Jessica Roland is the Senior Specialist for Inclusive Peace for the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers. She is responsible for managing the Network’s strategic priorities in advancing the leadership of women, youth, and marginalized groups. In this role and focus, she manages the Network’s joint advocacy, research, programming, and inclusivity-based community of practice. She also leads the Network’s training initiatives and mediation-focused work. In March of this year, she became Co-Chair of the Gender Working Group for the Multi-Faith Advisory Council.
Prior to joining the Network, she worked for Women Deliver as a Senior Associate for Policy and Advocacy. In this role, her portfolio included a focus on women, peace, and security, advancing women’s leadership, engaging men and boys, and gender-based violence. Jessica has also worked for the National Democratic Institute on advancing women’s political participation, and on a U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women Grant focused on services for domestic violence victims with disabilities. Jessica earned her Master of Arts in International Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Richmond, the American International University of London.

Melinda Holmes is Program Director at the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) for the Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership (WASL), which brings together existing women’s networks, practitioners, and organizations with long-standing experience in addressing extremism and promoting peace, rights, and pluralism to improve practices in communities affected by violence and informs and offers pragmatic policy solutions for the international community. A peacebuilding specialist, writer, and strategist focusing on gender and political violence, Melinda is responsible for facilitating collaboration, analysis, advocacy, and outreach on gendered approaches for preventing and responding to violent extremism at ICAN. Previously, Melinda was a 2016-2017 Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science’s Centre for Women, Peace & Security and worked with The Carter Center, where she advised on the engagement of religious and traditional beliefs, actors, and communities in advancing peace and human rights. Melinda graduated with a master's in International Affairs from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, focusing on the gendered and religious dynamics of conflict and peacebuilding.

Closing Remarks

Ambassador António de Almeida-Ribeiro was born in Lisbon and graduated in 1976 from the Faculty of Law (Legal and Political Sciences), University of Coimbra.

He joined the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1979, where he has held a variety of positions, among which Director General for Administration, Political Director and Secretary General.

Throughout his career, he has served as Ambassador of Portugal to Argentina, Egypt, the Holy See, the Sovereign Order of Malta and Austria, where he was also Permanent Representative to the International Organizations based in Vienna, among other appointments around the world.

Keynote

Mohammad NACIRI currently serves as the Chief of Staff for UN Women. Prior to his appointment as Chief of Staff, he served as the Regional Director of UN Women for Asia and Pacific, and Representative in Thailand (2018-2022). From 2015 to 2018, he was the Regional Director of UN Women in the Arab States. From 2012 to 2015, Mohammad Naciri was the Deputy Regional Director for UN Women in the Arab States. 
Mohammad has extensive experience in the region and in gender and development issues. Prior to joining UN Women, Mohammad was the Deputy Country Director of UNDP in Yemen, where he supported the country in the formulation of its Gender Strategy and the Gender Responsive Budgeting process. He has worked in Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Cambodia, dealing with issues from human trafficking to ethnic cleansing.
A national of Morocco, Mohammad holds a master’s degree in Public Administration and International Development from the Harvard University, as well as a master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the 
University of Oxford. He also has a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Arab Academy for Science and Technology in Alexandria-Egypt.

Dr Mariateresa Garrido, a KAICIID Fellow and originally from Venezuela, serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of International Law at the United Nations-mandated University for Peace (UPEACE) in Costa Rica, where she also coordinates the university’s Doctoral Committee. An international lawyer with a doctorate from UPEACE, her work focuses on freedom of expression, the safety of journalists across Latin America, and the evolving links between human rights and Information and Communication Technologies.

Since 2021, she has led UNESCO-supported UPEACE projects that strengthen the capacities of journalists in Central America, including research on the security of women journalists and providing legal support to media professionals in Costa Rica. She is also the host of the podcast Floreciendo MG, where she reflects on Christian teachings.  

A KAICIID Fellow, Raghad Mohammed Jabar, is a social activist and human rights defender from Iraq. She holds a diploma from the Technical Institute of Al Basra and certificates from the United Nations, UNICEF, and the International Peace Institute. As President of Al-Weyam Organization for Human Rights, she leads initiatives promoting equality, peace, and non-violence, training hundreds on human rights and raising awareness on violence against women. Her guiding belief is that “humanity is the highest objective. 

Ambassador Dr Alya'a Samir Borhan holds currently the position of Deputy Assistant Minister for International Cultural Relations at the Cultural Department of the  Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Previously , she was Deputy Assistant Minister for Southern African Affairs and worked in the African Department for 13 years and  considers herself an African Affairs expert. Her last overseas mission was Egyptian Ambassador to Mauritius.   She also worked as Deputy Head of Mission at the Egyptian Embassy to Malaysia and prior to that  she workd at  the Egyptian Embassies in Belgium and Norway . She is an economist who earned her PhD degree from Jawaherlal Nehru University  JNU in India.  SHE holds an MPhil  degree in Economic Development from Glasgow University and MA degree in Middle East Studies from the American University in Cairo. She is very interested in following gender issues , African issues , trade issues and socio-economic issues. She is an Alumni of the African Centre for Strategic Studies affiliated to the US Ministry of Defence , where she  attended  two  training programmes  physically; one in Washington D.C and the other in Tunisia as well one virtually .