Our Structure

Internal governance

“Relief & Reconciliation International AISBL” is an international non-profit organisation based in Brussels, Belgium. We were established on 2 January 2013 and recognised by Royal Decree of the King of the Belgians on 18 December 2013. We adhere to the strict accountancy rules of Belgian law.

Born out of a group of friends who had all lived in Syria or neighbouring countries, we count today more than 550 individual members, currently organised in 10 national chapters. Our national groups are meeting regularly for organising national fundraising campaigns and for participating in the governance of the international NGO through the General Assembly and the Board of Directors.

Our national chapters

Unless a chapter has its own address, you can reach it through contact@reliefandreconciliation.org.

Belgium: Marc-Antoine Mathijsen | brussels@reliefandreconciliation.org
France: Stéphane Lacroix | france@reliefandreconciliation.org
Germany: Ina Hoppe | info | berlin@reliefandreconciliation.org
Lebanon: Mohamad Ghiye | lebanon@reliefandreconciliation.org
Switzerland: Aude Sublet | suisse@reliefandreconciliation.org
Syria: Mohammed Talal Almuhbani | syria@reliefandreconciliation.org
United Kingdom: Christoph Pfundstein | london@reliefandreconciliation.org
United States: Jackson DeConcini | usa@reliefandreconciliation.org

Five of our national chapters have obtained a unique legal personality for facilitating tax-deductible donations. However, they remain linked by contract or memorandum of understanding with the international branch. In our first country of operations, R&R Lebanon has obtained its own legal personality on 11 April 2013, confirmed by the Lebanese Minister of Interior on 27 September 2013.

We have given ourselves strict internal rules to govern this trans-national structure. We will keep a unified accountancy of all national chapters in order to provide for full transparency in our funding and in our spending. Our international Board of Directors is meeting several times a year to control our activities on the ground.

Please contact us here if you are interested in joining our team and yourself becoming a member of R&R International!

The General Assembly

At least once a year, all international members of R&R International are invited to come together for the Ordinary General Assembly, which is our main legislative body. The main task of the General Assembly is to give orientation for the future work of R&R International and to elect and discharge its governing Board of Directors. For this purpose, the General Assembly receives and adopts the annual report and decides upon the annual budget for the upcoming year. Here the list of all Ordinary General Assemblies that have taken place so far:

2013: Founding Assembly on 2 January in Brussels (Belgium)
2014: Ordinary General Assembly on 7/8 June in Brussels (Belgium)
2015: Ordinary General Assembly on 20/21 June in Rome (Italy)
2016: Ordinary General Assembly on 23 October in Larnaca (Cyprus)
2017: Ordinary General Assembly on 15 October in Brussels (Belgium)
2018: Ordinary General Assembly on 14 October in Edinburgh (Scotland, UK)
2019: Ordinary General Assembly on 9/10 November in Berlin (Germany)
2020: Ordinary General Assembly on 5/6 December in Brussels (Belgium)
2021: Ordinary General Assembly on 19 December in Brussels (Belgium)
2022: Ordinary General Assembly on 18 December in Bratislava (Slovakia)
2023: Ordinary General Assembly on 3 December in Brussels (Belgium)
2024: Ordinary General Assembly on 30 June in Brussels (Belgium)
2025: Ordinary General Assembly on 5 July in Paris (France)
2026: Ordinary General Assembly on 11 October in Vienna (Austria)

The Board or one third of our Governing Members may convoke at any other time an Extraordinary General Assembly to discuss and decide urgent matters and most notably an amendment of our Statutes. The General Assembly is the highest decision-making body of R&R International. Its most important decisions are published in the Official Journal of Belgium.

The Board of Directors

The international Board of Directors is the governing body of R&R International. It takes all major decisions and oversees the staff. It is composed by three to fifteen Governing Members who are elected for a renewable term of two years by the General Assembly. Several times per year, the Board meets in a secure virtual meeting room to govern and control our activities on the ground.

All Board Members are volunteering to fulfill their role. The Executive Board, composed by the Chairperson, the Secretary General and the Treasurer, represents R&R International with the outside world and signs executive decisions of the Board. The Board can nominate one or several Delegates to the daily management of the association. Currently, the Chairperson, the Secretary General and the Treasurer of R&R International are serving as Delegates for daily management.

The Board of Directors established three standing committees for dealing with internal governance, operations and fundraising. The Board has also adopted General Rules of Engagement, a General Data Protection Policy, a General Child Protection Policy, a General Security Policy, a General Finance and Accounting Policy, a General Human Resources Policy and a General Procurement Policy, besides several other decisions on strategy and operations that govern our work.

Statutes of R&R International in French and English: