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Friends of UNESCO Chair

Professor Joseph W. Dellapenna

Retired from Villanova University in 2016 after 40 years as a professor of ‎law there. He has worked on Middle Eastern water issues since 1982, when he co-authored WATER IN THE ‎MIDDLE EAST: CONFLICT OR COOPERATION? (Thomas Naff & Ruth Matson eds., Westview Press, ‎Boulder, CO: 1984), following with numerous books and articles on Middle Eastern water issues. He also ‎consulted on Middle Eastern water issues, most recently as leader of the legal and institutional team of the ‎World Bank’s Feasibility Study for the Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project (2009-2013)‎


Dr. Catherine Brölmann is an associate professor of law at the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Center ‎for International Law. She is a member of the Advisory Committee for Public International Law of the ‎Netherlands Government. She is co-editor-in-chief of the OUP online publication Oxford International ‎Organizations (OXIO) (with Jean d’Aspremont and Iain Scobie).

Brölmann has published and lectured widely ‎on various topics of international law .For four years she was on the board of the Geneva-based ‎NGOWaterLex. A recent publication in the field of Water Law is Sustainable Development Goal 6 as a Game ‎Changer for International Water Law (Sept 2018) in the “Reflection” series of the European Society for ‎International Law.‎


Dr. Gabriela Cuadrado-Quesada is an environmental lawyer and a social-legal researcher. Currently, she is ‎working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Integrated Water Systems and Governance at the ‎UNESCO-IHE, Institute for Water Education. She has more than 10 years of professional experience in ‎research, litigation and project management. Her current research focuses on the interface between the design ‎and implementation of groundwater policy and legal frameworks and groundwater governance. In particular, ‎she studies the role of groundwater policy and law in improving sustainable use and equitable access of water.‎


Dr. Otto Spijkers is Lecturer of Public International Law at Utrecht University, Senior Research Associate ‎with the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea (NILOS), and researcher with the Utrecht Centre for ‎Water, Oceans and Sustainability Law (UCWOSL).‎

He is a member of the Committee on the Role of International Law in Sustainable Natural Resource ‎Management for Development of the International Law Association (ILA), and guest lecturer for Amnesty ‎International The Hague.‎


Dr. Abdelrahman Tamimi: Since graduation, Dr.Tamimi has worked in the field of water resources in the ‎Occupied Territories.  During the last 25 years, activities focused on water resources and integrated rural ‎development. Before the establishment of the Palestinian Authority he had been a member to the group of ‎Palestinian counterparts to the EC and the World Bank.  He shared in the initiation of priorities in planning for ‎strategic  projects.   He also  worked  as  a  consultant  for  institutions  working  in  developing  water  and ‎environmental projects in the Occupied Territories (UNDP.GTZ,EU, AFD, World Bank. etc.) and as ‎coordinator for many relevant international research projects such as those related to water policy, and water ‎resources planning. His expertise is also prominent in water governance, institution building and reform.‎


Dr.Shaddad Attili has a Ph.D. in Science and Industrial technology, Orleans, France. Dr. Attili is Minister ‎affiliated to the Negotiation Department in charge of Water file for permanent status negotiations. Attili was ‎the former Palestinian Minister of Water and Head of the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) from 2008 to ‎2014, during which he championed water law reform in the Palestinian Authority, enhanced efficient and effective PWA services for Palestinian residents, and strongly defended Palestinian water rights. In honor of ‎his many contributions and accomplishments, Dr. Shaddad Attili was awarded in 2013 the France’s highest ‎decoration, the Legion d’Honneur, by French President Francois Hollande.‎