Sharmini Peries

Ms. Sharmini Peries "has dedicated her professional and political life to defending human rights and eradicating social and economic injustices in our society. As the Director of Justice International, a Toronto based, international organization dedicated to human rights and social justice, she is continuing her commitment. Until November 2001, she was Executive Director of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange and the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. Appointed by the Lt. Governor General, she served as the Executive Director of the Commission on Systemic Racism in the Criminal Justice System Ontario, Canada, (1992-1994). For five years she held the position of Executive Director, at the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, an organization mandated to defend the rights of immigrants and refugees in Canada, (1994-1999). Peries's PhD research work is on Nationalism War and Conflict: Representations of Women, in the Department of Social and Political Thought at York University in Toronto. She holds a Masters Degree in Economics (York University in Toronto) and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics (University of Prince Edward Island, Canada). As a social-political scientist she has conducted extensive research on the role of civil society in attaining social equality and justice. She was appointed by the Attorney General and the Premier of Ontario to the governing body for engineers: Council of Professional Engineers of Ontario (1994-1997). She recently ended her term as a member of the Status of Women Advisory Council at York University, and she is currently a member of the Board's Education Committee at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada." (2001)

"Sharmini Peries (Canada/Venezuela), foreign policy advisor to the President of Venezuela, former Director of Justice International, Managing Director of Cultural Pluralism in the Arts Network and covered economic and political issues for Frontline India." [1]

• Director of policy and development, Independent World Television