Critical Factors Shaping the Future of Sudan

The Hon. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, Head of Mission for the Government of Southern Sudan Mission to the United States in Washington, DC, and the former Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement Representative to the US, was trained and served as a soldier in the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army and received a BA in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland College Park. The Hon. Gatkuoth advocates for democratic transformation in the Sudan, implementation of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement, development for Southern Sudan, and an immediate end to the crisis in Darfur.

Tiseke Kasambala has researched Zimbabwe for Human Rights Watch since 2004. She released several reports and briefing papers on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe, including state-sponsored repression and violence, economic, social and cultural rights such as HIV/AIDS, and the right to housing. She has covered the disputed presidential elections in 2008, marked by government-sponsored violence, the 2005 parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe and the displacement of 700,000 Zimbabweans during mass evictions in 2005. Recently, Kasambala has begun to cover other African countries, such as Sudan, with a focus on international justice issues. Before joining Human Rights Watch, Kasambala worked as a campaigner and researcher on southern Africa for Amnesty International. She has a master's degree in Social Sciences from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Roger P. Winter has worked on issues of peace, war, humanitarian assistance, civilian protection, and advocacy in Sudan—first as Executive Director of the non-profit US Committee for Refugees from 1981 to 2001 and then as Assistant Administrator of USAID and as the Deputy Secretary of State’s Special Representative on Sudan from 2001 to 2006. Currently Mr. Winter advises the Government of Southern Sudan on a voluntary basis, and he was recently featured in The New York Times Magazine article “The Man for A New Sudan.”