Conference of Participants
The Conference of Participants (COP) is the top governing body of the Register of Damage for Ukraine (RD4U), holding overall responsibility for fulfilling the mandate of the RD4U. Each Participant and Associate Member is represented in the COP.
The COP is tasked with filling key positions within the Register by appointing the members of the Board and designating the Executive Director. It approves the rules and regulations of the Register proposed by the Board, adopts the annual budget of the Register, and provides oversight.
The COP's Bureau
The work of the Conference of Participants is coordinated by the Bureau of the Conference, consisting of Chair and Vice Chairs.
Niklas Kebbon, Chair of the COP
Ambassador Niklas Kebbon is Sweden’s Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe, with a distinguished career in diplomacy and international law. He previously served as Deputy Director-General and Head of the Department for International Law, Human Rights and Treaty Law at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Mr Kebbon has held ambassadorial posts in Syria, Lebanon, and Morocco, and has extensive experience from assignments in Geneva, Brussels, and Damascus. He holds a Master of Laws (LLM) from Uppsala University, with further studies in International Law at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute.
Emil Ruffer, First Vice-Chair of the COP
Ambassador Emil Ruffer is Director of the International Law Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and Deputy Director General of the Legal and Consular Section. He served as Director of the EU Law Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He is an expert in public international law and European law and member of the Czech Society of International Law, the Czech Association for European Studies, and a regular contributor to the Czech Yearbook of Public and Private International Law.
Svetlana Geleva, Second Vice-Chair of the COP
Ambassador Svetlana Geleva is the Permanent Representative of North Macedonia to the Council of Europe. She previously chaired the Rapporteur Group on Democracy (GR-DEM) and has held senior roles in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including Director for Multilateral Affairs and Security Cooperation, Special Advisor for Multilateral Affairs to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and various positions focused on the UN, human rights, arms control, and European affairs. Ambassador Geleva graduated from the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade, and is active in several national commissions, including commissions on Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN), arms control, children, and UNESCO.
