At Peking University, the SYLFF Program has become an important incentive mechanism for encouraging our students to achieve higher levels of accomplishments in their studies and to better prepare themselves as future leaders in the world. I am confident that the positive impact of SYLFF on the world will increase further in the next 20 years.

　

　

　

 For Ruhr-University Bochum, the SYLFF Program provides a unique chance to develop our graduate students' leadership capacities in the field of European integration through common development, security, and economic policy. The program is yielding visible results in an impressive number of high-quality master's and doctoral theses from SYLFF-supported scholars.

　

　

　

 Launched in 2004 and to be awarded every three years, the SYLFF Prize recognizes fellows who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the spirit of the SYLFF Program. The inaugural honorees, named below, visited Japan in September 2004 as guests of the program to attend the award ceremony and to conduct individual research.

　

 Director General of International Relations Office of the President, Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority

　

　

 Amal's duties include serving as a foreign policy advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas. She formerly served as a foreign policy advisor to the prime minister. Amal is a doctoral candidate in the United States at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where she received a SYLFF Fellowship for her studies. She was also a graduate fellow in the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

 Amal is a Palestinian refugee whose family was evicted from its home in Jerusalem in 1948 by Israel. Like most Palestinian families, her family suffered greatly as a result of living under the severe conditions of the Israeli occupation. Amal is committed to serving the causes of peace and justice and to leading her people, together with other young Palestinian and international leaders, to statehood, democracy, and freedom. She is the international secretary of the Fatah Youth Organization and is an active member of many local and international organizations.

　

　

　

　

Assistant Professor

Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's Studies and the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, Carleton University, Canada

　

 Egla holds a doctorate in sociology and a master's degree in environmental studies from York University, Canada, where she received a SYLFF fellowship for her doctoral studies. She is a Guatemalan Mestiza of indigenous Xinca-Pipil background and a Spanish speaker. Her family suffered greatly, and some members did not survive long enough to immigrate to Mexico with Egla and the remainder of her family.

 In Mexico, Egla worked with Guatemalan refugees, with women from different backgrounds, and with Mexican street children. She is strongly committed to promoting human rights internationally, and she continues working to better the circumstances of indigenous peoples, women, and the underprivileged in Central America and Canada, especially through her teaching and research.

　

Chair

Working Table 1, Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe

　

 Goran served as the minister for foreign affairs of Serbia and Montenegro from 2000 to 2004. Active in politics for more than a decade, he was a member of the upper chamber of the Federal Parliament of Serbia and Montenegro from 2000 to 2003. Goran was president of the Civic Alliance of Serbia from 1999 to 2004 and was the alliance's vice president in 1998 and its spokesperson in 1997.

 From 1989 to 1998, he was a teaching assistant in the University of Belgrade Law School. Goran served as a member of the International Commission on the Balkans from 2004 to 2005. He has worked closely with several nongovernmental organizations, including the Center for Anti-War Action, the Belgrade Center for Human Rights, and the Center for Advancement of Legal Studies. He has published numerous articles and books about civil procedure and civil law, the legal status of refugees, and issues related to citizenship.