Global Witness Trust

Global Witness Trust is a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity (no. 1117844, registered in England & Wales). It is governed by a voluntary board of trustees who are independent of Global Witness.

Jeremy Bristow, Chair of the Trust

Jeremy Bristow is a retired producer who formerly ith the BBC Natural History Unit. Starting his career in journalism and current affairs, he decided to concentrate on environmental issues after witnessing the deforestation during a filming trip to Cambodia in 1995; going on to produce films on climate change with Sir David Attenborough and win major international film awards in Britain, the US, Brazil, China and Japan.

Ingrid Gubbay

Ingrid Gubbay is a very experienced litigation practitioner who currently heads up the European human rights and climate law team at the London office of Hausfeld and Co, where she is based. She is well recognised for her leading international human rights and climate cases, and her strategic advisory work and advocacy supporting, UN COP, Activists, NGO’S, Regulators, and civil society as well as commenting in the media on these issues, to which she has been dedicated during her 26 year long career. In 2021 she and her team won the Financial Times award of the year for innovation in sustainability and climate law.

She was appointed a Visiting Fellow at the British Institute for International & Comparative Law (BIICL) in 2022, where she has worked on a number of human rights due diligence and corporate climate accountability projects, and has recently published a chapter in the book, ‘International climate change litigation’. She will also teach on the BIICL Climate Change short course in 2022 and is currently working on legal issues impacting on a ‘Just Transition’ in particular, with respect to equality in environmental justice

Ingrid is a Trustee and Chair of the charity Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), which brings strategic litigation world- wide to combat serious human rights violations and breaches of humanitarian law, and a Director of the environmental social enterprise Sea Rangers, based in Netherlands and UK which trains youth to patrol the North Sea, to help protect sea life, and marine reserves, and work with national fisheries inspectors, to identify illegal fishing and enforce regulations.

Angus Brown

Angus is a Chartered Accountant and member of the Expert Witness Institute with broad business and third sector experience at a senior level. Angus has over 20 years’ experience as a Director in the Forensic Services team at a leading consultancy firm, where he successfully led teams on often high-profile corruption investigations and disputes across a variety of industries both in the UK and overseas. His work has focussed on dealing with issues of governance, finance, accountability and transparency on an almost daily basis.

Angus has also gained significant experience as a Trustee/Director at a range of third sector organisations, including a national charity operating Care homes across the United Kingdom and his local foodbank. He also volunteers regularly in his local community.

Oliver Hudson

Oliver is a lawyer (non practising) who has worked internationally in both the public and private sectors. Most recently he worked for Conectas Human Rights in Brazil, initially as editor of the Sur International Journal for Human Rights. The Journal aims to influence the global human rights agenda by producing, fostering and disseminating innovative research and ideas, primarily from the Global South, on human rights practice. Latterly, Oliver was responsible for institutional development at Conectas working closely with the senior leadership team and board of trustees in matters relating to monitoring and evaluation, governance and people. Previously he worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Brussels as well as two international law firms.

Blanca Blanco Abellan

Blanca is Head of Programmes at Trócaire (Ireland). Driven by her passion for human rights, social justice and Latin American politics she lived and worked for over 15 years in Central America, one of the most challenging environments for land and environmental Human Rights Defenders globally.

Blanca has held a number of roles in Trócaire, including Programme Officer in Honduras, Country Director in Guatemala, and Resource Rights and Human Rights Defenders Global Advisor in Ireland. Before joining Trócaire she worked as project officer on an Anti-Racism Education Programme with the National Youth Council of Ireland and was advisor on the Irish Delegation to the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban – South Africa (2001).

Blanca has undertaken research in Guatemala and Mexico in the areas of gender-based violence, gender and migration. She has published articles in English and Spanish in academic journals, authored book chapters, and peer reviewed publications, including research presented at the World Bank Land and Poverty Conference on the situation of land evictions and Women Human Rights Defenders in Guatemala and Honduras.

She holds a BA Degree in Sociology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), an MA in Development Studies from the Development Studies Centre Dublin, and an MA in Social Anthropology from the Social Anthropology Research Institute in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico.