Governing Body

The Board of Trustees of UNICRI

The Institute is governed by a Board of Trustees. The Board formulates principles, policies and guidelines, approves the work programme and budget proposal, evaluates the Institute's completed and ongoing activities and reports to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) through the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (Crime Commission).

The Board is comprised of seven elected members serving for up to two five-year terms in their personal capacity and four ex-officio members. The elected members are selected by the Crime Commission, upon the nomination of the Secretary-General and endorsed by ECOSOC, on the basis of equitable geographical distribution and from among eminent persons who possess the necessary qualifications and expertise. Equitable gender distribution is also taken into consideration. The four ex-officio members include a representative of the Secretary-General, a representative of the Administrator of United Nations Development Programme, a representative of the Host Country (Italy), and the Director of UNICRI. 

Elected board members:

• Ms. Tomoko Baba (Japan)
• Mr. Carlos Castresana Fernández (Spain).
• Mr. Joel Antonio Hernández García (Mexico) - President.
• Ms. Carolina Lizárraga Houghton (Peru) - Vice-President. 
• Mr. Jonathan Lucas (Seychelles) - Rapporteur.
• Deborah Lyons (Canada).
• Mr. Omar Rifai (Jordan).  

Ex-officio members:

• Representative of the Host Country: Mr. Marco Giungi, Minister Plenipotentiary, Directorate-General for Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
• Representative of the Secretary-General: Mr. Christophe Monier, Director, Business Transformation and Accountability, Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance.
• Representative of the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): Ms. Katy Thompson, Head of Rule of Law, Security and Human Rights Team, UNDP.
• The Acting Director of UNICRI: Mr. Leif Villadsen.

Former members:

• Mr. Jayantilal M. Karia (Uganda). 
• Ms. Taous Feroukhi (Algeria). 
• Ms. Suzanne Hayden (USA).  
• Ms. Youngju Oh (Republic of Korea).