Dr. Leo Gabriel

Born on July 27th 1945, Leo Gabriel studied Law, Political Science and Social Anthropology in the Universities of Vienna, Paris and Mexico. He is a journalist, documentary filmmaker and social anthropologist. Since 1985 cientific director of the Institute for intercultural Research and Cooperation, and chief editor of the review Lateinamerika Anders. Coordinator of a worldwide research on multicultural autonomy processes (www.latautonomy.org) sponsored by the European Union.

He lived for 25 years in Latin America (1970 – 1995) based in Mexico and Central America, where he was the director of an independent press agency called APIA (Agencia Periodistica de Información Alternativa). Since 2001 he became co-founder and member of the International Council of the World Social Forum. In 2005 he was candidate of the European Left for the European Parliament.

Since 2012 Leo Gabriel founded an international peace initiative (www.peaceinsyria.org) which tries to facilitate an All Syrian Consultation Process among different parts and parties of the Syrian civil society.