The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) has finalized the composition of the Panel of Judges that will preside over the hearings in Montreal from May 25 to 29, 2026.
At the request of the Native Womens’ Shelter in Montreal and with the support of numerous organizations, including the Future Generations Foundation, David Suzuki Foundation, Know History, JFK Law LLP, Aboriginal Legal Services and daphne art centre, this session aims to contribute to the search for truth by helping to define the extent of historical injustices suffered by indigenous peoples.
During the hearings, the PPT will review documentation relating to the disappearance of Indigenous children and their unmarked graves in Canada, paying particular attention to the ongoing impact of these violations on Indigenous communities.
The panel comprises jurists, academics, and human rights defenders from a variety of geographical backgrounds. These experts specialise in indigenous law, transitional justice, international criminal law and minority rights.
Carlos Beristain (Spain): Doctor and PhD in Psychology and a veteran researcher of human rights violations in Latin America and other regions of the world, as well as a reference in psychosocial care for victims. In addition to being an expert witness for medical and psychosocial evaluation on ten occasions before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the Interamerican Commission in cases of Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico and Brazil, and he has worked as an advisor on victims in various cases of the International Criminal Court. He was part of the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts of the Interamerican Commision for the 43 students who disappeared in the Ayotzinapa case, Mexico. He worked with indigenous peoples in Guatemala and Colombia for many years. He was coordinator of the report “Guatemala: nunca más” (Guatemala: never again) and advisor to the Truth Commissions of Peru, Paraguay and Ecuador, and he was commissioner of the Colombian Truth Commission. He has numerous publications in specialised journals. He has written more than 25 books, and has participated in collective publications about psychosocial work, coping mechanisms of indigenous people, reparations in human right violations, humanitarian aid and historical memory.
Carlos Castresana (Spain): Spanish public prosecutor and jurist, with honorary doctorates from the Universidad Central de Chile, the Universidad de Guadalajara and the National Institute of Criminal Sciences from Mexico. He became a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) in November 2014. He has served at the Court of Auditors of Spain since 2020, he served as Prosecutor of the Supreme Court in the Criminal Affairs Section since 2005, and was Special Prosecutor against Corruption (1995-2005). Moreover, he worked in the Special Prosecution Office against Drug Trafficking (1993-1995) and, from 2007 to 2010, he was Commissioner of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, with the category of UN Assistant-Secretary General.
Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel (Canada): Ellen Gabriel graduated from the New York Film Academy in documentary film making in December 2021, she focused on advocacy to reclaim the narrative of stories of Indigenous peoples. In May of 1990 Ms. Gabriel graduated from Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, majoring in visual arts. She was well-known to the public when she was chosen by the People of the Longhouse and her community of Kanehsatà:ke to be their spokesperson during the 1990 “Oka” Crisis; to protect the Pines from the expansion of a 9-hole golf course in Kanehsatà:ke, the colonial imposed name of “OKA”. She is a Steering Committee member with Indigenous Climate Action addressing the needs and solutions to the violations of Indigenous peoples’ human rights, the climate crisis and environmental rights. Ms. Gabriel was elected president of the Quebec Native Women’s Association a position which she held for more than 6 years, until December 2010 and received an honorary doctorate in 2024 from the Université de Québec à Montreal for her work in human rights. Her most recent awards are for Best short documentary, Présence Autochtones for Kanàntenhs – When the Pine Needles Fall (2024) and la Grand Prix award from the Conseil des arts de Montreal for her film Kanàtenhs – When the Pine Needles Fall (2025).
Seánna Howard (Canada – United States): Professor Howard has been with the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program since 2006, advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights through precedent-setting advocacy before the Inter-American and United Nations human rights systems in her role as Director of the International Human Rights Advocacy Workshop at the University of Arizona College of Law. She has represented the Western Shoshone, the Chiricahua Apache, the Maya in Belize, the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group, the Water Protector Legal Collective, and the Navajo Nation in high-impact advocacy and provided training to the Government of Kenya on implementing national legislation on Indigenous Peoples’ rights in line with international standards. Professor Howard and her workshop hosted the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (2020-2024) and continue to provide academic support to the UN treaty monitoring bodies, the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and expert members of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Through this work, Professor Howard bridges scholarship, practice, and global advocacy in advancing Indigenous Peoples’ rights worldwide.
Valmaine Toki (New Zealand):Valmaine Toki is a Barrister and Solicitor of Ngati Rehua, Ngatiwai, Ngapuhi descent. Valmaine holds a BA LLB (Hons) MBA, LLM and a PhD in law and has a current practicing certificate as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court. As a He Ture Pumau scholar Valmaine worked at Te Ohu Kaimoana where she completed her MBA. Valmaine joined Te Piringa after five years lecturing at the Auckland Law School. She is the first New Zealander appointed to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues where she served two 3 year terms and more recently the first New Zealander appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Valmaine’s area of research, writing and teaching lies within the area of Indigenous rights. She has given public lectures and seminars globally including at Harvard Law School.
Frances Webber (United Kingdom): A former barrister who specialised in immigration, refugee and human rights law until her retirement in 2008, Frances is an honorary vice-president of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers and author of Borderline justice: the fight for refugee and migrant rights (Pluto, October 2012). As a barrister, she was also part of the team seeking Pinochet’s extradition. With over fifty years’ experience working with migrants, refugee and diaspora communities in the UK, Frances has been a trustee of the Institute of Race Relations for over 40 years and writes regularly for its journal Race & Class on issues of state racism and human rights. She has worked with the European Legal Support Centre (on the rights of Palestinian students in the UK), with Reprieve (on citizenship stripping and the case of Shamima Begum) and the Black Equity Organisation, contributing to its successful judicial review (with the Public Law Project) of the government’s reneging on the pledge to implement all the recommendations of the Windrush Lessons Learned review. In 2025 she acted as presiding judge at the Permanent People’s Tribunal on war crimes in Rojava, north-east Syria.
Andrew Woolford (Canada): Professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Manitoba, an emeritus member of the Royal Society of Canada College, and former president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. Among others, his most recent publications include Genocide in Canada (2026) and Did You See Us? Reunion, Remembrance, and Reclamation at an Urban Indian Residential School (2021). He has contributed reports to the Truth and Reconciliation of Canada and Gottfriedson et al v HMTQ on genocide through assimilative education and has worked on two community-based research projects with Residential School Survivors: 1) Embodying Empathy, which designed, built, and tested a virtual Indian Residential School that will serve as a site of knowledge mobilization and empathy formation; and 2) Remembering Assiniboia, which focused on commemoration of the Assiniboia Residential School. He is currently completing a book on human and more-than-human relations within genocidal processes under the title “genocide with nature” and beginning research on the topic of the British Home Child program.
