Education International Symposium on Human Rights and Values in Education / Riga, Latvia – 7th to 8th June, 2016

1. Education International
Symposium on Human Rights and Values in Education
Riga, Latvia – 7th
to 8th
June, 2016
SPEAKERS’ BIOGRAPHIES
Sneh AURORA is a human rights advocate specialising in human rights education strategy and
planning, advocacy, programme management, research, capacity building, and workshop
facilitation for the past 18 years.
Sneh recently led Amnesty International’s global human rights education work, where she
developed and managed Amnesty’s Human Rights Friendly Schools programme. Working with
United Nations mechanisms and inter-governmental institutions, she contributed to the
development of international policy and standards on the right to human rights education,
including the UN Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training, and co-founded the global civil society
coalition, HRE 2020, which promotes human rights education by strengthening the implementation of international
standards and commitments.
Sneh has worked with both Equitas - International Centre for Human Rights Education (Montreal), and the
Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (New Delhi), among other national human rights institutions, civil society
organizations and government authorities. She provides technical advice and capacity building support on effective
human rights education policy development, as well as programming implementation and evaluation. Sneh has
developed numerous educational resources, and she has published on human rights education, rights-based
approaches to education, and on issues of economic, social, and cultural rights of women. She received her Juris
Doctor in Law from the University of Toronto, Canada, and currently resides in London.
Tatjana BABRAUSKIENĖ is currently the International Secretary of the Lithuanian Education
Trade Union (LETU).
Tatjana has been representing trade unions in the field of vocational education and learning
(VET) and adult learning (AL) since 2004. At the national level, she is a coordinator for three
Lithuanian trade union confederations, and a member of the Tripartite Council on VET, the
National Committee on CVET, and the national REFERNET network. At the European level, she is
an external VET and AL expert of the European trade union confederation (ETUC), and the
European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE). She is also member of the ETUC Education and Training
Working Group, a member of the Advisory Panel of ETUCE, and she is the ETUCE representative to EU 2020 Working
Groups on AL and VET. Since 2004, she has been a member of the Governing Board of the CEDEFOP, and since 2005,
a member of European Council’s Advisory Committee on Vocational Education (ACVT). Tatjana is member of EI’s VET
Task Force, a post she has held since 2012, and in2015, she became a member of European Economic and Social
Committee (EESC).
Guntars CATLAKS is currently the Head of the National Centre for Education of the Republic of
Latvia. His work includes overseeing the development of the curriculum and examination, both
in general compulsory and vocational education, as well as in special and non-formal education
and continuous professional development.
Guntars previously worked as Senior Research Coordinator at Education International. His
responsibility was to monitor on-going research, as well as to undertake surveys in the fields of
education quality, equal access to education, teacher employment, and development and
working conditions.

2. He has particular experience in social sciences and citizenship education, as well as multicultural/bilingual education
and reform policies in Central Eastern Europe. Guntars was previously a teacher, a curriculum developer, and a
Latvian and International contributor for textbook writing and research..
Born in 1963 in Riga, Guntars graduated from the University of Latvia as a Historian in 1986, and received a
Doctorate in History in 1995. Between 2002 and 2004, Guntars was the Director of Civitas International, the World
Association of Civic Educators based in Brussels, Belgium.
Krzysztof GETKA has been working at the Project for Cooperation with Trade Unions within the Representation of
Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Warsaw from 1993 to 1995, and again from 1997 to this day. He worked first as a
Project Assistant in the National Office, and then as a Researcher and Programme Manager. Between 1996 and
1997, he worked as a Training Coordinator at the Austrian insurance company MBI Agentur Ltd.
For several years Krzysztof was a correspondent and participant of the research project of the World Economy
Survey by the Institute for Economic Research in Munich.
Krzysztof studied Journalism and Political Science at the University of Warsaw and Social Sciences at the Humboldt
University in Berlin. He is also a Graduate of the Trainers’ School of the Non-Governmental Organizations in Poland.
Edgars GRIGORJEVS is the Vice-President of the Latvian Trade Union of Education and Science
Employees (LIZDA).
He is a talented young leader, who has been able to modernise his organisation in a very short
period of time. Edgars has been working with LIZDA for 6 years, and resumed his post at the
Vice-President as from 2015. Edgars is active in various civil society organisations and education
projects, and he is skilled manager with eight years of expertise in public relations. Edgars has a
degree in International Communications.
Haldis HOLST is the Deputy General Secretary of Education International where she is
responsible for EI’s work in the areas of human and trade union rights, equality, and solidarity
programmes. Haldis has also served as Norway’s representative on the European Trade Union
Committee for Education (ETUCE), and she has previously been a member of the Executive
Board of Education International. Haldis was Vice-President of EI from 2009 to 2012. Ms. Holst
has worked as a teacher in both primary and secondary schools, and has been a union
representative at local, regional and national levels. In 2001, she became the Vice-President of
Norsk Lærerlag (NL). After the merger of the two largest teacher unions in Norway in 2002, she
became an Executive Board Member, and later the Vice-President of Utdanningsforbundet (Union of Education
Norway).
Dr. Loretta JOHNSON is the Secretary-Treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT),
AFL-CIO. Prior to becoming the AFT Secretary-Treasurer, Loretta was AFT’s Vice-President for 30
years, serving as Executive Vice-president from 2008 to 2011. In August of 2011, Loretta was
also elected as a Vice-President of the AFL-CIO, a federation representing 56 national and
international unions, including the AFT. Loretta also served as President of the Baltimore
Teachers Union’s paraprofessional chapter for 35 years. Loretta began her career in 1966 as a
teacher’s aide in a Baltimore elementary school, where she earned $2.25 an hour and received
no benefits. To improve the work situation of paraprofessionals like herself, she organized her
fellow teachers into the Baltimore Teachers’ Union.

3. Dr. Pēteris KRĪGERS has been President of Free Trade Union Confederation of Latvia (LBAS)
since 2002. He was previously a Chairperson of a branch union, and Vice-President of LBAS.
Pēteris has a lot of experience and authority in trade union work, which has influenced the
positive establishment of a social dialogue system at the national level, as well as a good
partnership with the employers’ organisations and state institutions. He is always open to new
ideas, and he actively cooperates with educational institutions as a teacher and expert of study
programs.
Pēteris has been a member of the Latvian delegation since 2004. He is also a Workers’ Group Representative in the
European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), having previously held the post of Vice-President of the group.
Līga LEJIŅA has been appointed a State Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Science of
the Republic of Latvia in September 2015.
Līga has a Bachelor degree of Pedagogy from the Riga Teacher Training and Educational
Management Academy. From 1995 to 2010, she worked for the State Education Development
Agency of Latvia, where she was responsible for issues related to the pre accession and EU
structural funds. She has been working at Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of
Latvia the since 2010.
Vyacheslav MELNYK is the Secretary General of the Campaign Against Homophobia (KPH).
Established in 2001, the KPH is a national non-governmental organisation working for the equal rights of lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people. KPH conducts a wide range of activities in order to increase/promote tolerance and
acceptance of the LGBT community, while tackling a range of stereotypes and prejudices, including:
 large social awareness raising and educational campaigns aiming at integrating LGBT people into society;
 trainings for students, teachers, social workers, lawyers, police, parents and others;
 psychological and legal help to victims of homophobia;
 lobbying for equal right at national and international levels.
KPH has been part of many international initiatives and networks working on LGBT issues, and it continues to look
for further opportunities to cooperate and learn from other organisations, particularly in other Eastern European
countries.
Dorota OBIDNIAK currently works as a Coordinator for Educational Projects and International
Cooperation in the Polish Teachers’ Union ZNP. She is also Coordinator for cooperation with
Polish NGOs. She represents ZNP in the ETUCE Committee for Equal Opportunities and Advisory
Panel.
Dorota is a teacher, an adult educator, and an author of numerous course books, curriculum
materials, teacher training programmes, and educational resources. She is a Co-founder of the
programme “New School” (Nowa Szkoła), which prepared institutions for the 1999/2000 reform.
She was the Head of Department of System of Training and Consultancy in the Ministry of Education of Poland from
1998 to 2000. Dorota was the Deputy Director of the In-service Teacher Training Center near The Polish Teachers’
Union, and she runs a Polish, non-public Training Center (OUPiS) that has six regional branches. Dorota is also the
founder and former president of the Polish Association of German Teachers.
Ana PERONA-FJELDSTAD has been the Executive Director of the European Wergeland Centre,
responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Centre, since its establishment in 2009.
Perona-Fjeldstad is a lawyer (Córdoba State University, Argentina) with a MA in International
Relations from the Latin American School of Social Sciences (FLACSO). She has been working in

4. Education for the last 20 years. From 1994 to 2009, she worked at the International Council for Open and Distance
Education (ICDE), a global NGO gathering Higher Education Institutions active in the field of open, online and
distance learning, holding several positions up to Assistant Secretary General. She was engaged in capacity building
projects in Asia, Africa and Europe developed under the framework of UNESCO, The World Bank and EU
programmes, mostly addressing issues of access to education. Previously she was an Adviser at the Chamber of
Representatives (Córdoba), and she previously worked in research at FLACSO-Buenos Aires, focusing on the
integration process between Argentina and Brazil.
Mariann RIKKA is a Chief Expert in the General Education Department in the Ministry of Education, dealing with
study material and different human rights topics, especially HRE. She is also a member of the Council of Unitas
Foundation (an NGO dealing with history, human rights and education). Mariann is an alumni of the Youth to School
(Teach for All) programme, during which she taught History, Civic Education, English, and Law in a general education
school for 2 years. Mariann has a Master’s Degree in Law from the University of Tartu, as well as a Bachelor’s in
Human Rights from a European Master Programme (E.MA).
Ewa STOECKER is a psychologist, educator, trainer and co-founder of the Anti-Discrimination Education Association
(TEA). Founded in 2009, the TEA brings together several dozens of experts and specialists in anti-discrimination
education (among others, anti-discrimination trainers, initiators of equality and diversity projects, and
representatives of organisations supporting minority groups).
The mission of the Association is to develop and disseminate anti-discrimination education, to help individuals and
institutions to participate in the creation of a world free of discrimination and violence. The Association conducts
educational activities directed towards individuals and institutions engaged in formal and non-formal education in
Poland, such as teachers, educational institutions, ministries, teacher training centres, education superintendents,
trainers of adults and youth.
Fred VAN LEEUWEN has been the General Secretary of Education International (EI) for 23 years.
A former teacher in the Netherlands, Fred joined the Dutch union Algemene Bond van Onderwijs
Personeel (ABOP) and took over responsibility of the union's International Affairs Department in
the late 70s. He was elected General Secretary of the International Federation of Free Teachers'
Unions (IFFTU) in 1981, a post he held until the dissolution of the Secretariat in 1993. After
spearheading the merger of IFFTU with the World Confederation of Organisations of the
Teaching Profession (WCOTP), he took the office of General Secretary of the EI Interim Board
during the Education International Constituent Congress held in Stockholm (Sweden) in January
1993.
Reemo VOTLRI is the President of the EEPU, the representative organisation for the education
personnel in Estonia. He has a Master’s Degree in teaching Physics from the University of Tartu,
and he has been working as a physics and maths teacher for the last 15 years. He initiated trade
union work in his school, and he has been the shop steward ever since. He was elected as the
President of EEPU in Autumn 2012, and he also works part time at the school to stay in touch
with the real world of teaching. Since Reemo was elected, he has managed to stop the
membership decrease in the Union. Reemo would like to continue to enhance the membership,
and bring trade unionism closer to every teacher, especially for the VET and pre-school
educators.