Steering Committee

  • Robert Řehák (Czech Republic), Chair 2024

    Robert Řehák, Ph.D. is Special Envoy for Holocaust, Interfaith Dialogue and Freedom of Religion, Czech career diplomat, Head of the Czech Delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Member of the Steering Committee of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA), published scholar of biblical proper names and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and official Hebrew interpreter. He studied at Charles University in Prague, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg and Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

    He served as Deputy Spokesperson of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2018- 2019), Cultural Attaché at the Czech Embassy in Washington, D.C. (2012-2016), Cultural and Press Attaché at the Czech Embassy in Israel (2005-2009), President of the Society of Christians and Jews in the Czech Republic (2000-2005), and General Secretary of the Center for Biblical Studies at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (2000-2002). In recent years, he has worked with young people and lectured in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, is an external lecturer at New York University in Prague, Deputy Director of the Diplomatic Academy and since 2019 Ambassador at large.

    As a researcher, he participates in several international research projects in the field of interfaith dialogue and sociology of religion. He is the initiator of the new Czech National Strategy of Combating anti-Semitism and co-ordinated the recent conference on the Terezín Declaration and the 2023 FoRB Ministerial in Prague. He is proficient in Czech, English, Hebrew, German and Russian, and reads classical Latin, Greek and Arabic. He lives in Prague with his wife and four children.

  • Ambassador Rashad Hussain (USA), Steering Committee Member 2024

    Rashad Hussain is Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Hussain serves as principal advisor to the Secretary and advisor to the President on religious freedom conditions and policy. He leads the Department’s efforts to monitor religious freedom abuses, persecution, and discrimination worldwide. He also oversees policies and programs to address these concerns and works to build diverse and dynamic partnerships with the broadest range of civil society, with equitable and meaningful inclusion of faith actors globally.

    Prior to this appointment, Hussain was Director at the National Security Council’s Partnerships and Global Engagement Directorate. From 2015 to 2021, he served as Senior Counsel at the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.

  • Ambassador Chiara Porro (Australia), Steering Committee Member 2024

    HE Ambassador Chiara Porro is a career diplomat who joined Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in 2009. She has held a range of positions in Canberra, including most recently as Director, Ministerial and Executive Liaison Section, Executive Branch. She was seconded as an Adviser to the International Division of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (2016-17), and has worked in DFAT’s Budget Branch (2015-16) and Africa Branch (2014). Overseas, Ambassador Porro has served as Deputy Consul-General in Noumea, New Caledonia (2018-2020), on a short term mission to West Africa (2016), and as Second Secretary in New Delhi, India (2011-2014).

    Ambassador Porro holds a Master of International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of York, United Kingdom. She speaks Italian and French. Ambassador Porro presented credentials to His Holiness Pope Francis on 27 August 2020. Ambassador Porro is married and has two children.

  • Anke Oppermann (Germany), Steering Committee Member since 2024

    Anke Oppermann heads the Unit of the Federal Government Commissioner for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Frank Schwabe MP at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Previously, she was head of the directorate "Decent work worldwide; food and nutrition security" and the directorate responsible for personnel, organisation, legal affairs and the translation and interpreting service, as well as acting head of Directorate-General Z (Central Directorate-General). During her career with the BMZ, Ms Oppermann also headed the Personnel Division and the Division for Parliament and Cabinet, and was Deputy Head of the Minister's Office. She has development-policy experience – gained both at the BMZ and while working for other organisations – in areas such as international human rights, cooperation with Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Federal College for Security Studies, policy planning and parliamentary work. Anke Oppermann studied History, Public Law and Political Science at universities in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S.A.