FP Virtual Dialogue: Human Rights & Older Persons

Ms. Bachelet was elected President of Chile on two occasions 2006 and 2014 and was the first female president of Chile. She served as Health Minister  as well as Chile’s and Latin America’s first female Defense Minister. Among her many achievements, education and tax reforms - the creation of the National Institute for Human Rights and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights stand out, as does the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, the adoption of quotas to increase women’s political participation, and the approval of Civil Union Act legislation, granting rights to same sex couples. In 2010 she chaired the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group, a joint International Labor Organization and World Health Organization initiative. In 2011, she was named the first Director of UN Women and she has recently pledged to be a Gender Champion. After finishing her second term in March 2018, she was named Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, an alliance of more than 1000 organizations in 192 countries from the sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health communities. As Co-Chair of the High-Level Steering Group for Every Woman Every Child, Ms. Bachelet launched Every Woman Every Child Latin America and the Caribbean, the first platform for tailored, regional implementation of the EWEC Global Strategy. Michelle Bachelet has a Medical Degree in Surgery, with a specialization in Pediatrics and Public Health.  She also studied military strategy at Chile's National Academy of Strategy and Policy and at the Inter-American Defense College in the United States.

Allison oversees all global research and analysis. She counsels clients on current and prospective market, policy, and security developments with a focus on emerging trends, scenario planning, strategic foresight. Prior to this role, Carlson led FP Analytics’ energy and technology team for over a decade. Prior to FP Analytics (formerly Garten Rothkopf), Carlson led the Latin America program for an international consulting firm assisting European companies investing in emerging markets’ energy and financial sectors. She received her master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in international relations and international economics.

Justin Derbyshire is the Chief Executive at HelpAge International, an international organization which facilitates older people to claim their rights, challenge discrimination and overcome poverty, such that they can lead dignified, secure, active and healthy lives. In his time to date, Justin has driven the strategic review of the organization and overseen the implementation of HelpAge International’s change process marked by a shift from a traditional NGO delivery model to be a global secretariat working with, through and for its network of over 138 members. In May 2017, Justin represented HelpAge at the WHO Stakeholders’ Meeting on Ageing and Health in Geneva; at the OECD forum in Paris in June 2017; at the UN High level political forum in July 2017 at the 56th session of the Commission for Social Development in January 2018 and at the 9th working session of the UN OEWG on Ageing in New York in July 2018

Kumi Naidoo is a life-long social justice campaigner hailing from South Africa. Kumi’s first taste of activism came at age 15 when he organized and took part in an anti-apartheid protest that saw him expelled from his school. In 1986, at the age of 21, Kumi was charged for violating the state of emergency regulations. He was forced to go underground, before deciding to live in exile in the UK where he stayed until Nelson Mandela was released and liberation movements were unbanned. As the apartheid regime crumbled, Kumi returned to South Africa in 1990 to work with the African National Congress. There, he took up a cause close to his heart: education, specifically adult literacy campaigns and voter education efforts to empower historically and systematically disenfranchised communities. Kumi has held multiple leadership roles, but his time as Executive Director of Greenpeace International cemented his reputation as a bold activist who championed civil disobedience, most notably when he was arrested for scaling a Greenlandic oil rig to hand-deliver a petition in protest of drilling in the Arctic in 2011.  A year later he occupied a Russian oil rig in the Barents Sea in the Russian Arctic. Kumi’s most recent role has been as a co-founder and interim chair of the pan-African organization, Africans Rising for justice, peace and dignity. The group, which has forged partnerships across trade unions, religion and civil society, aims to change the fact that while the Africa as a continent has benefitted from economic growth, Africans themselves have not shared in that increasing wealth and power.  

Kenneth Roth is the executive director of Human Rights Watch, one of the world's leading international human rights organizations, which operates in more than 90 countries. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch in 1987, Roth served as a federal prosecutor in New York and for the Iran-Contra investigation in Washington, DC. A graduate of Yale Law School and Brown University, Roth has conducted numerous human rights investigations and missions around the world. He has written extensively on a wide range of human rights abuses, devoting special attention to issues of international justice, counterterrorism, the foreign policies of the major powers, and the work of the United Nations.

As Vice President of International, Peter Rundlet develops and executes AARP's international strategy to position AARP as the global thought leader on aging. An accomplished strategic thinker and visionary leader, Rundlet leads the enterprise-wide strategic direction for international engagements, including programmatic, policy, and operational activities. Rundlet's extensive background working to achieve positive and durable social change includes key posts both inside and outside government. Before joining AARP, Rundlet served as the Director of International Strategy for the Obama Foundation, where he spearheaded the design and development of the organization's international programs. Prior to that post, Rundlet served as Managing Director and Head of the Washington, DC office of the human rights foundation Humanity United. Rundlet also served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Staff Secretary for President Barack Obama, and he was the Vice President and Managing Director for National Security and International Policy at the Center for American Progress.  Prior to coming to CAP, Rundlet served as Counsel for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission). Rundlet also served in President Clinton's White House, first as a White House Fellow, working in the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President, and later as Associate Counsel to the President. Earlier in his career, Rundlet was an Assistant Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he litigated voting rights, housing, school desegregation, and employment discrimination cases. A former Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras, Rundlet holds a master's degree from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University.

As AARP’s chief public policy officer, Debra Whitman, leads policy development, analysis and research, as well as global thought leadership supporting and advancing the interests of individuals age 50-plus and their families. She oversees AARP’s Public Policy Institute, AARP Research, Office of Policy Development and Integration, Thought Leadership, and AARP International. Dr. Whitman is an authority on aging issues with extensive experience in national policymaking, domestic and international research, and the political process. An economist, she is a strategic thinker whose career has been dedicated to solving problems affecting economic and health security, and other issues related to population aging. As staff director for the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, she worked across the aisle to increase retirement security, lower the cost of health care, protect vulnerable seniors, safeguard consumers, make the pharmaceutical industry more transparent, and improve our nation’s long term care system. Before that, Dr. Whitman worked for the Congressional Research Service as a specialist in the economics of aging. She provided members of Congress and their staff with research and advice, and authored analytical reports on the economic impacts of current policies affecting older Americans, as well as the distributional and intergenerational effects of legislative proposals. From 2001 to 2003, she served as a Brookings LEGIS Fellow to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Earlier in her career, she conducted research on savings and retirement for the Social Security Administration, helping to establish the Retirement Research Consortium and serving as the founding editor of the Perspectives section of the Social Security Bulletin. Dr. Whitman has been quoted by or appeared in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, Bloomberg, USA Today, NBC Nightly News, CBS News, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and Politico, among others. She serves on several boards, including the National Advisory Council on Aging for the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, the National Coalition on Health Care, and the Pension Rights Center. Dr. Whitman holds master’s and doctorate degrees in economics from Syracuse University and a bachelor’s degree in economics, math and Italian from Gonzaga University.