When: Friday, March 27th, 2015 at Harvard Law School
Sponsored by the Harvard Human Rights Journal and Advocates for Human Rights
With contributions from the Milbank Student Conference Fund
Keynote Address by Serge Brammertz, Chief Prosecutor of the ICTY:
Where Has International Criminal Law Taken Us and Where Can it Go?
with introductory remarks by Alex Whiting
12:00-1:00pm, Ames Courtroom (AUS 200)
Lunch from Restaurant Associates will be served.
Panel #1:
The Laws of War: Enforcement in Human Rights versus International Criminal Courts
1:30-3:00pm, WCC 1015
This panel will feature Judge Robert Spano of the European Court of Human Rights, Nema Milaninia of the ICTY in the Appeals Division of the Office of the Prosecutor, Fergal Gaynor of the International Criminal Court Victims Division, and Professor Michael Newton from Vanderbilt Law School. Alex Whiting, former prosecutor for the ICTY and ICC, will serve as moderator. The panel will discuss the pros and cons of enforcing international humanitarian law in international criminal courts versus international human rights courts.
This panel is co-sponsored with the Harvard European Law Association. Coffee and small refreshments will be served.
Coffee Break with the Experts
3:00-4:00pm, WCC 3038
Come join our incredible speakers for a coffee break! Coffee, tea, and afternoon snacks will be served.
This coffee break is co-sponsored with Suffolk Law Humanitarian Law and Red Cross Society.
Panel #2:
Prosecuting a War: Justice for Syria?
4:00-5:30pm, WCC 1023
Syria triggers critical questions for the role of international criminal law. What system of justice will best address the atrocities that have been committed and documented by various actors throughout the conflict? National courts? An international tribunal? A hybrid model? What role should local forms of justice play in such a process? How can the lessons of past justice models inform the international community’s approach to Syria? What role should the US or other Western powers play? The panel will feature Emily Hutchinson and Jim Hooper of the Public International Law and Policy Group, and Federica D’Alessandra from the Harvard Kennedy School. All three panelists have been involved in Syria fact-finding missions, and Ms. Hutchinson and Mr. Cooper have participated in negotiations with key members of the moderate coalition. Susan Farbstein from the Harvard Human Rights Program will moderate the panel.
Coffee and small refreshments will be served.
Wine and Cheese Reception
5:30pm onwards, HLS Pub
Come join us for closing drinks!
This reception is co-sponsored with Suffolk Law Humanitarian Law and Red Cross Society.
Speaker Bios
Serge Brammertz:
On 28 November 2007, Serge Brammertz was appointed by the United Nations Security Council to serve as Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He was reappointed by the Security Council on 14 September 2011.
Dr. Brammertz has served for more than a decade in senior positions charged with investigating and prosecuting grave international crimes. Prior to his current appointment, in January 2006 United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed him as Commissioner of the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a post he held until the end of 2007. Previously, in September 2003 he was elected by the Assembly of State Parties as the first Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. In that capacity, he was in charge of establishing the Investigations Division of the Office of the Prosecutor, and initiated the first ICC investigations in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur.
Judge Robert Spano:
Judge Spano is an Icelandic/Italian jurist and Judge of the European Court of Human Rights. Judge Spano is known for his dynamic dissent in Hassan v. UK, where the European Court of Human Rights explicitly considered the relationship for international human rights law and international humanitarian law for the first time.
Prior to sitting on the European Court of Human Rights, Judge Spano served as a legal advisor and later Deputy to the Parliamentary Ombudsman of Iceland, before being appointed as the Parliamentary Ombudsman of Iceland in 010. He also sat as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of Experts in Criminal Law. Judge Spano has also chaired numerous expert commissions on a wide range of human rights challenges. Spano is also appointed the Icelandic Delegate to the European Committee on Crime Problems (CDCP) of the Council of Europe (COE). Additionally, he has served as an Independent Expert to the Lanzarote Committee of the COE, set up on the basis of the European Convention on Protection for Children Against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse
Nema Milaninia:
Nema Milaninia is a lawyer with the Office of the Prosecutor, Appeals Division, for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia where he assists in the prosecution of those most responsible for the crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Prior to joining the ICTY, Mr. Milaninia was an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, CA and New York, NY where his practice focused on white collar crimes, internal investigations, corporate social responsibility, and international litigation. Mr. Milaninia also represented individuals currently detained in Iran assert claims for torture and arbitrary detention against the Iranian government and victims of paramilitary violence in Colombia assert civil claims in the United States under the Alien Tort Statute and Torture Victims Protection Act.
Fergal Gaynor:
Fergal Gaynor currently serves as counsel at the International Criminal Court, where he currently serves as the legal representative of victims in Prosecutor v. Uhuru Kenyatta. Prior to joining the ICC, Mr. Gaynor worked as a trial attorney for the ICTY, were he was a member of the prosecution team in the trial of Radovan Karadzic among many other cases. Mr. Gaynor also worked as a member of the prosecution team for the International Tribunal for Rwanda. Finally, he served as a legal advisor to the UN International Independent Investigation Commission to support the investigation of the assassination of Rafik Hariri.
Michael Newton:
Michael Newton is an expert on accountability, transnational justice, and conduct of hostilities issues. Over the course of his career, he has published more than 80 books, articles and book chapters and currently serves as senior editor of the Terrorism International Case Law Reporter, an annual series published by Oxford University Press since 2007. Professor Newton is an elected member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law and the International Bar Association. At Vanderbilt, he developed and teaches the innovative International Law Practice Lab which provides expert assistance to judges and lawyers, governments, and policy-makers around the world. Professor Newton currently serves on the executive council of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), and has previously served on its Task Force on U.S. Policy Toward the International Criminal Court and on an experts group in support of the Task Force on Genocide Prevention established by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is presently serving on the Advisory Board of the ABA International Criminal Court Project. Finally, as the senior advisor to the Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the U.S. State Department, Professor Newton implemented a wide range of policy positions related to the law of armed conflict, including U.S. support to accountability mechanisms worldwide.
Alex Whiting:
Alex Whiting is a Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School where he teaches, writes and consults on domestic and international criminal prosecution issues. From 2010 until 2013, he was in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague where he served first as the Investigations Coordinator, overseeing all of the investigations in the office, and then as Prosecutions Coordinator, overseeing all of the office’s ongoing prosecutions. Before going to the ICC, Whiting taught for more than three years as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, again with a focus on prosecution subjects. From 2002-2007, he was a Trial Attorney and then a Senior Trial Attorney with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague. He was lead prosecution counsel in Prosecutor v. Fatmir Limaj, Isak Musliu, and Haradin Bala; Prosecutor v. Milan Martic; and Prosecutor v. Dragomir Miloševic.
Susan Farbstein:
Susan Farbstein is the Co-Director of the Harvard Human Rights Program and an expert on transitional justice. Over the past fifteen years, Ms. Farbstein has engaged on a range of transitional justice issues in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola, Myanmar, Thailand, and Argentina. Her recent work focuses on questions of accountability for apartheid-era abuses in South Africa; efforts to advance the right to equitable, quality education guaranteed by South Africa’s constitution; the promotion and protection of economic, social, and cultural rights in Zimbabwe; and policy reform to improve civilian protection and change military behaviour in Myanmar. Ms. Farbstein’s current work focuses on Southern Africa, transitional justice, Alien Tort Statute litigation, community lawyering, and economic, social, and cultural rights. She is an expert on South Africa, having worked on a variety of human rights and transitional justice issues in that country for nearly fifteen years.
Emily Hutchinson:
Emily Hutchinson is currently Counsel at the Public International Law and Policy Group where she advises clients in the Middle East in the areas of international human rights law, transitional justice, post-conflict governance and constitution drafting, and justice sector reform. As PILPG’s Syria Team Manager, Ms. Hutchinson has considerable experience working directly with Syrians on the unfolding conflict in varying capacities, and has considerable related field experience. Previously, Ms. Hutchinson worked for the U.S. Army Office of the Staff Judge Advocate. She also served as a law clerk for the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo, as well as the regional program coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Businesswomen’s Network. Ms. Hutchinson has worked with governments, constitutional courts, and civil society organizations on issues ranging from justice sector reform and post-conflict governance to economic development and appellate advocacy.
Jim Hooper:
James R. Hooper is a Managing Director of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG). He is the former director of the Washington office of the International Crisis Group (ICG), an independent non-government global advocacy organization that focuses on conflict early alert, prevention, and containment. He also directed ICG’s Balkan programs. Previously, as a career United States diplomat with the Foreign Service for twenty-five years, Mr. Hooper served at assignments in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, during the 1973 October War; Beirut, Lebanon; Damascus, Syria, during the Lebanon civil war and formative years of the Arab-Israel peace process; Tripoli, Libya, during the Qadhafi-inspired mob attacks against the American Embassy; London, England; Kuwait, where as Deputy Ambassador he negotiated and implemented the naval protection agreement for reflagged Kuwaiti oil tankers; and Warsaw, Poland, where as Deputy Ambassador he led the effort to prepare Poland’s post-communist government and military for NATO membership.
Federica D’Alessandra:
Federica D’Alessandra is a Carr Center for Human Rights Policy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She is also the United Nations Representative for the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), and a Legal Consultant to their Netherlands Office. She currently holds joint appointment as co-Vice Chair of the International Bar Association’s War Crimes Committee, and Secretary of the Human Rights Law Working Group. She has served as Chief Editor for the IBA Human Rights Law Review. Her main areas of practice are war crimes prosecutions and peace negotiations.