Marie Georges, Head of the Section European and International Affairs and Prospective, Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés. (France).

Marie Georges is the Head of Section European and International Affairs and Prospective, CNIL (France). Having joined the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (National Data Protection and Liberties Commission) in 1979, she participated in the implementation of services and procedures, and was then successively charged with the follow-up of the data protection law in the sectors of the interior, finance and statistics, social and medical affairs, and telecommunications networks, amongst which, the Internet. Placed at the disposal of the European Commission as a national expert, she participated in the elaboration of the European Directive on Data Protection from 1991 until it was passed in 1995, and she participated in the elaboration of the complementary Directive on Data Protection and Privacy in the telecommunications sector. Her international activities have, furthermore, led her to participate in elaborating several recommendations by the Council of Europe, to follow OECD activities in Data Protection, to participate in the GATS negotiation (1991-1994) as well as in certain works of the 3W Consortium charged with Web standards. She is, currently, participating in the works of the group of European Control Authorities, instituted by the European Directive, charged with Data Protection, and she is, more particularly, a member of its " Internet " task force.

Carlos G. Gregorio, Research Director at the Instituto de Investigación para la Justicia (Research Institute for Justice) (Argentina).

Carlos G. Gregorio is Research Director at the Instituto de Investigación para la Justicia (Research Institute for Justice), based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was the coordinator - during the recent last three years - of a project to create awareness among Latin American and the Caribbean judicatures to protect the personal information on their websites. He has been consultant of the Inter-American Children's Institute (OAS), the APC Monitor Project of Internet Rights; and advisor to numerous government and development institutions in Latin America, Africa and Europe. His full résumé is available in Spanish and English.

Roberto Guerra, Managing Director, Privaterra (Canada).

Roberto Guerra is a leading privacy advocate based in Toronto, Canada. After working for several years in the medical research field, he now works with Human Rights NGO's to help them improve their information privacy and security practices. He is presently the managing director of Privaterra, which has recently assisted groups in South and Central America improve data privacy and security with the support of the Open Society Institute. He is active within the international electronic privacy community, sitting on the board of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) and is an advisor to TakingITGlobal. He has also been actively involved in all key meetings of the preparatory process of the World Summit on the Information Society, including as a panelist at the Pan European and Latin American Regional Meeting, and an NGO member of the Canadian delegation to the second preparatory meeting. More information about him is available here.

Sharon K. Hom, Executive Director, Human Rights in China (China).

Sharon K. Hom is Executive Director of Human Rights in China (HRIC), and professor of law emerita, City University of New York School of Law. She received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, and her J.D. from New York University School of Law where she was also a Root-Tilden Scholar. Professor Hom was a Fulbright Scholar in China (1986–88); served on the U.S.-China Committee on Legal Education Exchange with China (CLEEC) (1988-98); and has over 14 years of experience in U.S.-China law training and legal exchange initiatives. She was also a scholar-in-residence at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center in Italy (summer 2000). She has participated in numerous NGO, corporate, multilateral and bilateral consultations, and workshops, including serving as a judge for the Global Tribunal on Violence against Women, convened for the Fourth World Conference on Women and the NGO Forum 95; participating as an independent expert at the WSIS International Symposium on the Information Society and Human Dignity (2003); representing the FIDH and HRIC at the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue Seminars (2003, 2004, 2005); and presenting on Corporate Social Responsibility in China issues. She sits on the advisory board of Human Rights Watch/Asia, and on the Committees on Asian Affairs (1998-present) and International Human Rights (2003-present) of the Bar Association of the City of New York. Her research and publications focus on Chinese legal reforms, trade, technology, and international human rights. Her book publications include a co-authored interdisciplinary text and workbook, Contracting Law (1996, 2000), a co-edited English-Chinese Lexicon of Women and Law (Yinghan funu yu falu cihuishiyi) (UNESCO, 1995), and an edited volume, Chinese Women Traversing Diaspora: Memoirs, Essays, and Poetry (1999).

Cédric Laurant, Director, International Privacy Project, EPIC (USA).

Cédric Laurant is Policy Counsel and Director of the International Privacy Project at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). He concentrates on international privacy issues and comparative policy and legal aspects of European and US privacy regimes. Cédric's recent work has focused on radio frequency identification technologies (RFID), the profiling of air travelers, video surveillance, the negotiation of the APEC Privacy Framework, the World Summit on information Society, the Council of Europe Cyber-crime Convention, and governmental electronic surveillance and transborder data flows in the European Union and the United States. He has testified before Congress on RFID technologies. He is one of the editors of "Privacy and Human Rights" 2003, 2004, and 2005, EPIC's international survey of privacy laws and developments in the world, and has been working on a version in Spanish focused on Latin American countries. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. More information about him is available here.

Elijah Zarwan, Human Rights Watch (USA).

Elijah Zarwan is a Cairo-based consultant for Human Rights Watch. He is the author of a report on freedom of expression and censorship online in the Middle East and North Africa. He has previously worked as a journalist and editor in the Middle East and the United States.