POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNALS

S Atifete Jahjga – President of the Republic of Kosovo (2011 – 2016)

Atifete Jahjaga served as the fourth, and the first woman, President of the Republic of Kosovo, elected by the Parliament of Kosovo on April 7, 2011 for a five-year mandate that she completed on April 7, 2016. Jahjaga was Kosovo’s first non-partisan candidate, the first female head of state in the modern Balkans and the youngest female world leader to be elected to the highest office. Jahjaga constantly participates in national and international conferences and initiatives aimed at empowering women and supporting the survivors of sexual violence during the war. She continues to be resolute in her fight against violent extremism and radicalization and is a staunch promoter of peace and stability for the Balkans and beyond. During her presidency, Jahjaga worked diligently to bring women to the forefront of Kosovo’s political, economic, and social life as a means of ensuring a long-lasting democracy. In this context, in 2012, she hosted the International Women’s Summit “Partnership for Change — Empowering Women,” which was attended by 200 leaders from Kosovo, the wider Europe, North America, Africa and the Middle East. The summit provided a venue for women from the region to cross ethnic barriers and come together to launch and promote a platform for their empowerment as women throughout the Balkans. The discussions led to the creation of the Pristina Principles, which affirm the rights of women to political participation and representation, economic resources, and access to security and justice, and calls for actions to make these principles a reality. Jahjaga is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders since 2012 and is recipient of numerous honors and awards including the Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Durham (2013), the 9 Leadership in Public Service Award from the Clinton Global Initiative (2014), and the honorary degree of Doctor of Law from the University of Leicester (2015).

Iain Bonomy, Lord Bonomy, PC is a former Senator of the College of Justice, a judge of the Inner House of the Court of Session of Scotland (Scotoland’s senior court) from 2010 to 2012. From 2004 to 2009, he was a Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Andrew T. Cayley CMG QC FRSA is the United Kingdom’s Director of Service Prosecutions and is responsible for the prosecution of all cases before the Service Courts. Until 2013 he was the United Nations Chief International Co-Prosecutor of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, responsible for prosecuting the leadership of the Khmer Rouge for the genocide, extermination and murder of up to two million of their own citizens between 1975 and 1979. Prior to this he was Senior Prosecuting Counsel at the International Criminal Court where he led the first investigation and pre-trial proceedings in respect of allegations of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since July 2002, in Darfur Sudan. Up until 2005 and for a period of ten years he was Prosecuting Counsel and then Senior Prosecuting Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia where, amongst other cases, he was co-counsel in the prosecuting team that secured the court’s first conviction for genocide in respect of events at Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina in July 1995.

Andrew T. Cayley CMG QC FRSA is the United Kingdom’s Director of Service Prosecutions and is responsible for the prosecution of all cases before the Service Courts. Until 2013 he was the United Nations Chief International Co-Prosecutor of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge Tribunal, responsible for prosecuting the leadership of the Khmer Rouge for the genocide, extermination and murder of up to two million of their own citizens between 1975 and 1979. Prior to this he was Senior Prosecuting Counsel at the International Criminal Court where he led the first investigation and pre-trial proceedings in respect of allegations of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since July 2002, in Darfur Sudan. Up until 2005 and for a period of ten years he was Prosecuting Counsel and then Senior Prosecuting Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia where, amongst other cases, he was co-counsel in the prosecuting team that secured the court’s first conviction for genocide in respect of events at Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina in July 1995.

Davor Derenčinović, Ph.D., Full professor of Criminal Law, Head of Chair for Criminal Law, President of the Croatian Academy of Legal Sciences, Zagreb Faculty of Law. Post-doctoral Fulbright grant research at the International Human Rights Law Institute, DePaul University, Chicago (mentor professor Ch. Bassiouni), 2004-2005. Research and lecturing at prestigious academic and scientific 10 institutions: Istituto Superiore Internazionale di Scienze Criminali, London School of Economics, Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Strafrecht etc. Visiting professor and guest lecturer in USA, Germany, China etc. Founder and director of the course “Crime Prevention Through Criminal Law and Security Studies” held at Interuniversity Center in Dubrovnik. Author of more than 100 articles and more than 10 books dealing with various issues of substantive criminal law, international criminal law and human rights.

Dr. Robert Muharremi is assistant professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology – Kosovo Campus where he teaches international law and international relations. Dr. Muharremi has worked since 2000 for various international organizations and government agencies in Kosovo, including as adviser to the Office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of European Integration. He has published on international law topics, such as state sovereignty, territorial administration by the United Nations, self-determination, rule of law and hybrid courts. He is a member of the International Law Association – Albanian Branch, and he is listed as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and as Associate with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC has practised as a barrister since 1971. He worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia – the ICTY – between 1998 and 2006 and led the prosecution of Slobodan Milošević, former President of Serbia. Much of his work since has been connected to cases before the permanent International Criminal Court – Sudan, Kenya, Libya – or pro bono for victims groups – Iran, Burma, North Korea – whose cases cannot get to any international court. He works for several related NGO’s and lectures and commentates in the media in various countries on international war crimes issues. Between 2009 and 2012 he was Vice-Chair of the Bar Standards Board, the body that regulates barristers.

Nevenka Tromp received her PhD from the University of Amsterdam. She teaches at the Department of European Studies in Amsterdam. From 2000 to 2012 Tromp worked as a Researcher at the Leadership Research Team in the Office of Tribunal’s Prosecutor at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. She was principle researcher on history and politics in the trial of Slobodan Milošević. She is the Executive Director of the Geoffrey Nice Foundation on Law, History, Politics, and Society in the Context of Mass Atrocities. Tromp’s book Prosecuting Slobodan Milošević has been published in 2016.

Aarif Abraham is a graduate of the University of Oxford and the University of Bologna where he obtained a Master’s degree in Human Rights. He qualified and practiced as a lawyer with the corporate law firm, Slaughter and May from where he seconded as clerk to the UK Court of Appeal. As a human rights practitioner, Aarif has worked with Public International Law and Policy Group in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the European Court of Human Rights, Rights Watch (UK), and most recently as Legal Officer at Democratic Progress Institute. Aarif has conducted litigation, advocacy, research and mentoring on international human rights and humanitarian law issues related to a number of countries and, in particular, work relating to gender based rights. Aarif continues to act as a consultant on gender-based rights and conflict related sexual violence. He is recently undertook some work with the trial and appeal chambers of the ICTY.

Sabina Garahan is a Research Assistant at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and an editor at the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. She is also a human rights consultant for various NGOs, and has previously worked as a Judicial Assistant at the European Court of Human Rights. Sabina holds an LLM International Human Rights Law with 12 Distinction from the University of Essex and an LLB Law with French Law from University College London.

Dr. Emilija Dodevska holds a PhD from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy. Ms. Dodevska’s PhD research focuses on the role of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on the rule of law and the process of the acknowledgement of war crimes: the case of Serbia and Croatia. Ms. Dodevska holds an LL.M (MSC) in International and European
law from the Faculty of Law at the Utrecht University, the Netherlands. In addition, she has developed  professionally through her engagement at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna; the Humanitarian Law Centre in Belgrade; the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague; and the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and the Law Office Nikola Dodevski in Skopje, Macedonia.

Rabah Kherbane (BCL) is a pupil barrister at 25 Bedford Row in London, and a teaching fellow at SOAS University of London. He completed his graduate studies at the University of Oxford, specialising in criminal justice, human rights, and international law, with a focus on international criminal law. He has previously worked with civil society, and at the ICTY as part of the Karadzic Appeal Team.

Selda Krasniqi is a Legal Support Assistant at Matrix Chambers, in London. She completed an LLM (International Law) at University College London. Selda previously worked as a Research Intern at the British Institute for International and Comparative Law, where she undertook legal research and drafted reports on public international law issues.