THE COMMITTEE

Heidi Hautala is a Member of the European Parliament in the Greens/EFA group. She has served as a Vice-President of the European Parliament since 2017. She also serves on the Committees on International Trade, the Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Committee on Legal Affairs. She established in 2017 a Working Group on Responsible Business Conduct in the Parliament. She is also a member of the Delegation for Relations with Countries in Southeast Asia and ASEAN, Chair of the Monitoring Group on ASEAN in the International Trade Committee, Vice President responsible for relations with Asia and Vice President responsible for Human Rights and Democracy in the European Parliament. Ms. Hautala holds a Master’s Degree in Agriculture and Forestry. At the national level, she has been Member of the Finnish Parliament, and Minister for International Development and State Ownership Steering. Her other activities have included journalism, co- founding of the first Finnish vegetarian restaurant in Helsinki, and various voluntary work commitments with a focus on human rights and development.

Mercy Chriesty Barends is a Member of the House of Representatives in Indonesia for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) since 2014. Born in 1972 in Maluku Province, Eastern Indonesia, She holds a Bachelor Degree in Marine Engineering and Naval Architecture from the Pattimura University, in Ambon. A PDI Perjuangan member since 1999, her main motivation to enter politics was the acutely uneven development between the western and eastern regions of Indonesia. She has been very active on Climate Change issues through her work in Parliament, as well as internationally  through her work in The Alliance of Parliamentarian Call for Fossil Free Future, the Global Alliance for Green New Deal, or Air Quality Asia. She is a Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), a regional network of current and former parliamentarians who use their positions to advance human rights and democracy in Southeast Asia.

Amadou Camara is a Member of the Gambia National Assembly for the constituency of Nianija. Currently serving his second term as MP, Mr. Camara is a member of the National Reconciliation Party (NRP), where he serves as Central Executive Committee Member. Born in 1991 in Sarre Janko, a village in Nianija, Mr. Camara holds a Bachelor Degree in Public and Environmental Science from the University of The Gambia, and worked as Public and Environmental Health Officer before entering politics. In the National Assembly, he currently chairs the National Assembly Select Committee on Health, Disaster, Refugees, and Humanitarian Relief, as well as the Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) caucus. Mr. Camara has participated in numerous conferences and forums on FoRB, both in his country and abroad, and also serves as Steering Committee Member of the African Parliamentary Association on Human Rights (AfriPAHR), a network of African Parliamentarians who seek to promote democracy and the right to FoRB in the continent.

Nqabayomzi Lawrence Saziso Kwankwa is a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of South Africa for the United Democratic Movement (UDM), the Chief Whip of the party since 2014 and its Deputy President since 2016. Born in 1980 and raised in the Eastern Cape, Mr. Kwanka grew up in a politically inclined family, influenced by the political activism of his maternal grandfather. He attended university in Cape Town and obtained a degree in Economics. In his youth, Mr. Kwankwa was a member of the African National Congress (ANC), and participated in South African Student Congress (SASCO) activities. He joined the UDM in 2007 and became its youngest MP six years later. He currently serves in various committees in Parliament. In 2017 he founded and became the Chairperson of the African Parliamentarians Association for Human Rights (AfriPAHR), a network of African Parliamentarians who seek to promote democracy and the right to freedom of religion or belief in Africa.

Nitipon Piwmow, born in Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand, in 1982, is a Member of Parliament (MP) in Thailand since 2019 for the Move Forward Party (formerly known as the Future Forward Party), a progressive formation that emerged as the third most voted force in the 2019 General Elections, only one year after its foundation. A lawyer by formation, Mr Nitipon holds a Bachelor Degree in Law from Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, and two Masters of Law from the University of Sussex (United Kingdom). As a Parliamentarian in Thailand, he has focused on environmental issues, and has held the positions of Spokesmen for the Land and National Resources and the Environmental Committee, and Chairman of the Sub-committee in Air Pollution, among others. Mr Nitipon is also a Barrister at Law in Thailand, and a consultant for the Save Elephant Foundation, as well as the head of environment policy for his own party.

Charles Santiago is a Malaysian Member of Parliament for the Klang constituency, in Selangor state, for the Democratic Action Party (DAP). Born in 1960, he was first elected to Parliament in 2008, and was the first Chairman of the Select Committee on Human Rights and Constitutional Affairs. Mr. Santiago holds a MA Degree in Political Economy from the New School for Social Research, in New York. He has worked with national and international NGOs such as the Coalition Against Water Privatisation in Malaysia and the Transnational Institute. He is also one of the initiators of the global initiative Parliamentarians Call for a Fossil Fuel Free Future. His areas of interests include international trade, human rights and democracy, climate change, and promoting alternatives to water privatisation. Mr. Santiago is the Chair of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), a regional network of current and former parliamentarians who use their positions to advance human rights and democracy in Southeast Asia.