The second JFC Peace Monitor delegation will be in Colombia from 16 to 22 August 2018. The delegation will be in Bogotá before travelling to Catatumbo and the Farc reincorporation area (ETCR) in Filipinas.

Here is a full list of the August 2018 delegation members:

Tony Lloyd MP is a Member of the British Parliament for the Labour Party. He returned to Parliament in 2017 after having previously been an MP between 1983 and 2012. Between 1997 and 1999 he was a Foreign Office Minister for Latin America in the Government of Tony Blair. In his years between being an MP he was elected as Police Commissioner for the Greater Manchester area in the North of England and has served as the Mayor of Greater Manchester. He has a long-standing interest in Colombia and a close relationship with Justice for Colombia. He visited Colombia as a Minister in 1998, and with JFC in 2007 and in 2013 when he visited the FARC and Government negotiators in Havana.

John McCallister is a member of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, an official human rights body in Northern Ireland. He was an elected Member of the Legislative Assembly and is former Deputy Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. He is a long standing prominent member of the Northern Ireland Farmers Union. He has visited Colombia twice with Justice for Colombia and met with the Government and FARC negotiators in Havana. He also visited Washington D.C to help mobilise for the peace process in the U.S Congress.

Jo Stevens MP was elected to the British Parliament in 2015 representing Cardiff Central for the Labour Party, after 27 years as a trade union lawyer. She has served as Shadow Solicitor General, shadow Justice Minister and Shadow Minister for Wales. She is Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Colombia group of over 60 MPs. She visited Colombia on a Justice for Colombia delegation in 2009, and has consistently addressed peace and human rights in Colombia while in Parliament.

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Stephen Cavalier is Chief Executive of Thompsons, the largest trade union law firm in Britain, with a focus on Employment Law.  In over 30 years at Thompsons, he has represented trade unions and their members in many leading cases, industrial campaigns and disputes. He has acted as an expert witness to the European Parliament and has pursued successful cases for unions to the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. He is an active supporter of human rights in Colombia and has visited Colombia on Justice for Colombia delegations on two occasions, most recently in 2016.

Nick Crook is Head of International Relations at UNISON, Britian’s largest public services union with 1.3 million members. He is an executive committee member of Public Services International (PSI) and the European Trade Union Federation of Public Services. He is nominated by the TUC to sit on the European Economic and Social Committee, which represents civil society organisations at the EU. Before working with UNISON, he worked in Brussels as advisor to the Socialist Group and the Party of European Socialists in the European Parliament.

Mark Fairhurst is Chair of the POA prison officers trade union, which has a membership of 33,000. Mark was elected as chair in 2017, having been a member of the union for 25 years.

Paul Glover is an Executive Committee member of UNISON, the trade union representing public services workers in Britain and Ireland. He is also a member of the International Committee of UNISON and took part in a Justice for Colombia delegation in 2015.

Sally Hunt is current President of the TUC, the British trade union centre which represents over 6 million workers. She is General Secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), which has 120,000 members and is the largest further and higher education trade union in the world.

John Metcalfe represents Northwest England & North Wales on the Executive Committee of ASLEF, the trade union representing train drivers in Britain. He was a train driver for 27 years. He is the former Mayor of the city of Carlisle.

Joe Simpson is Deputy General Secretary of the POA prison officers trade union. The POA represents 33,000 prison workers.

Mick Whelan is General Secretary of the ASLEF train drivers’ union. He is Chair of the Justice for Colombia Governing Committee and is also a member of the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee. Highlight Reply