Kate Allen

Director, Amnesty International UK

Director of Amnesty International UK since 2001 Kate Allen has been the prominent champion of Amnesty International’s campaigns, which demand respect for women’s human rights, stronger restrictions on the arms trade and the release of all prisoners of conscience, and for an end to  torture and the death penalty.

Kate regularly appears on national radio and television news programmes, including BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sky News and the BBC News channel, and in the letters and comment pages of national newspapers and websites.

As the head of Amnesty International’s UK Section, Kate engages in high-level lobbying with senior government figures and is a member of the Foreign Secretary’s advisory group on human rights. Each year she also gives evidence on behalf of Amnesty to the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

Kate also travels internationally on behalf of Amnesty, joining a research mission to   Egypt soon after the revolution in 2011. She has previously visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Rwanda and Nepal, meeting those working to defending human rights and those whose rights have been abused, as well as government representatives.  

Kate’s role as head of the UK Section of Amnesty – with 224,000 supporters the third largest of the 52 national sections – involves her regularly attending local group meetings, regional and national conferences and other supporter events.

Henry Bellingham MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

With a political background in trade and economic policy, Henry Bellingham was made Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in May 2010. His ministerial briefs include: the United Nations, Africa and overseas territories, economic issues, conflict resolution, climate change and energy.

He was first elected to Parliament in 1983. He has worked in consultancy; advising firms on inward investment. Representing a rural constituency in Norfolk - in which he grew up and made his home – Mr. Bellingham's political interests are primarily focused on rural communities, agriculture, the environment and small businesses.

Between 1991 and 1997, Mr. Bellingham was PPS to the then Defence and Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind. In July 2002, he was appointed Shadow Minister for Small Businesses, Enterprise and Construction; a post he held up until the May 2005 General Election. Following this, he was appointed to the opposition Whips Office, before becoming Shadow Minister for Constitutional Affairs in November 2006. He became a Shadow Minister for Justice when the new Ministry of Justice was created in July 2007. He also chaired the Conservative Council on Eastern Europe between1989-93.

Although Mr Bellingham has rarely courted controversy, he was forced to apologise on behalf of one of his assistants, after it emerged that he had inadvertently helped a pro-hunt protestor, Otis Ferry, to invade the Commons by giving him a tour of the building. In another embarrassing incident, Mr. Bellingham was once ejected from the Commons by former Speaker, Michael Martin, who accused him of using a mobile phone camera. Mr. Bellingham insisted he was just checking who had called.

Aged just 28 when he was first elected an MP, Mr Bellingham had previously served eight years as a barrister.

Mozn Hassan
Executive Director, Nazra for Feminist Stuidies

Mozn Hassan is regarded as being one of the most prominent and active young feminists in Egypt. In the 2010 Egyptian elections, Nazra received EU funding to monitor the participation of women and the operation of women’s quotas. In the 2011 elections Nazra is supporting 10 independent female candidates to stand and is also active in lobbying for the security of women’s human rights defenders, in partnership with leading human rights organisations Hisham Mubarak Law Centre and the El Nadeem Centre (which supports the victims of torture).

Mozn is an active member of the Front to Defend Egyptian Protestors which provides legal and medical support at protests. She is also active in documenting sectarian violence. Mozn was in Tahrir Square for the duration of the revolution.

Nazra for Feminist Studies
Established in 2007, Nazra is a young feminist group that aims to transform the way women’s human rights organizations work in Egypt. Founded by a group of young women and men in their 20s, Nazra aims to conduct high quality research, train mainstream human rights organisations to incorporate a gender analysis into their work and create a space for the emergence of new activists and groups working on sexuality, masculinities and sexual orientation through its “Going Visual” programme. This programme has generated a number of bloggers and digital activists including leading digital activist, Raomy Raouff.

Prior to the revolution Nazra was  funded by the European Union to work in partnership with the Cairo Institute of Human Rights and the Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement to monitor the 2010 parliamentary elections in Egypt. Nazra was tasked with monitoring the introduction of a women’s quota in these elections and also violations against women candidates and women voters.

Since the revolution Nazra is prioritising work on supporting women human rights defenders and women's political participation. Nazra are engaged in a joint project with Hisham Mubarek Law Centre and El Nadim working to protect, support and advocate for the rights of women’s human rights defenders. Nazra is also supporting 10 young female independent candidates to run in the elections across different Egyptian Governates. In the long term it aims to support a growing pool of women candidates to run for election at the local and national level.

Finally, Nazra will continue to train emerging and established human rights groups to include a focus on gender equality in their work with a plan to engage in joint partnerships with them on shared feminist and human rights agenda. It is currently working with the Hisham Mubarek Law Centre to improve its response to violations of women’s rights.