Takayuki Hagiwara joined FAO in 2003 and is currently working as the Regional Programme Leader at the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. He has been working as a natural resources management specialist for over 25 years. During his career, he spent 17 years at the FAO Investment Centre where FAO provides technical assistance to World Bank and IFAD projects. He has prepared and implemented various projects in different areas including community-based natural resources management and livelihood development. He has conducted a number of trainings and published a farmer field school implementation guide based on his practical experiences in the field. He was the lead technical officer on the Sustainable Livelihood Development Project in Kenya’s Mau Forest Complex, which received FAO’s Edouard Saouma Award in 2013. He holds a master’s degree from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Francisco Calí Tzay was appointed Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples in March 2020 and took up the role on 1 May 2020. A Mayan Cakchiquel from Guatemala, he has represented indigenous peoples at the United Nations since the early 1980s, addressing human rights violations against the Indigenous Peoples in Guatemala and around the world. He is Maya Kaqchikel from Guatemala, with experience in defending the rights of Indigenous Peoples, both in Guatemala and at the level of the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS). He was founder and member of a different indigenous organizations in Guatemala and as well Ambassador of Guatemala to the Federal Republic of Germany and was President of the Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, a treaty body from which he was elected for four consecutive periods of 4 years each.

Katia Chirizzi is the Deputy Regional Representative of the UN OHCHR Regional Office for South-East Asia, which she joined in 2015. Prior to this, she worked with OHCHR in several capacities, in Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and in Geneva. Before joining OHCHR, she worked with the Organization for the Security and Co-operation in Europe in Kosovo, leading its Human Rights Division, and in Serbia. Over more than two decades, she focused her work on the protection and promotion of human rights both in conflict and post-conflict settings, including in the context of transitional justice, equality and non-discrimination, humanitarian action, land rights, business and human rights, climate change and environmental rights.

Noraeri Thungmueangthong is a chief of Huay Ee Khang Village. She belongs to Karen Indigenous group in Thailand. She is one of the prominent Indigenous Women leaders in Thailand. She is actively engaging on women’s issues, promotion of Indigenous Knowledge and sustainable natural resource management at local and country levels. She has initiated Ker Nue Mue or Women’s forest to create natural classroom for Indigenous Knowledge transmission, food source and income generation for the people in her village.
Currently she is also the committee member of Indigenous Women Network in Thailand (IWNT).

Shobha Tirkey is a Ph.D. Research Scholar from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. An Oraon tribe from Chhattisgarh, India. She has been working on indigenous issues at the grassroots to international levels for more than 12 years. Her field of expertise includes Research and Development focusing on corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, livelihood, environment, and climate change. Her work experience encompasses, blend of Corporate, Higher Education and Grass Root Level Field. Project management and strategic planning in line with Indigenous Community Development is her expertise. She comes with an array of interests: A Gardener and A Traveller. Permissiveness in cooking and music is therapeutic process for her. Ambitious to grow as an agent to pour hopes in people’s life.

An Agricultural Economist with a MABD on entitlements and food security, Yon Fernández-de-Larrinoa is the Head of the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit. He joined FAO in 1998 and has worked mainly in Latin America and Asia, coordinating work in the Tsunami, Avian Influenza, Peru Earthquake and Haiti Earthquake operations. In 2010, Yon joined the Partnerships and UN relations Division leading the FAO Civil Society team, co-authoring the Strategy to engage with civil society and supporting the participation of civil society in the World Committee of Food Security. He co-founded the Pastoralists knowledge hub in FAO and started the FAO Indigenous Peoples Unit in 2014. The Indigenous Peoples Unit implements FAO policy on indigenous peoples by working on FPIC; Collective rights and Indigenous youth. In 2018 the unit launched a Global Campaign on Indigenous Women and in 2019 started the group of friends of indigenous peoples in Rome. In 2020 The Committee of Agriculture endorsed the Global-Hub on Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems now including 16 academic, research, UN and indigenous organizations.

Prem Singh Tharu is a Tharu Indigenous person originally from Nepal. He has fifteen years of experience in the human right-based development fields particularly on child rights, Indigenous Peoples rights, human rights, conflict management and peace building, education, livelihoods, youths, disability, and environment in different capacities at various organizations. He has been recently working with Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) in the capacity of Environment Programme Officer based in Chiang Mai, Thailand since 2016. Academically, he has completed his Masters’ Degrees in anthropology from TU, Nepal and in law from NUIG, Ireland.