Raphaela Cueni, President

Raphaela Cueni (*1988) is Assistant Professor of Administrative Law at the University of St Gallen. Previously, she worked as a research assistant and lecturer at the University of Basel. Her research and teaching activities focus on Swiss and comparative constitutional law, in particular in the field of fundamental rights and human rights and media law. Her academic work has led Raphaela Cueni to universities in Switzerland and abroad, where she has worked on projects to protect satire within the framework of freedom of expression, the (fundamental) legal assessment of begging prohibitions, or the constitutional regulation of abortions. A current research project is devoted to questions of transparency in Swiss constitutional law.  

Raphaela Cueni studied law at the Universities of Basel and Geneva and at Columbia University Law School. She lives in St Gallen.

Languages: German, French, English, Italian; basic knowledge of Spanish and Russian.

Matthias Hui, vice-president

Matthias Hui (*1962) was coordinator of the NGO Platform Human Rights Switzerland at humanrights.ch until 2023. In this function, he coordinated NGO reports on the UN's state reporting procedures and the cooperation of human rights organisations on topics such as strengthening the protection against discrimination or Switzerland's foreign policy on human rights. In regard to politics and administration, he campaigned for issues such as the creation of the SHRI. Since 2013 he has also been co-editor of the religious-social magazine Neue Wege. Previously, he worked in the field of development cooperation and development policy in the Palestinian West Bank and at the Reformed Churches Bern-Jura-Solothurn.

Matthias Hui studied theology at the universities of Zurich, Berlin (Humboldt) and Berne; he completed a postgraduate degree in international law/human rights at the University of Bern. He lives in Bern.

Languages: German, French, English, Spanish, Arabic; basic knowledge of Italian.

Véronique Boillet

Véronique Boillet (*1981) is a professor of public law at the University of Lausanne as well as a lawyer. In recent years, her research has dealt with various issues, including discrimination on the basis of nationality, gender and sexual orientation, and the protection of migrant women who are victims of domestic violence. At present, she is working in a European research project on structural racist discrimination, has published a book on the protection of human rights in professional sports with two colleagues, and writes on the impact of the climate crisis from human rights perspective. In this context, she and Evelyne Schmid submitted a third-party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights on the case of "KlimaSeniorinnen v. Switzerland".

Véronique Boillet studied at the universities of Lausanne, Berne, and Berlin. She lives in le Mont-sur-Lausanne.

Languages: French, German, English.

Antonio Hautle

Antonio Hautle (*1961) has been the Executive Director of the UN Global Compact Network Switzerland & Liechtenstein since 2015. The UN Global Compact (UNGC) is the economy's largest sustainability initiative and is active worldwide. The member companies, NGOs and institutions commit themselves to implement the Ten UNGC Principles along their value chains, including Human Rights, and to publish an annual communications on progress. In addition, Antonio Hautle teaches ethics at various universities of applied sciences. From 2013 to 2015 Antonio Hautle was Head of the Department of Social Affairs and Society of the Canton of Lucerne, from 2001 to 2013 Director of the Fastenopfer (today Fastenaktion (development NGO)     ), and from 1996 to 2001 he worked as an Official Legal Guardian (Amtsvormund) and Head of Social Services of the City of Lenzburg.

Antonio Hautle studied philosophy, Catholic theology, and business ethics in Fribourg, Jerusalem, and Rome, and completed a Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Geneva. He lives in Schenkon, Lucerne, with his family.

Languages: German, English, French, Italian.

Marianne Hochuli

Marianne Hochuli (*1959) is a historian and NGO expert. From 2011 to 2022, she was Head of Fundamentals [1] and a member of the Executive Board for Caritas Switzerland. Before that, she headed the trade policy department at Public Eye (formerly the Berne Declaration) for ten years and dealt with justice issues in international trade and financial relations. Further steps on her way were the Federal Administration (State Secretariat for Migration, Integration Policy) and various associations, for example the Swiss Conference on Welfare Organisations SKOS, boards of directors, and foundation councils.  The human rights focal points of Marianne Hochuli's professional path were social policy, poverty, migration, and development policy.

Marianne Hochuli studied history at the University of Zurich and the TU Berlin and completed further training in management for non-profit organisations. She lives in Zurich.

Languages: German, French, English; basic knowledge of Italian and Spanish.

Xenia Rivkin

Xenia Rivkin (*1990) is an independent lawyer in Geneva, specialising in criminal proceedings, contract law and human rights. Prior to her work as a lawyer, she worked as a human rights observer for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in eastern Ukraine in 2017 where she documented human rights violations in the conflict area, in particular the right to a fair trial, the prohibition of torture, detention conditions, and violations of the laws of war. She is a member of the Human Rights Commission of the Geneva Bar Association, where she advocates in particular for lawyers who are in danger due to their profession. At the age of 15 Xenia Rivkin became active with Amnesty International and was on the board of Amnesty’s Swiss section from 2011 to 2015.

Xenia Rivkin studied law at the University of Fribourg and the Global School of Law at the Universidade Catolica de Lisboa in Portugal and passed her bar exam in Bern. She grew up in Aargau and lives in Geneva.

Languages: German, English, French, Italian.

Viviana Viri

Viviana Viri is an independent journalist who collaborates with various national and international media. Her human rights expertise extends to the fields of migration, asylum, and minority rights. She has reported in Lebanon, Siberia, Ukraine, and Ethiopia. She has lived for several years in Canada, where she worked for Amnesty International and picked up photography and documentary-making. She also writes on films, literature, and photography. She is a long-standing collaborator of the Human Rights Foundation as well as of various film festivals, including the Lugano Human Rights Film Festival.

Born in 1983, Viviana Viri graduated in journalism before professionally specialising in migrations at the Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies (SFM) at the University of Neuchatel and the American University of Beirut. After living for several years in Canada, she now lives in Lugano.

Languages: Italian, French, English, German; basic knowledge of Arabic.