Front Line Defenders welcomes four new members to its international Board of Directors
Front Line Defenders is pleased to welcome four new members to its international Board of Directors and expresses its deep gratitude to the four outgoing members for their longstanding contributions to the organisation.
The most recent additions to the Board include the pan-African feminist and social justice leader Felogene Anumo, and Associate Professor in Media & Law at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Gayathry S. Venkiteswaran. Both joined in June 2025.
This followed the addition in March 2025 of Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Peaceful Assembly and Association, as well as Nicolas Marcoux, the lead expert on institutional development and knowledge management for the MELDEA project for the European Commission external relations services.
“We are delighted to be joined by such esteemed members on Front Line Defenders’ international Board, to help to guide our work globally to protect human rights defenders,” said Alan Glasgow, Executive Director of Front Line Defenders.
“Front Line Defenders expresses its deep gratitude to the departing Board members for their dedication and important contributions over the years.”The four outgoing Board members include Mary Jane N. Real (Philippines), Arnold Tsunga (Zimbabwe), Maria Mulcahy (Ireland) and Jim Conway (Ireland).
Front Line Defenders is an international human rights organisation founded in Dublin in 2001, with the specific aim of protecting human rights defenders at risk (HRDs). Over the last two decades, the organisation has expanded significantly in size and scope and was the proud recipient of the 2018 UN Prize for Human Rights. It currently supports and protects hundreds of at-risk human rights defenders around the globe.
The organisation’s Board is comprised of members from all regions of the world, with diverse backgrounds in fields including human rights, government, diplomacy, business, academia and finance. Current members include: Kieran Mulvey (Ireland); Dr. Roja Fazaeli (Iran); Felogene Anumo (Kenya); Gayathry S. Venkiteswaran (Malaysia); Clément Nyaletsossi Voule (Togo); Nicolas Marcoux (France); Eamon Gilmore (Ireland); Dermot Hayes (Ireland); and Verónica Vidal (Uruguay). Board members serve five-year terms.
