Dr. Nathan C. Walker moderated a panel discussion on the Needs and Contributions of the Global Majority to Global AI Governance, as part of a North–South Policy Dialogue on the proposed UN Convention on AI, Data and Human Rights, hosted by the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
The following panelists came from the African Union, the Cherokee Nation, Ireland, Kenya, Lebanon, South Africa, and the United States.
Panelists
Professor Mariette Awad is the director of the Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Computing Hub at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. She is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Stanford University named Professor Awad among the top two percent of influential scholars in both 2022 and 2023. In 2024, she received the Abdul Hameed Shoman Award for Arab Researchers in the field of engineering and technological sciences. Her bestselling book Efficient Learning Machines ranked #1 on BookAuthority’s “Best-Selling Machine Theory Books of All Time” and was among Springer Nature’s top downloads. Dr. Awad’s work spans global AI policy and open science governance. She currently advises Lebanon’s Ministry of Innovation, Technology and AI, consults with the International Science Council, and contributes to the Arab Vision 2045 innovation and science pillars that were adopted by the 2025 Arab Summit in Baghdad.
Professor Willem Fourie leads the Policy Innovation Lab here at Stellenbosch University. He is a Humboldt Fellow and has served as an expert advisor to the African Union. He has worked with the United Nations, European Union, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and national government departments. He also founded one of the world’s largest and most intelligent platforms focused on evidence-informed policy advice.
Brenda Maina is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She is a Certified Professional Mediator with extensive experience in legal research, corporate and commercial law, policy development, AI Governance and Data. She is a writer in a leading newspaper in Kenya, where she contributes on various topical issues, including AI. Brenda enables organizations to responsibly harness innovation in an era of rapid technological change, particularly with AI and emerging technologies, by working at the intersection of law, technology, and policy. She also serves as the Team Leader for the Global Majority Group for the Center for AI and Digital Policy which is an independent non-profit research organization, that assesses national AI policies and practices whose aim is to ensure that artificial intelligence and digital policies promote a better society, more fair, more just, and more accountable, based on fundamental rights, democratic institutions, and the rule of law.
Denis Naughten is a leading advocate for integrating technology into policy and legislation globally. As Chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Working Group on Science and Technology, Denis played a central role in crafting the global Ethical Charter on Science & Technology. This initiative provides a framework for regulating groundbreaking technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), and addresses their ethical implications. With almost thirty years as a Member of Parliament in Ireland, serving as Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, and on the Council of the European Union, its intergovernmental policymaking body, Denis now runs a consultancy focused on turning research into actionable policy for societal improvement.
Ambassador Lavina Ramkissoon is a full-stack human and a technology diplomat to the African Union and serves on the G20 South African Presidency (T20, SU20 and B20) + WSIS+20 taskforces. Fondly known as aiMOM, she has received many accolades such as Top 10 leaders shaping AI. She has served as a technology advisor to the United Nations University and WomenIN and an African representative to the World Economic Forum, UNESCO, UN Development Programme, and the International Telecommunication Union. She has served on the boards across sectors. Amb. Lavina aims to create a more intelligent tomorrow.
Paula Starr is a Cherokee citizen leading technology delivery at the Cherokee Nation, the United States’ largest federally-recognized tribe. As the Chief Information Officer for the Cherokee Nation, she leads an IT department that supports 5,000 employees across the 7,000 square mile Cherokee reservation and service delivery to 460,000 citizens across the United States and the globe. Paula’s team takes pride in upholding Cherokee community values while striving to provide protected and reliable services that their co-workers love and enhancing service delivery to help Cherokee citizens live better. Paula has been recognized as one of the Top 100 Women in Technology by Technology Magazine and is the recipient of a Top 50 Technologist OnCon Icon award.
Moderator Dr. Nathan C. Walker is an award-winning First Amendment and human rights educator at Rutgers University, where he teaches AI ethics and law as an Honors College faculty fellow. He is the principal investigator at the AI Ethics Lab, the founding editor of the AI & Human Rights Index, a contributing researcher to the Munich Declaration of AI, Data and Human Rights, and a non-resident research fellow at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Dr. Walker is a certified AI Ethics Officer and has held visiting research appointments at Harvard and Oxford universities. He has also served as an Expert AI Trainer for OpenAI’s Human Data Team, where he applied his expertise in law and education to frontier AI models. He has authored five books on law, education, and religion, and presented his research at the UN Human Rights Council, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the U.S. Senate. Nate has three learning disabilities and earned his doctorate in First Amendment law and two master’s degrees from Columbia University. An ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, Reverend Nate holds a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary.