Catherine Régis is a full professor of law at the University of Montreal, holder of a Canada-CIFAR Chair in AI (Mila) and a Canada Research Chair in health law and policy. She is an Associate Academic Member at Mila and the Director of social innovation and international policy at IVADO. She is an Expert Member for the Responsible AI Working Group of the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), a group she has co-chaired from 2021 to 2023, and she leads the human-centred AI work for the U7+, an academic alliance gathering more than 50 universities worldwide. Catherine also participated in the creation of the Montreal Declaration for a responsible development of artificial intelligence as a member of its scientific committee. Her work focuses on global AI governance, the regulation of AI in health care systems and on the integration of human rights approaches in AI. 

She will bring her legal expertise to animate discussions about the tools, measurement frameworks and metrics available to assess and ensure the integration of human rights into the development and deployment of AI systems, both regionally and internationally and how to implement them.

Nathalie Smuha is an Emile Noël Fellow at the NYU School of Law and Assistant Professor at the KU Leuven Faculty of Law where she focuses on the intersection of law, philosophy and technology. Her research spans EU and international law and examines legal and ethical questions around artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital technologies. She is particularly interested in the impact of AI on human rights, democracy and the rule of law, and will draw on her expertise to lead the panel discussion on the avenues of redress available to protect human rights in the deployment of AI systems

Yoshua Bengio is Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montreal, as well as the Founder and Scientific Director of Mila and the Scientific Director of IVADO. He also holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair. Considered one of the world’s leaders in artificial intelligence and deep learning, he is the recipient of the 2018 A.M. Turing Award with Geoff Hinton and Yann LeCun, known as the Nobel prize of computing. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of London and Canada, an Officer of the Order of Canada, Knight of the Legion of Honor of France and member of the UN’s Scientific Advisory Board for Independent Advice on Breakthroughs in Science and Technology.

Alondra Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, an independent research center in Princeton, NJ. Dr. Nelson, who served as Acting Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Deputy Assistant to US President Joe Biden, will draw on her interdisciplinary expertise at the intersection of science, technology, medicine, and social inequality, for her keynote address on the critical importance of human rights in the age of AI.

Drawing on his engineering background and his rich experiences as a science diplomat and in humanitarian affairs, Amandeep Singh Gill will set off the conference with opening remarks on the importance of leveraging digital transformations responsibly and inclusively. Dr. Singh Gill will speak on the critical role of human rights in the development of technology policies as per the three key pillars of the UN.

Eliza is a writer and researcher focusing on technology, equity, and community. She is currently a researcher on technology and inequality at Amnesty International. She was previously a research director at the Middle East Institute and a Fulbright research fellow in Bulgaria. Her writing and analysis have been featured or quoted in Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera, and elsewhere. Eliza will contribute her research experience working in international contexts to discussions pertaining to the tools available to integrate human rights into AI governance mechanisms and the challenges and benefits in the implementation of such tools.

Wanda Muñoz is an international consultant with twenty years of experience in the fields of human rights, gender equality and international cooperation. Wanda has worked at project and policy levels for international NGO and United Nations organizations in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. She first approached AI through the lens of International Humanitarian Law, with a focus on the diplomatic processes on autonomous weapons systems. In 2020, she was nominated by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs as independent expert to the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), where she focused on gender and human rights approaches. Since 2021, she has been a member of the Feminist AI Research Network. In 2020, Wanda was recognized by the Nobel Women’s Initiative as a peacebuilder working to end gender-based violence, and to promote peace, justice and equality. Wanda will draw on her international experience in human rights and AI to partake in discussions on the tools available, and needed, to integrate human rights in AI governance.

Dr. Clara Neppel is the Senior Director of the IEEE European office in Vienna, where she is responsible for the growth of IEEE’s operations and presence in Europe, focusing on the needs of industry, academia, and government. Clara serves as a point of contact for initiatives with regard to technology, engineering and related public policy issues that help implement IEEE’s continued global commitment to fostering technological innovation for the benefit of humanity. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Technical University of Munich and a Master in Intellectual Property Law and Management from the University of Strasbourg. She's also a member of the Austrian national AI advisory group. Drawing on her experience, Neppel will discuss the tools available to integrate human rights in AI Governance as well as how to implement them.

In addition to serving as NIST Chief AI Advisor and Associate Director for Emerging Technologies in NIST’s Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) Elham Tabassi leads NIST’s Trustworthy and Responsible AI program that aims to cultivate trust in the design, development, and use of AI technologies by improving measurement science, standards, and related tools in ways that enhance economic security and improve quality of life. 

She has been working on various machine learning and computer vision research projects with applications in biometrics evaluation and standards since she joined NIST in 1999. Tabassi is the principal architect of NIST Fingerprint Image Quality (NFIQ), an international standard for measuring fingerprint image quality which has been deployed in many large-scale biometric applications worldwide. Among her other roles at NIST, Tabassi has served as ITL Chief of Staff. 

She is a member of the National AI Resource Research Task Force, the US Government’s AI Standards Coordinator, a senior member of IEEE, and a fellow of Washington Academy of Sciences. In September 2023, Tabassi was named by TIME magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in AI”.

An experienced non-profit leader in the area of technology and human rights, Fanny Hidvégi has led global human rights organization Access Now’s work on artificial intelligence. She is part of POLITICO’s Tech 28 Class of 2022, an Obama Foundation Europe Leader and a Marshall Memorial Fellow (23'). With experience in the public and private sector and strong ties to the tech policy space, Hidvégi will partake in discussions pertaining to redress in the context of harms caused by deployed AI systems.

Aziz Huq is the Frank and Bernice J. Professor at the University of Chicago Law School and associate professor in the sociology department. Before teaching, he represented civil liberties claimants with the Brennan Center for Justice, and worked for the International Crisis Group in Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. His books include How to Save a Constitutional Democracy (2018, with Tom Ginsburg), The Collapse of Constitutional Remedies (2021), and The Rule of Law: A Very Short Introduction (forthcoming 2024). Dr. Huq will bring his wealth of expertise to discuss avenues of redress in the protection of human rights.

Jake Okechukwu Effoduh is an Assistant Professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law of the Toronto Metropolitan University, where he teaches Technology Law. He has gained significant expertise in international human rights advocacy and has also informed the regulatory frameworks and policy formulation on artificial intelligence (AI) for supranational organizations and domestic institutions in several countries, including the United States, Brazil, and Nigeria. Effoduh holds two master's degrees in international law and will draw on this expertise to tackle the question of redress as it is addressed in emerging regulations related to AI, among others.

Nele Roekens is legal advisor and leads the Artificial Intelligence team at the Belgian National Human Rights Institution and Equality Body. In her role as chair of the European Network of National Human Rights Institutions’ (ENNHRI) Working Group on AI, she guides the collaborative efforts of over 40 independent public institutions in matters on AI and emerging technologies. These institutions are the brigde between CSOs and government. She represents ENNHRI at the Council of Europe’s Committee on Artificial Intelligence and is appointed as an independent expert for the Committee of Experts on Artificial Intelligence, Equality, and Discrimination. Based on her practical and policy experience, she will delve into discussions about remedies and redress mechanisms in the context of AI.

Virginia Dignum is Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at Umeå University, Sweden where she leads the AI Policy Lab. She is also senior advisor on AI policy to the Wallenberg Foundations. She was also recently appointed as a member of the United Nations’ High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence. Drawing on her expertise which focuses on the ethical and societal impact of AI, Dignum will partake in discussions on the conditions needed to create momentum for human rights in international AI governance and lead efforts in the latter ethically. She is fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), and Fellow of the European Artificial Intelligence Association (EURAI). She is also a member of  the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), the UNESCO’s expert group on the implementation of AI recommendations, OECD’s Expert group on AI, founder of ALLAI (the Dutch AI Alliance), and co-chair of the WEF’s Global Future Council on AI. She was a member of former EU’s High Level Expert Group on Artificial Intelligence and leader of UNICEF's guidance for AI and children. Her new book “The AI Paradox” is planned for publication in late 2024

Hon. Neema Lugangira (MP) is a Member of Parliament in Tanzania who brings extensive experience and a successful track record in championing policy advocacy and legislative reforms across different sectors. As a Parliamentarian, her personal prioritized agendas include food systems, nutrition and climate action, digital inclusion and development, global and community health, gender equality in politics and digital democracy (incl. election observation) in Tanzania and across Africa. She also serves as the Founder and Chair of the African Parliamentary Network on Internet Governance (APNIG), which aims to strengthen Parliamentarians role on digital development in Africa; and Chair of the Tanzania Chapter Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and IMF. 

At a national level, Hon. Lugangira is the Founder of two NGOs focused on ending malnutrition in Tanzania and accelerating digital development in Tanzanian digital skills, school connectivity, digital health, data governance, online safety, women rights and democracy. Internationally, Hon. Lugangira is a Member of the Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group of the United National Internet Governance Forum; the International Parliamentary Network on Education (IPNEd) Regional Representative for Africa; the UNITE – Global Parliamentarians Network for Global Health; Vital Voices Fellow; WSIS Gender Trendsetter for Advancing Digital Gender Inclusion; and Tanzania Parliament Appointed Ambassador for the Women Political Leaders Organisation.

Rich of his 30 years of experience at the Council of Europe, especially focused on transformation processes in the Organisation and the development of partnerships, Patrick Penninckx will bring his expertise to discuss human rights safeguards in global AI governance in the context of international organizations. Currently heading the Information Society Department under the Directorate General

Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Patrick coordinates standard setting and cooperation activities in the fields of media, internet governance, data protection, cybercrime and artificial intelligence. He is also responsible for projects related to public-private partnerships and cooperation with business partners. His professional focus encompasses areas such as freedom of expression, safety

of journalists, sound internet governance, international standards in the data protection, action against cybercrime and the impact of AI on human rights.

Karine Perset heads the AI Unit of the OECD Division for Digital Economy Policy, where she oversees the OECD.AI Policy Observatory and the OECD.AI Network of Experts. She focuses on the opportunities and challenges AI raises for governments, policies to help implement the OECD AI Principles and developing trends in AI. Perset will draw on her international experience and public policy expertise to discuss the fundamental question of what importance the human rights framework must be given in shaping policy initiatives when national and regional regulating bodies have thus far prioritized risk-based approach mechanisms.

Dr Sebastian Hallensleben is the Chair of CEN-CENELEC JTC 21 where European AI standards to underpin EU regulation are being developed, and Chair of the Trusted Information working group in the EU StandICT programme. He co-chairs the AI risk and accountability work at OECD and has roles in AI committees at the Council of Europe and the Partnership on AI. Sebastian Hallensleben heads Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence at VDE Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies where he is responsible for new product and service development as well as for giving advice and developing frameworks for the German parliament and federal ministries as well as the European Commission. He focuses in particular on AI ethics, on handling the impact of generative AI, building privacy-preserving trust infrastructures as well as characterizing AI quality.

Gry is the Senior Key Expert of the EU’s International Outreach for a Human-Centric Approach to Artificial Intelligence initiative (InTouchAI.eu) set in place to support the European Commission in engaging with international partners on regulatory and ethical matters regarding AI.

With a career spanning two decades, she has played a crucial role in shaping core global policy  discussions on AI and data. Notably,  she was a member of the EU’s High-Level Expert Group on AI, member of the working group that developed and are now implementing the EU-US Technology & Trade Council Joint Roadmap on Trustworthy AI and Risk Assessment and she is member of the Nordic Ethical AI Expert Group established in 2023 under The Nordic Council of Ministers and The Nordic Council to develop a common vision and roadmap for ethical AI in the Nordic region.

Gry is the Co-founder and Director of academic research of the think tank DataEthics.eu. She holds a PhD in data ethics and power from the University of Copenhagen and has authored several books and reports, including Human Power – a Technology Politics for Humanity (forthcoming), Data Pollution & Power – White Paper for a Global Sustainable Development Agenda (Sustainable AI Lab, Bonn, 2022), Data Ethics of Power – A Human Approach in the Big Data and AI Era (Edward Elgar, 2021), and Data Ethics – The New Competitive Advantage (Publishare, 2016).

Marietje Schaake is international policy director at Stanford University Cyber Policy Center and international policy fellow at Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Between 2009 and 2019, she served as a Member of European Parliament for the Dutch liberal democratic party where she focused on trade, foreign affairs, and technology policies. She writes a monthly column for the Financial Times and serves on the UN’s AI Advisory Body. Marietje is an (Advisory) Board Member with a number of non-profits including MERICS, ECFR, ORF and AccessNow.

Dr Luca Belli is Professor of Digital Governance and Regulation at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) Law School, Rio de Janeiro, where he directs the Center for Technology and Society (CTS-FGV) and the CyberBRICS project. Luca is also editor of the International Data Privacy Law (IDPL) Journal, published by Oxford University Press, and Director of the Computers Privacy and Data Protection conference Latin-America (CPDP LatAm).  He is currently Board Member of the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership and member of the Steering Committee of the Forum for Information & Democracy. He is author of more than 50 publications on law and technology and his works have been quoted by numerous media outlets, including The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, Le Monde, BBC, China Today, The Beijing Review, The Hill, O Globo, Folha de São Paulo, El Pais, and La Stampa. Luca holds a PhD in Public Law from Université Paris Panthéon-Assas and can be found on LinkedIn and on Twitter as @1lucabelli.

Cédric Wachholz is Chief of UNESCO’s Digital Innovation and Transformation Section (CI/DIT), which includes multiple Artificial Intelligence (AI) work streams. UNESCO’s AI work focuses on the human rights and ethical dimension of AI and on the use of frontier technologies for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals, through advocacy, capacity and public policy development. Wachholz is originally an e-learning specialist and headed before the ICT in Education Unit in UNESCO’s Education Sector, where he started his work in 1998 in the Education for All (EFA) Division. He will bring his 25 years of digital development expertise and experience in intergovernmental work to partake in conversations around the role of international organizations in supporting the integration of human rights in their respective work, and how different societal stakeholders can play a role in leading this effort.