John Packer is the project coordinator and principal investigator for the Initiative on Conflict Prevention through Quiet Diplomacy. Until February 2004, Mr. Packer was director of the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, where he previously served as senior legal advisor. From 1991 to 1995, he was a human rights officer at the United Nations, where he investigated serious violations of human rights in Iraq, Burma, and Afghanistan. Mr. Packer is associate editor of the "Human Rights Law Journal" and a member of the editorial boards of the "International Journal of Minority and Group Rights;" the "European Yearbook of Minority Issues;" and the "European Diversity and Autonomy Papers;" and he is a member of the editorial advisory boards of the "Journal on Ethnopolitics;" "Minority Issues in Europe;" and of "The Global Review of Ethno-Politics." He also serves on the board of Minority Rights Group (International). Mr. Packer holds degrees in law and politics and has been a consultant to several international organizations, governments, and NGOs. He is an alumnus of Salzburg Seminar Session 273, Human Rights Across Cultures and Political Systems, 1989.