Mehmet Balci, Programme Director and Permanent Representative of Geneva Call to the European Union, is a journalist and a human rights activist. After having studied foreign languages for many years, he collaborated with different Kurdish political and non-governmental organizations as representative next to the EU, UN, Council of Europe and OSCE. He has authored several articles in the Kurdish and Turkish press. He is founder of the Turkish Campaign to Ban Landmines and member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines Non-State Actors Working Group. He has so far authored Landmine Monitor report on Turkey for 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and the booklet Turkey Without Mines. He joined Geneva Call in 2000.

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Armin Köhli, Programme Officer for the Middle East, has been working with Geneva Call since May 2007. In his former profession as a journalist, he worked as the foreign editor at the Swiss weekly “Die Wochenzeitung” from 2000 to 2007. He chaired the board of the Swiss edition of “Le Monde Diplomatique” until 2008. Prior to that, he studied foreign languages and worked as a freelance journalist and tour guide, mainly in the Middle East. He has volunteered in different humanitarian, political and cultural NGOs and contributed significantly to the landmine ban movement and mine action-NGOs through his numerous impressive achievements in endurance cycling.

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Armelle Seby, Programme Officer for Colombia, holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations (International History and Politics) from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva and a Master in Political Science from the Political Studies Institute of Paris. She worked as a project officer for the Swiss NGOs Espace Femmes International and Genève Tiers Monde where she monitored projects dealing with social development issues in Africa and Central America. Ms. Seby also worked with the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) where she focused on good practices of educational interventions in the fight against child labour. She joined Geneva Call in July 2005.

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