RCS Cyprus
The Cyprus Branch of the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS Cyprus) was officially launched in 2018, the year in which the Royal Commonwealth Society celebrated the 150th anniversary since its establishment in 1868 in London.
Formed by Royal Charter and under the Patronage of Her Majesty The Queen, RCS Cyprus is part of the extensive network of branches, affiliated organisations and individuals of the Royal Commonwealth Society, which spread the influence and global connectivity of the modern Commonwealth while promoting the lives and prospects of Commonwealth citizens across the globe.
The RCS Cyprus strategy for the period 2020-2024 focus on particular goals with the aim of implementing specific targets, which are in line with the priorities of the Commonwealth. The two pillars of the strategic planning are the following:
- Democracy and rule of law (good governance and public administration, fair human rights, access to justice, elimination of corruption, combating political extremism).
- Youth and social development (empowering youth, employment, social rights, health and education, protection of vulnerable groups, gender equality, LGBT+ issues)
RCS Cyprus is located and administered at the main campus of the University of Nicosia, aspiring to build on the University’s capacity and accelerated growth, with the aim of maximising its own potential as well as its international footprint in Commonwealth affairs.
Board
![Prof Achilles C. Emilianides](https://www.rcscyprus.com.cy/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/img5.jpg)
University of Nicosia
Prof Dr Achilles C. Emilianides
Prof Dr Achilles C. Emilianides is Professor of Law and Dean of the School of Law of the University of Nicosia, as well as a practicing advocate. He is the Editor in Chief of the ‘Cyprus and European Law Review’ and the Chair of the Royal Commonwealth Society Cyprus Branch. Major recent publications include: An Introduction to the Bibliography of Cypriot Law (2017), Labour Law in Cyprus (2016), The Republic of Cyprus and the Doctrine of Necessity (2016), Elements of Greek and Cypriot Law on Religion (2016), Cypriot Succession Law (2015), Media Law in Cyprus (2015), Private International Law in Cyprus (2015), Law and Religion in Cyprus (2014), Annotated Legal Documents on Islam in Cyprus (2014), Constitutional Law in Cyprus (2013), Family and Succession Law (2012).
![Dr Emilios Solomou](https://www.rcscyprus.com.cy/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/img3.jpg)
University of Nicosia
Dr Emilios Somou
Emilios A. Solomou is the Director of the UNESCO Chair of the University of Nicosia. He received his B.A (Hons) in History at the University of Cardiff. His postgraduate studies are in the field of History and History Methodology and Didactics. He received his Doctorate, from the University of Middlesex (U.K.) of which he is currently an Internal Examiner. He is a member of the Cyprus Society of Historical Studies, the Historical Association of the United States, the Hellenic Educational Society, the National Council for History Education (USA), the International Society for History Didactics, the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in History, a Fellow of the Historical Association of Great Britain, a member of the Boards of the Mass Media Institute (IMME) and the Cyprus Pedagogical Association, the Vice President of the Board of the Cyprus Folk Museum, the President of the Cyprus Institute of Historical Research, a Senior Fellow and member of the Advisory Board of the Cyprus Center for European and International Affairs of the University of Nicosia (CCEIA) as well as of many other Professional Associations and Organisations in Cyprus, the U.K and the U.S.A. He has published numerous articles and also edited the books Colonial Cyprus 1878-1960 and Independent Cyprus 1960-2010 with H. Faustmann, Nikos Kazantzakis – Indigenous and Ecumenical, Στο περιβόλι τ’ όμορφο της Μαντινάδας, The Armenian Genocide and the Cyprus Press 1914-1923, and Crete and Cyprus: Crossroads of Nations and Civilizations.
![Hera Ioannou](https://www.rcscyprus.com.cy/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/img8.jpg)
EKLLC
Hera Ioannou
Hera Ioannou is Partner, Manager at EKLLC Law Firm since 2014 as well as Director of Hippasus Communications & Publishing, a company specialising in legal publications. She is Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Nicosia since 2015 and has held Advocate positions with various other law firms in the past. Hera graduated from the Law School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2006 and earned an LLM in European Law and Integration with Merit from Leicester University in 2009. She is member of the Cyprus and Nicosia Bar Associations and formerly also of the Larnaca Bar Association, as well as member of the Ethics Committee of the Cyprus Bar Association and member of the Board of Directors of St. Christopher Charity. Hera speaks Greek and English fluently and has notions of French.
![Dr Christina Ioannou](https://www.rcscyprus.com.cy/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/img6.jpg)
Associate Dean, School of Law
University of Nicosia
Dr Christina Ioannou
Dr Christina Ioannou is Associate Dean of the School of Law of the University of Nicosia and Associate Professor of European Politics and Labour Law. She is the Editor-in-Chief of The Cyprus Review. She is also the co-ordinator of the MA programme in Law and Politics in the European Union, as well as a member of the board of directors of the Centre of European Dialogue and Research. She acts as a consultant on labour and employment law issues with the Law Firm A. & E. C. Emilianides, C. Katsaros and Associates LLC. Her latest publications include articles in international peer reviewed journals, book chapters and the book monograph Labour Law in Cyprus, which is published as part of the International Encyclopaedia of Laws Series (Kluwer Law International: Hague, 2016).
![Prof Constantinos Phellas](https://www.rcscyprus.com.cy/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/img7.jpg)
University of Nicosia
Prof Constantinos Phellas
Professor Constantinos N. Phellas, Senior Vice-Rector at the University of Nicosia, is a Medical Sociologist with interests in a variety of areas, including Health and Illness, Ageing, End-of-Life Decision Making and Care, Construction of Identities, Sexualities, and HIV/AIDS. His publications focus upon the intersection of gender, culture, and issues of, social and psychological aspects of the public health domain. He is currently the Vice Rector for Faculty & Research at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. He is also the Chairperson of the Cyprus National Bioethics Committee (2015-19).
![Anna Charalampous Katsaros](https://www.rcscyprus.com.cy/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/img10.jpg)
EKLLC
Anna Charalambous-Katsaros
Mrs. Anna Charalambous – Katsaros is a partner and manager of the corporate and advisory department of Emilianides Katsaros law firm. She graduated from the Law School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2009 and was admitted to the Cyprus Bar Association in 2010. Since October 2019, she is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Branch of the Royal Commonwealth Society. She specializes in all aspects of corporate and commercial law, labour law, real estate law and banking and finance law. She leaded numerous substantial transactions on a wide range of local and international legal matters. She is fluent in Greek, English and French.
![George Xinaris](https://www.rcscyprus.com.cy/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/img4.jpg)
Enterprises LTD
George Xinaris
George Xinaris, born in Nicosia on February 1965. George is an entrepreneur and pioneer of the Cyprus PAY Television industry. His business interests and activities in addition to the television sector, also cover the branding media in general, as well as the electronic medical record field. He holds BA and MBA degrees from the universities of Athens University of Economics and business studies and of the Stirling University in Scotland. In addition, he served the Cyprus Army as a two star officer of the corps of engineers. He is the Chairman and CEO of Mesimvria Enterprises LTD and he also holds board seats in a number of public and privately ownership companies covering a lot of different industries in Cyprus and Abroad. In October 2019, has been elected member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (EMMYS). In addition to the above, he serves as a board member of the Royal Commonwealth Society (Cyprus Branch) and he is a ember of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) he has also served as aboard member of Junior Chamber Cyprus where he was awarded the finance chair.
![Dr Ioanna Hadjicosti](https://www.rcscyprus.com.cy/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/img12.jpg)
Cultural Foundation
Dr Ioanna Hadjicosti
Dr Hadjicosti graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, with the BA in Greek Philology and the specialization of Classics. She studied with the Scholarship of the Institute of National Scholarships of Greece (Ι.Κ.Υ.). She then pursued her studies in Classics at University College London (UCL) where she was first awarded the MA in Classics, followed by the PhD for her thesis with the title Aischylos and the Trojan Cycle: The Lost Tragedies. Her research is multidisciplinary combining literature, theatre studies, archaeology and history and her research interests mainly include ancient drama and epic poetry. The fact that she taught Ancient Greek and Early Byzantine Literature (ELP 21) as an adjunct lecturer at the Open University of Cyprus and served as the coordinator of the module for a year, combined with the fact that she has written part of the educational material for two of the OUC modules further enriches her academic background. Since 2007 she is working at the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation as the Curator of the Collection of Manuscripts and Rare Books. As a result, Dr Hadjicosti has organized and managed a series of events, exhibitions, educational programs and conferences, while she has participated in several research programs concerning the Collections of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation and edited a number of the Foundation’s publications. Additionally, since November 2016 she is the Director of the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, having the responsibility to design and implement the new strategy, organize the yearly program of events and supervise the research programs of the Museums and Collections. She also participated herself as a researcher in various European programs receiving the Best Practice Award for the Grundtvig Workshop ‘Modern Views of Greek and Roman Antiquity’, by the Lifelong Learning Programme Grundtvig 2011-2012. She is currently acting as the co-ordinator in the programme DIDAKTOR (Post-Doctoral Researchers) RESTART 2016-2020, Research Promotion Foundation: Aspects of multiconfessionalism and human geography in early modern Cyprus from the Venetians to the Ottomans» (CyChrist).
![Dimitrios Kourtis](https://www.rcscyprus.com.cy/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Demetrios-Kourtis-249x300.jpg)
Research Associate & Adjunct Lecturer, School of Law, University of Nicosia
Dimitrios Kourtis
Dimitrios Kourtis is a Research Associate at the School of Law of the University of Nicosia Cyprus, Adjunct Lecturer in International Law at the aforementioned University, and attorney at law (Greece), specialised in fundamental rights and international law. He holds an LLM in Public International Law from the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). He is currently enrolled as a PhD candidate in Public International Law at the Department of International Studies of AUTH’s School of Law. His research interests focus on the international law of mass atrocities, international genocide law and the right to a proper remedy for victims of genocide. His doctoral research has been funder by the Hellenic Foundation of Research & Innovation (2017-2018). He is an accredited public policy disputes’ mediator, and a national expert on international criminal law, having provided specialist services to the Inter-Party Parliamentary Committee on World War II Reparations of the Greek Parliament upon its final term (2016). His latest publications include “Anti-Jewish Legislation in Occupied Greece During WWI: The Juridical Path to Genocide and the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki” in S. Siskovič & alt. (eds.), Legal Historical Trends and Perspectives, Vol. ΙΙΙ (Prague 2018) 81-101 and “State Sovereignty and the Constitutionalization of International Law: A Collision of Constitutional Paradigms in Historical Perspective” in P. Vyšny & alt. (eds.), Legal-Historical Trends and Perspectives, Vol. II (Krakow 2017) 16-72. He speaks English, French, Italian, and Spanish, while possessing functional understanding of Portuguese and Hebrew.