Baroness Caroline Cox

Baroness (Caroline) Cox was created a Life Peer in 1982 for her contributions to education and has served as a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords from 1985 to 2005. Lady Cox now sits in the Lords as a crossbencher and is a frequent contributor to Lords debates on Sudan, India, Nigeria, Uganda, and Burma.

As well as being the Chief Executive of HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust) Lady Cox was Founder Chancellor of Bournemouth University, 1991-2001 and is now Chancellor of Liverpool Hope University and Vice President of the Royal College of Nursing. Additionally she was a non-executive director of the Siberian Medical University and a founder Trustee of MERLIN (Medical Emergency Relief International).

Lady Cox serves as a non-executive director of the Andrei Sakharov Foundation and is the Chairman of the Executive Board of the International Islamic Christian Organisation for Reconciliation and Reconstruction (IICORR), a charity which she helped to set up to promote stronger relationships between Muslims and Christians.

Baroness Cox is the chairperson of the British Armenia All-Party Parliamentary Group and the vice chairperson of the UK North Korea All-Party Parliamentary Group.

In recognition of her work in the international humanitarian and human rights arenas over the past twenty years, she had been awarded the Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland; the prestigious Wilberforce Award; the International Mother Teresa Award from the All India Christian Council; the Mkhitar Gosh Medal conferred by the President of the Republic of Armenia; and the anniversary medal presented by Lech Walesa, the former President of Poland, at the 25th anniversary of the Polish Solidarity Movement.

Lady Cox has also been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Honorary Doctorates by universities in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, the Russian Federation and Armenia.

Baroness Cox has supported disability causes for many years, is an active member of the World Committee on Disability and a judge for the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award, which is distributed annually at the United Nations in New York to a nation that has met the goals of the UN World Programme of Action Concerning disabled persons.

Baroness Cox’s humanitarian aid work has taken her on many missions to conflict zones, allowing her to obtain first hand evidence of the human rights violations and humanitarian needs. Areas travelled include the Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh; Sudan; Nigeria; Uganda; the Karen; Karenni; Shan and Chin peoples in the jungles of Burma; and communities suffering from conflict in Indonesia. She has also visited North Korea helping to promote Parliamentary initiatives and medical programmes. Additionally Caroline has been instrumental in helping to change the former Soviet Union policies for orphaned and abandoned children from institutional to foster family care.

Publications: Former-co-editor, International Journal of Nursing Studies; Author of numerous publications on education and health care, including: A Sociology of Medical Practice (ed. Jointly) 1975; The Rape of Reason: The Corruption of the Polytechnic of North London (co-author) 1975; The Right to Learn 1982; Sociology: A Guide for Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors, 1983; Trajectories of Despair; Misdiagnosis & Maltreatment of Soviet Orphans, 1991; Ethnic Cleansing in Progress: War in Nagorno Karabakh (co-author) 1993; Made to Care: The Case for Residential and Village Communities for People with a Mental Handicap (with M. Pearson) 1995; Remorse: The Most Dreadful Sentiment (co-author) in Remorse and Reparation, ed. Murray Cox 1998; The ‘West’, Islam and Islamism (co-author Dr. John Marks) 2003- 2nd edition 2006; Cox’s Book of Modern Saints and Martyrs (with Caroline Butcher) 2006; This Immoral Trade: Slavery in the 21st century (co-author Dr. John Marks) 2006.

David Thomas

David was a Chaplain in the Royal Navy and with the Royal Marines for twenty years before joining HART. David has previously worked on a voluntary basis for NGOs working in Africa. During his military service he was able to liaise and work with NGOs in various countries in war-ravaged and rebuilding environments. He brings to HART the concern for logistics one would expect from that background; as well as training in trauma care and counselling.

Trevor Currie

Trevor Currie (ACMA) joined as HART’s part-time Finance Officer in September 2008. In 2004 Trevor made the decision to leave the commercial sector, after almost twenty-five years with British Telecom, to work in the charity sector. Originally from Northern Ireland and a graduate of Queen’s University Belfast, Trevor now lives in North London and is a keen Spurs fan.

Alexandra Taliadoros

Alexandra joined HART in May 2008 as a research intern as part of her MA in ‘Cultural Heritage Studies’. Alexandra’s dissertation focused on the mutual considerations of international cultural heritage and international development initiatives using the case studies of the UNESCO heritage initiatives within Mali, Africa and Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the international development programmes by HART.

Alex’s dissertation postulated; HART’s philosophy of working through local partnerships, whereby local priorities and concepts are sovereign, should be taken as an exemplar model by which all international development agencies work, to encourage true sustainable change. Local priorities and concepts should be regarded as foremost in international heritage programmes, to enable authentic identity to be safeguarded and progressed; the true objective for both heritage and development.

Alex has a passion for the issue of human rights and outreach. Alex’s previous employment includes ‘Development Officer’ for a London heritage site funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the World Monument Fund.