and Speechwriter to Ambassador Pamela Harriman.

Judge Mohamed Abdelsalam is the Secretary-General of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, an independent international organization. He is a member judge of the State Council of Egypt and the former special advisor to the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Professor Ahmed Al-Tayeb. He took part in drafting the Document on Human Fraternity, co-signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in February 2019. The same year, Pope Francis awarded Judge Abdelsalam the Order of Pope Pius IX, Knight Commander with Star, for his services towards spreading tolerance and interfaith dialogue. He is the first Egyptian, Arab, and Muslim to be awarded this accolade. Judge Abdelsalam represented Al-Azhar Al-sharif — the oldest Islamic institution and the world’s most prestigious center of Arabic and Islamic studies—in the Constituent Assembly charged with drafting a new constitution for Egypt and participated in drafting Al-Azhar Documents from 2011-2018. Judge Abdelsalam is a member of the executive office of the Muslim Council of Elders, an advisor to the Muslim Council of Elders, and a member of Al-Azhar Center for Interreligious Dialogue.

H.E. Catherine Samba-Panza is a corporate lawyer and business leader who is also involved in promoting human rights within civil society. She was appointed Mayor of Bangui in 2013 and elected Transition Head of State by the Parliament in January 2014. She remains the first female President of the Central African Republic, Head of State in the central African region and in the French-speaking world, and the second female President in all of Africa.

H.E. Samba-Panza is an active promoter of gender equality. She is the President of the Pan African Women's Leadership Observatory (OPALEF) and co-Chair of African Union Women Network for Conflict prevention and mediation (FemWise-Africa). She is also a pioneer of the African Women Leaders Network for the transformation in Africa (AWLN).

H.E. Jusuf Kalla is an Indonesian politician and businessman who served as the 10th (2004-2009) and 12th (2014-2019) Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia. In 2001, He was appointed as Coordinating Minister for Welfare of the Republic of Indonesia (2001 – 2004). In 1999, H.E. Kalla became Minister of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Indonesia. His career has included many community activities. Since 2009, H.E. Muhammad Jusuf Kalla serves as the chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross Society and since 2012, he serves as the Chairman of the Indonesian Council of Mosques.

Michaëlle Jean is the 27th Governor General, Commander-in-Chief of Canada, sworn in September 27, 2005, for a five-year mandate. In 2010, the United Nations called on her to become UNESCO Special Envoy to support reconstruction efforts in Haiti. From 2011 to 2014, Michaëlle Jean also served as Chancellor of the University of Ottawa.

On November 30, 2014, Michaëlle Jean became the 3rd Secretary General of La Francophonie at the 15th Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Dakar, a position to which she devoted her whole energies from January 2015 to 2019. Together with her husband, filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond, she founded and chairs the Michaëlle Jean Foundation, whose programs support, through art and culture, civic initiatives alongside some of the most vulnerable and disenfranchised young people in Canada.

Cardinal Dominique Mamberti graduated in public law and political science. He entered the Holy See’s diplomatic service in 1986. The Cardinal has spent almost 30 years in the Vatican's diplomatic service, working in Algeria, Chile, at the United Nations in New York and in Lebanon, as well as at the Vatican Secretariat of State. In 2014, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signature and, as such, President of the High Court of the Vatican City state.

In February 2015 Pope Francis created and proclaimed him Cardinal, titular of Santo Spirito in Sassia (Holy Spirit in Sassia). In April of the same year he was appointed President of the Commission for Advocates. He is a member of the Council of Cardinals and Bishops of the Section for the Relations with States of the Secretariat of State, and also member of the Congregations for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments, for the Causes of Saints, for the Evangelization of Peoples, and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

Since July 2012 to 2020, Adama Dieng has served as the United Nations Secretary General Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. In January 2019, Mr. Dieng was appointed by the UN Secretrary-General to chair a Working to produce the UN Strategy and Plan of Action to Address and Counter Hate Speech. He has promoted the adoption of the Plan of Action for Religious Leaders to Prevent Incitement to Violence that could lead to Atrocity Crimes known as the Fez Plan of Action, which was launched by the UN Secretary-General Guterres on July 14th 2017. Before his current appointment as Special Adviser of the Secretary-General, Adama Dieng served as the Registrar of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for more than 12 years.

Judge Mohamed Abdelsalam is the Secretary-General of the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, an independent international organization. He is a member judge of the State Council of Egypt and the former special advisor to the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Professor Ahmed Al-Tayeb. He took part in drafting the Document on Human Fraternity, co-signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in February 2019. The same year, Pope Francis awarded Judge Abdelsalam the Order of Pope Pius IX, Knight Commander with Star, for his services towards spreading tolerance and interfaith dialogue. He is the first Egyptian, Arab, and Muslim to be awarded this accolade. Judge Abdelsalam represented Al-Azhar Al-sharif — the oldest Islamic institution and the world’s most prestigious center of Arabic and Islamic studies—in the Constituent Assembly charged with drafting a new constitution for Egypt and participated in drafting Al-Azhar Documents from 2011-2018. Judge Abdelsalam is a member of the executive office of the Muslim Council of Elders, an advisor to the Muslim Council of Elders, and a member of Al-Azhar Center for Interreligious Dialogue.