Amnesty International is pleased to announce the re-election of Dr Anjhula Mya Singh Bais as the Chair of its International Board and the election of Christoph Alberts as its Vice Chair.
Elected to the International Board in 2019, Bais, an international psychology trauma specialist and strategist from Malaysia, has served as Chair of Amnesty’s International Board since 2021.
At 25 years old, Christoph Alberts, a political scientist from Germany, is the youngest board officer in the history of Amnesty International and joined the international board as its youngest non-executive director in 2022.
The 2023 Global Assembly held in Belgium also elected Dawna Wright (Australia) and Marcela Villalobos (Mexico). Wright serves as the Board’s International Treasurer, is a Chartered Accountant and currently Senior Managing Director of the Australian Forensic practice of FTI Consulting. Villalobos is a Ph.D. candidate at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and former Chair of Amnesty International Mexico.
Led by Dr Bais, the eleven-person International Board is responsible for the global stewardship of Amnesty International’s mission and vision, its compliance with global policies and standards, governance over its International Secretariat (IS), and recruitment and oversight of its most senior staff member, the Secretary General. The Board comprises expertise and excellence in areas such as finance, human rights, mental health, technology, governance, diplomacy, and intersectionality practices.
The International Board will focus on the implementation of the Global Strategic Framework approved by the Global Assembly in 2022, in addition to its obligations and responsibilities as a governance structure for a movement of more than 10 million members. This includes a restructuring of global governance, growing its presence in the Global South, ensuring long-term financial sustainability and consolidating and extending Amnesty International’s position as a truly global movement.
The International Board has a number of Global Assembly-mandated committees and working groups that it leads in addition to supporting the International Secretariat in its strategic engagement with the Movement’s 70 country offices (sections).
With a London based Secretariat, the International Board are also Directors of Amnesty International Limited in accordance with UK law.
Amnesty’s International Board meets at least four times a year and its members are elected on staggered three-year terms by the Standing Representatives (usually the Chairs) of Amnesty International Sections and Structures (country offices) at its annual Global Assembly Meeting.
“I thank the International Board for their confidence in re-electing me as their chair. In a world beset by multiple crises and a devastating weakening of human rights, the International Board’s mandate becomes ever more crucial. Together with the Secretary General and an unstoppable Amnesty movement of millions, we will focus on Generation 2048, where we resist, disrupt, and transform,” Dr Anjhula Mya Singh Bais said: For more information about the work of the International Board, see here.