IRM Announces New Cohort of its International Experts Panel

The Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) is pleased to announce the appointment of five members to the International Experts Panel (IEP). The IEP is an advisory body of regional and thematic experts that oversees the quality of IRM products and process, and plays a key role in ensuring the independence of IRM assessments.

The IRM opened a call for new IEP membership in early 2022. IEP members were selected through a rigorous, multistage process and were chosen for their diversity of professional experience and thematic and regional expertise. After a recommendation from the Criteria and Standards Subcommittee, the full OGP Steering Committee appointed the new IEP members on a non-objection basis. 

The three newly appointed members will serve on the IEP through December 2025. Two former IEP members were appointed for a half term and will serve through December 2023 to support the transition process.

Maha Jweied

Maha Jweied is an expert on access to justice and directs a consultancy working with a number of non-profit and multilateral organizations. Maha is also an advisor to the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies; a non-resident fellow with NYU’s Center on International Cooperation; a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress; a member of the American Law Institute; and a member of the (US) Council on Criminal Justice. Previously she led the US Department of Justice’s Office for Access to Justice. Maha has contributed to several OGP reports, including the Justice Policy Series and a fact sheet on access to justice offices leading on justice in OGP.

Snježana Bokulić

Snježana Bokulić is a human rights lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in the human rights, security, and development sectors with international non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations across five continents. Snježana also has experience in strengthening organizational accountability, strategy development, and change management. She currently serves as the presiding member of the Human Rights Review Panel of EULEX, the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo. Snježana serves as chair of Greenwich Refugee Aid and Commercial Enterprise and chair of the Independent Review Panel of Accountable Now. She is also director of the board of the3million.

Rocio Moreno Lopez

Rocio Moreno Lopez joined Accountable Now in January 2018 as its executive director. Rocio has more than 19 years of experience in the civil society sector where she has worked on advancing transparency and accountability in budgets, extractive industries, health, and poverty reduction strategies. Her professional experience includes working for the Global Movement for Budget Transparency, Accountability and Participation (BTAP) as their global movement coordinator and for Fundar, a national CSO in Mexico. Rocio has consulted on projects about citizen participation, capacity building, and impact evaluation in countries such as Kenya, North Macedonia, Kazakhstan, and Mexico. Rocio holds a BA in economics and a MSc in development administration and planning.

Mary Francoli

Mary Francoli is an associate professor of communication and media studies at Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication in Ottawa, Canada. She holds a doctorate in political science from Western University. Prior to joining the School of Journalism and Communication, she was a visiting fellow at Royal Holloway, The University of London. Dr. Francoli’s research looks at the relationship between digital media and issues related to politics and governance and she is a leading researcher in the field of open government and open data. She has authored two IRM reports, which assessed the Government of Canada’s open government progress. She has also provided expert testimony to the country’s Standing Parliamentary Committee on Government Operations on the issue of open data.

César N. Cruz-Rubio

César N. Cruz-Rubio is a senior researcher, professor, and international consultant specializing in public governance, policy legitimation, program evaluation, policy change theories, policy designs, transparency, democratic innovations, public integrity systems and open government. He is an associate professor at the UC3M Carlos III University of Madrid and a senior researcher and president of GIGAPP Ibero-American Research Network. Dr. Cruz-Rubio holds a PhD from the Complutense University of Madrid’s Ortega y Gasset Research Institute. He has been an international professor at INAP-Spain since 2016 and at the OAS-OEA from 2016-2019. He also works as a professor at the Open University of Catalonia UOC, IUNIT University and as International professor at ESAP (Colombia). Previously, he served as a national IRM researcher for Spain. He has been an IEP member since 2016.

We look forward to working with this diverse and talented group. For more information on the current IEP, please see their biographies located here.