SOUTH AFRICAN-GERMAN JUSTICE DIALOGUE

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
AND AFRICA

27 28 MARCH 2017
VILLAGE RIDGE BOUTIQUE HOTEL |
PRETORIA
P ROG R AM ME

SOUTH AFRICAN-GERMAN JUSTICE DIALOGUE

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE
INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT
AND AFRICA
27 28 MARCH 2017
VILLAGE RIDGE BOUTIQUE HOTEL | PRETORIA

The aim of the sessions is to bring together a small circle of experts who will engage in an open and frank
discussion held under Chatham House Rules. The discussions will be moderated by Wayamo Director, Bettina
Ambach, and Wayamo Research Director, Mark kersten. each days discussions will be followed by a breakaway
session in which participants will brainstorm and identify relevant and practical recommendations which will be
presented at the final plenary session.

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 SpeAkeRS: SpeAkeRS:
DAY I
MONDAY | 27 March 2017 - kEllY-JO BluEN - NEtsANEt BElAY
project Leader for International Africa Director, Research and
Justice, Institute for Justice and Advocacy, Amnesty International,
10:00 11:00 Reconciliation, Johannesburg Johannesburg
OPENINg rEmArks
- ErmIAs kAssAYE - mAx Du PlEssIs
BEttINA AmBAch Legal Researcher for the African Senior Researcher, Institute for
Director, Wayamo Foundation Court Research Initiative working Security Studies; Advocate of
in support of the Office of the the High Court of South Africa;
mIchAEl kOch Legal Counsel of the African Union Associate Tenant, Doughty Street
Director-General, Legal Chambers, London
Department, Federal Foreign - DEwA mAvhINgA
Office, Germany Head of Human Rights Watch, South - DIrE tlADI
Africa office professor of International Law,
--- University of pretoria; Special Adviser
- AllAN NgArI to the Minister of International
kEYNOtE sPEEch Senior Researcher, Transnational Relations and Cooperation and
Threats and International Crime Member of the UN International Law
NAvI PIllAY Division ISS, pretoria Commission
Former UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights - FrANs vIlJOEN - tsElIsO thIPANYANE
Director, Centre for Human Rights, executive Committee member,
--- professor of International Human Council for the Advancement of the
Rights Law South African Constitution
11:00 11:15
cOFFEE BrEAk --- ---

--- 12:45 14:00 15:30 15:45

luNch cOFFEE BrEAk
11:15 12:45
DIscussION rOuND ONE --- ---

CONCERNS AND 14:00 15:30 15:45 17:00

PERCEPTIONS OF
THE INTERNATIONAL
CRIMINAL COURT
What are the prevalent concerns
and perceptions of the ICC and its
work in Africa? Where do they stem
from and how do they affect the
relationship between Africa and
the ICC? What can be done to
improve the perception of the Court
in Africa?
DIscussION rOuND twO Breakaway sessions to
brainstorm and prepare
THE ICC, THE UN recommendations for the final
SECURITY COUNCIL, session
AND HEAD-OF-STATE
IMMUNITY ---
What is the relationship between the 18:00
ICC and the UN Security Council and reception at the german
how has it influenced African criticisms Ambassadors residence, 393
of the ICC? What can the ICC and Edward Street, Waterkloof,
relevant actors do to ameliorate this Pretoria
relationship and address concerns
for African states? Would universal
ratification of the Rome Statute help
to resolve these issues? What are the
current tensions regarding Head-of-
State immunity at the ICC? Can they
be rectified and, if so, how?

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P ROG R AM ME

10:30 11:00 14:00 15:30

DAY I I
cOFFEE BrEAk Breakaway sessions to
TUeSDAY | 28 March 2017 brainstorm and prepare
--- recommendations for the final
session
09:00 10:30 11:00 12.30
DIscussION rOuND thrEE DIscussION rOuND FOur ---

ACHIEVING PEACE AND REFORMING THE 15:30 15:45

JUSTICE
How do ICC interventions affect
conflict resolution and peace-
making? How have alleged
contradictions between peace and
justice informed concerns regarding
the role of the ICC in Africa? Can the
tensions between achieving justice
and resolving wars be resolved?
Should the ICC better communicate
its mandate and the limitations of its
role?
SpeAkeRS:
FlOrIAN JEBErgEr
Chair in Criminal Law, Criminal
procedure, International Criminal
Law and Modern Legal History,
University of Hamburg
sElEmANI kINYuNYu
African Governance Architecture
(AGA) Focal point at the African
Court on Human and peoples
Rights
YAsmIN sOOkA
executive Director, Foundation for
Human Rights, Johannesburg
hOwArD vArNEY
Senior Consultant, International
Centre for Transitional Justice,
Advocate of Johannesburg Bar
___
INTERNATIONAL cOFFEE BrEAk
CRIMINAL COURT FROM
WITHIN ---
With the ICC in its 15th year, what 15:45 16:30
are the avenues available to States Final plenary session
parties to address their concerns Formulation of
from within the Rome Statute recommendations to improve
System? What legal avenues exist to the Africa-ICC relationship
rectify shortcomings and blindspots
in the Rome Statute? How can clOsINg rEmArks
communication between states by a representative of the
and the different Court organs be German Federal Foreign Office
improved?
---
SpeAkeRS:
19:00
- JAmEs gOlDstON Dinner at
executive Director / Open Society cYNthIAs INDIgO mOON
Justice Initiative, New York rEstAurANt
283 Dey Street, Brooklyn, pretoria
- mIchAEl hAsENAu
Head of Unit International Criminal
Court, Federal Foreign Office,
Germany
- EDDY mAlOkA
Chief Executive Officer, Secretariat of
the African peer Review Mechanism
(ApRM)
- ANgElA muDukutI
Legal officer for the Southern Africa
Litigation Centre, Johannesburg
- klAus rAckwItz
Director, International Nuremberg
principles Academy
---

12:30 14:00
luNch

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BI OGR A PH I ES
SOUTH AFRICAN-GERMAN JUSTICE DIALOGUE:
2728 MARCH 2017, PRETORIA
BIOGRAPHIES
BEttINA
AmBAch
Director, Wayamo Foundation
Bettina Ambach is a consultant
in judicial capacity-building
programmes and a senior
media consultant with 25 years
of international experience.
She has been the Director of
the Wayamo Foundation since
2010. The Wayamo Foundation
is an independent, non-profit
organisation established to
strengthen the rule of law,
promote international criminal
justice and transitional justice in
post-conflict countries and foster
transparency through informed
journalism in Africa. The head
office is in Berlin, with permanent
delegations in Nairobi and Accra.
In 2015, Wayamo launched
the Africa Group for Justice
and Accountability (AGJA), an
independent group of senior
African experts on international
criminal law and human rights,
including political figures, members
of international and domestic
tribunals, and human rights
experts. The Africa Group supports
efforts to strengthen justice and
accountability measures in Africa
through domestic and regional
capacity building, advice and
outreach, and enhancing co-
operation between Africa and the
International Criminal Court. The
Wayamo Foundation acts as the
AGJAs secretariat and convener.
NEtsANEt
BElAY
Africa Director, Research and
Advocacy, Amnesty International,
Johannesburg
Netsanet Belay, an ethiopian
national, is the Africa Director
for Research and Advocacy at
Amnesty International. prior to this,
he had been Director of the policy
and Research at the CIVICUS
World Alliance for Citizens
participation in Johannesburg.
He has more than 15 years of
experience in promoting and
defending human rights at the
national, regional and global
levels, and is a trained human
rights lawyer. He spent over two
years in prison in ethiopia as a
prisoner of conscience for his role
in leading human rights activism
in that country.
___
kEllY-JO
BluEN
project Leader for International
Justice, Institute for Justice and
Reconciliation, Johannesburg
kelly-Jo Bluen is the project
leader for international justice
at the Institute for Justice and
Reconciliation, where she runs
projects on the geopolitics of
-5-
international justice and justice
for conflict-related sexual and
gender-based violence, and
works on various issues pertaining
to the politics and practices of
justice including, AU-ICC relations,
broader notions of justice, and
the role of commissions of inquiry
in accountability processes. She
holds a double Masters degree
in international affairs from the
London School of economics and
peking University, and an Honours
degree in international relations
from the University of Cape Town.
She writes for different policy and
media platforms and, until recently,
she wrote a regular column for
South African daily, Business Day.
___
JAmEs
gOlDstON
executive Director / Open Society
Justice Initiative, New York
James A. Goldston is the
executive director of the Open
Society Justice Initiative, which
advances the rule of law and
rights protection worldwide
through advocacy, litigation,
research and the promotion
of legal capacity. A leading
practitioner of international
human rights and criminal law,
Goldston has litigated several
groundbreaking cases before
the european Court of Human
R o u n d t able Rep ort
Rights and United Nations treaty
bodies on a range of issues
including counterterrorism, racial
discrimination and torture. Mr.
Goldston previously served as
co-ordinator of prosecutions
and senior trial attorney in the
Office of the prosecutor at the
International Criminal Court. past
posts include: legal director of
the Budapest-based european
Roma Rights Centre; director
general for human rights of the
Mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina
of the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in europe; and
prosecutor in the Office of the
United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York,
where he focused on organised
crime. Goldston is a graduate of
Columbia College and Harvard
Law School. He has taught at
Columbia Law School, NYU Law
School and the Central european
University.
___
mIchAEl
hAsENAu
ICC Section Head, Federal Foreign
Office, Germany
Michael Hasenau has been
the Head of the ICC Section
since 2015. After studying law
at the Universities of Mnster,
Lausanne and London, he sat
his Juridical State examinations
(Staatsexamen) in 1986 and
1989. Following a two-year period
spent at the International Labour
Organisations Regional Office for
europe in Geneva, he entered
the German Foreign Service in
1991 and went on to form part
of the German Delegation to the
Conference on Disarmament in
Geneva from 19921997. It was
in 1997 that he was appointed
Chief of personnel Section to
the Comprehensive Nuclear
Test Ban Treaty Organisation
in Vienna, a post that he held
until 2002, when he became
the Deputy Head of the Division
Council of europe. Hasenau
then moved to Afghanistan in
2005 to become the Head of
the provincial Reconstruction
Teams in Feyzabad. He served as
Deputy Head of the Conventional
Arms Control Division from 2006
2009, before taking up the
post of Deputy Head of Mission,
firstly at the German embassy
in Nairobi from 2009 to 2012,
and subsequently at the German
embassy in Belgrade.
___
ErmIAs
kAssAYE
Legal Researcher for the African
Court Research Initiative working in
support of the Office of the Legal
Counsel of the African Union (AU)
ermias kassaye is a Legal
Researcher for the African Court
Research Initiative working in
support of the Office of the Legal
Counsel of the African Union (AU).
He holds an LLB degree from
Addis Ababa University School of
Law and an MA degree in Global
Studies with Special emphasis on
peace and Security in Africa from
a joint programme sponsored by
the Institute of peace and Security
Studies (Addis Ababa University)
and Global european Studies
Institute (Leipzig University). He
worked in the AU Commission
as a project co-ordinator on
protection of civilians, before
joining the African Court Research
Initiative. In his current position,
he provides research support
to the African Court Research
-6-
Initiative and AU. His specific
research interest lies in the areas
of international criminal justice in
Africa. In his most recent work, he
has been involved in developing
the International Criminal Court
Withdrawal Strategy for the Office
of the Legal Counsel, with a
preliminary study on withdrawal
procedures for AU Member States.
___
mIchAEl
kOch
Director General,
Legal Department,
Federal Foreign Office,
Germany
Michael koch is a German
diplomat who started his career
in the diplomatic service in
1986. Having first served in the
European Community Desk Officer
subdivision,he was deployed to the
German General Consulate in San
Francisco in 1988. In 1991 koch was
made personal private Secretary
to the Co-ordinator for German-
American co-operation, a post which
he held uninterruptedly until 1995. He
also served in Asia as Deputy Head
of Mission at the German embassy
of Rangoon, before becoming
Head of the Task Force for Internal
Reforms of the foreignservice in the
central department. After a stint as
Head of the political Department in
the German embassy in New Delhi,
Michael koch became Head of the
Special Afghanistan Task Force
in 2004. Further appointments
included the post of Ambassador to
pakistan in 2008 and that of Special
Representative of the Federal
Government for Afghanistan and
pakistanin 2012. In July 2015, Mr.
koch took over as Legal Advisor and
Director General for Legal Affairs at
the German Federal Foreign Office.
BI OGR A PH I ES
mArk
kErstEN
Research Director,
Wayamo Foundation
Mark kersten is a postdoctoral
fellow based at the Munk School of
Global Affairs. He holds a phD and
MSc in International Relations from
the London School of economics
and a BA (Hons) in History from
the University of Guelph. His
research focuses on the politics
and effects of interventions by the
International Criminal Court (ICC).
In 2011, Mark founded the blog
Justice in Conflict, which regularly
publishes articles on the challenges
of pursuing transitional justice in the
context of ongoing violent political
conflicts. He has taught courses on
genocide studies, the politics of
international law, diplomacy, and
conflict and peace studies at the
London School of economics and
SOAS. In 2016, Oxford University
press published Marks book,
Justice in Conflict - The Effects of
the International Criminal Courts
Interventions on ending Wars and
Building peace. In addition, Mark
is the Director of Research for
the Wayamo Foundation, and
has previously been a Research
Associate at the Refugee
Law project in Uganda and as
researcher at Justice Africa in
London.
___
sElEmANI
kINYuNYu
African Governance Architecture
Focal point at the African Court on
Human and peoples Rights
Selemani kinyunyu currently
serves as the African Governance
Architecture Focal point at
the African Court on Human
and peoples Rights, where he
is responsible for driving the
Courts engagement in policy
processes in the areas of human
rights, transitional justice, good
governance and rule of law in
Africa. He has worked for the east
Africa Law Society and pan African
Lawyers Union, and has consulted on
legal, human rights and rule of law
assignments for the African Union,
east African Community, the United
States Agency for International
Development, and the German
Organisation for International Co-
operation, among others. He is
an Advocate of the High Court of
Tanzania and holds an LLBdegree
from Tumaini University and an LLM
degree in transnational criminal
justice from the South African-
German Centre for Criminal Justice
and Development Research at the
University of the Western Cape.
He is also completing a doctorate
in international anti-corruption
law. His research interests include
international justice, regional
integration and the role of African
organisations in an increasingly
multipolar world.
___
FlOrIAN
JEBErgEr
Chair in Criminal Law,
Criminal procedure, International
Criminal Law and Modern Legal
History, University of Hamburg
Florian Jeberger is professor of
Law at the University of Hamburg,
where he holds the Chair of
Criminal Law, Criminal procedure,
International Criminal Law and
Modern Legal History. Since 2013,
he has also served as Associate
Dean for Research & International
-7-
Affairs. He is a Co-Director of the
Minerva Centre for the Study of
the Rule of Law under extreme
Conditions at the University of
Haifa (Israel), and a Member
of the Advisory Board of the
european Centre for Constitutional
and Human Rights. After receiving
his phD in law from the University
of Cologne, he completed
his habilitation at Humboldt-
University Berlin. Before joining the
University of Hamburgs Faculty of
Law in 2010, Florian Jeberger
was the Lichtenberg professor of
International and Comparative Law
at Humboldt-University Berlin. A co-
editor of the Journal of International
Criminal Justice (Oxford University
press), Florian Jebergers research
focuses on criminal law, including
its international, comparative, and
historical dimensions. His recent
publications (in english) include
Corporate Involvement in Slavery
and Criminal Responsibility under
International Law, International
Criminal Law, and principles of
International Criminal Law.
___
EDDY
mAlOkA
Chief Executive Officer of the
African peer Review Mechanism
eddy Maloka is the Chief
Executive Officer of the African
peer Review Mechanism. In
addition to being Adjunct professor
at the University of Witwatersrand
School of Governance, public
and Development Management,
Maloka is an historian, professor,
researcher and consultant to
various departments of the South
African Administration. He served
as a lecturer at the University of
Cape Town before becoming an
adviser to the former premiers of
R o u n d t able Rep ort
the provinces of Mpumalanga and
Gauteng. In 1999, he took over as
CeO of the Africa Institute of South
Africa in pretoria. Other posts held
include those of: Advisor to the
Governance, public Administration
and Post-Conflict Reconstruction
Secretariat; South Africas Special
Representative to the Great
Lakes Region; and Special Advisor
to South Africas Minister of
International Relations and Co-
operation. Maloka has published
extensively on aspects relating to
the politics and history of Africa
and the development challenges
facing the continent.
___
DEwA
mAvhINgA
South Africa Office Director at
Human Rights Watch
Dewa Mavhinga is the South
Africa Office Director with the Africa
Division of Human Rights Watch. He
has more than ten years research
and advocacy experience in
Zimbabwe and Southern Africa.
Before joining Human Rights Watch,
Dewa worked as the Regional Co-
ordinator for Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition, based in Johannesburg.
In 2012, he co-founded the
Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, a
public policy research think-tank
based in Harare. A recipient of
the British Chevening and Canon
Collins Trust scholarship,Dewa holds
an LLB degree from the University of
Zimbabwe and an LLM degree in
international human rights fromthe
University of essex (Uk).
ANgElA
muDukutI
Senior Researcher in the Transna-
tional Threats and International
Crimes Division at the Institute for
Security Studies (ISS)
Angela Mudukuti (LLB., LLM) is an
international criminal justice lawyer.
Formerly with the Southern Africa
Litigation Centre (SALC), Angela
has worked on precedent-setting
cases on crimes against humanity
before the Constitutional Court
of South Africa. In her SALC role,
Angela was involved in advocacy
surrounding international criminal
justice issues and strategic
litigation, including taking the South
African government to court for its
failure to arrest president Bashir of
Sudan. prior to joining the SALC,
Angela worked for the Immediate
Office of the Prosecutor at the
International Criminal Court in The
Hague, and under the supervision
of prof Cheriff Bassiouni at the
Siracusa International Institute for
Criminal Justice and Human Rights
in Sicily. prior to that, Angela was in
private practice. Angela is an avid
writer contributing to newspapers
and international criminal law
journals on a regular basis.
___
AllAN
NgArI
Senior Researcher in the Transna-
tional Threats and International
Crimes Division at the Institute for
Security Studies (ISS)
Allan Ngari is a Senior Researcher
in the Transnational Threats and
International Crimes Division at
the Institute for Security Studies
(ISS), and is in charge ofall ISS
-8-
work on international criminal
justice. He holds a Bachelor of
Law (Hons.) degree from the
University of Nairobi and a Masters
in International Criminal Law (cum
laude) from Stellenbosch University.
He is an Advocate of the High
Court of kenya, with experience
in civil litigation, conveyancing,
commercial law, and international
criminal law and procedure. He
has 10 years work experience
in transitional justice, particularly
with accountability processes and
the participatory and reparative
rights of victims of armed conflict
and affected communities. His
professional and academic
interests lie in the international
criminal justicesystem, and
specifically in its impact on and
correlation with domestic criminal
justice systems. He also works in
the field of counter-terrorism and
countering violent extremism in
Africa. He previously acted as
project Leader for the kenya
and International Justice Desk
at the Institute for Justice and
Reconciliation in Cape Town and
the Chambers of the International
Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in
Arusha.
___
ANtON
Du PlEssIs
executive Director of the Institute
for Security Studies (ISS), pretoria
Anton du plessisis the executive
Director of the ISS and Head of
the Transnational Threats and
International Crime Division.
He worked as a Senior State
Advocate at the National
prosecuting Authority of South
Africa, where he specialised in
the prosecution of serious and
violent offences, including rape
BI OGR A PH I ES
and gang-related crimes. Mr. du
plessis joined the ISS in 2003 and
has headed the organisations
Crime and Justice programme as
well as the Transnational Threats
and International Crimes division.
Between these appointments, he
acted as a criminal justice and
counter-terrorism legal expert for
the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna. He
is also a World economic Forum
(WeF) Young Global Leader
and served as vice-chair of the
WeFs Global Agenda Council on
Terrorism. Du plessis is currently
a member of WeFs Council on
Fragility, Violence and Conflict.
___
mAx
Du PlEssIs
Senior Researcher, Institute for
Security Studies; Advocate of the
High Court of South Africa;
Associate Tenant, Doughty Street
Chambers, London
South African barrister Max du
plessis is an honorary research
fellow at the University of kwaZulu-
Natal (Durban) and a senior
research associate at the Institute
for Security Studies (pretoria). Not
only has he extensive professional
experience in public law, human
rights and international law, but as
an international criminal lawyer has
advised States before the ICC and
has been working on domestic
(complementarity and universal
jurisdiction) cases involving arrest
warrants for senior government
officials implicated in international
crimes, and litigating and advising
on such cases in South Africa
and elsewhere. He most recently
acted on behalf of the Southern
African Litigation Centre (SALC) in
seeking to ensure that the South
African government complied with
its obligations to arrest president
Bashir of Sudan, arguing against
the governments claim that
Bashir had immunity from arrest
under customary international law
by reason of his being a head
of State. He also acted for the
SALC in challenging the South
African governments decision to
withdraw from the Rome Statute,
and is representing the SALC in
the current Article 87(7) process
before the Court.
___
NAvANEthEm NAvI
PIllAY
Commissioner of the International
Commission against the Death
penalty, former UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights
Navanethem Navi pillay is a
South African jurist who served
as the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights
from 2008 to 2014. She was the
first woman to start a law practice
in her home province of Natal in
1967, and the first women judge of
the High Court of South Africa. In
1995, after the end of apartheid,
Navi pillay was appointed as
acting judge of the South African
High Court, and in the same year
was elected by the UN General
Assembly to sit as a judge on the
International Criminal Tribunal for
Rwanda (ICTR), where she served
a total of eight years, the last four
(1999-2003) as president. In 2003,
she was appointed as a judge of
the International Criminal Court in
The Hague, where she served in
the Appeals Chamber until August
2008. Her four-year term as High
Commissioner for Human Rights
began on 1 September 2008 and
was extended for an additional
-9-
two years in 2012. In April 2015,
Navi pillay became the 16th
Commissioner of the International
Commission against the Death
penalty. She was also named chair
of the Special Reference Group
on Migration and Community
Integration in kwaZulu-Natal, a
group formed to investigate the
immediate and underlying causes
of attacks on migrants.
___
klAus
rAckwItz
Director, International Nuremberg
principles Academy
klaus Rackwitz was appointed
judge in 1990,in which capacity
he presided over criminal and
civil cases at courts of the first
instance and courts of appeal.
From 1996 until 2002, he
worked at, and later headed, the
Information Technology Division
at the Ministry of Justice of North
Rhine-Westphalia. klaus Rackwitzs
experience in modern technology
for courts led to his inclusion in the
Advance Team of the International
Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague
in 2002. After close on eight
years (January 2003-September
2011) as the Senior Administrative
Manager of the Office of the
prosecutor of the ICC, responsible
for all administrative and support
matters (information management,
evidence handling and storage,
language services, etc.), klaus
Rackwitz spent the next five years
(2011-2016) as Administrative
Director of eurojust, the european
Unions Judicial Co-operation Unit,
which supports eU Member States
in the fight against serious cross-
border crimes, such as terrorism,
cybercrime, people trafficking
and the like. As the organisations
R o u n d t able Rep ort
legal representative, Mr. Rackwitz
was in overall charge of all
managerial and administrative
matters, supporting the casework
of Member States.
___
YAsmIN
sOOkA
executive Director, Foundation for
Human Rights, Johannesburg
Yasmin Sooka is the executive
Director of the Foundation for
Human Rights in South Africa, an
independent non-profit foundation
established in 1996 by president
Mandelas government and the
european Union. She is a leading
human rights lawyer, activist and, in
the light of her work on investigating
war crimes and reporting on post-
conflict sexual violencein Sri Lanka,
is anacknowledged international
expert in the field of transitional
justice, gender and international
war crimes. In 1995, Sooka was
appointed by president Mandela
to serve on the South African Truth
and Reconciliation Commission as
the Deputy Chair of the Human
Rights Violations Committee, and
played a key role in drawing
up the Commissions final report
handed over to president Mbeki
in March 2003. During the years
of apartheid, Sooka was the
president of the South African
Chapter of the World Conference
on Religion and peace (WCRp),
an interfaith body working for
peace and justice in South Africa.
She also was a member of the
National Repatriation Committee
for South African exiles, a body
that negotiated with the apartheid
government to repatriate South
African exiles. She was appointed
by the United Nations to serve
on the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of Sierra Leone from
2002-2004. Since 2000, she
has also been a member of the
Advisory Body on the Review of
Resolution 1325 on Women, peace
and Security. In addition, Sooka is
the Director of the International
Truth and Justice project (ITJp), Sri
Lanka, responsible for monitoring
and reporting on the war crimes
of the past as well as ongoing
human rights violations and abuses
in that country. In July 2010,
Yasmin Sooka was appointed to
the three-member panel of experts
advising the Secretary General
on accountability for war crimes
committed during the final stages
of the war in Sri Lanka (report
published in May 2011). In June
2015, Sooka was appointed by
the UN Secretary General to sit
on a three-member Independent
Review panel which investigated
Allegations of Sexual Abuse by
Foreign Military Forces in the
Central African Republic, as well as
the UN Response to the Allegations
(report submitted in December
2015). In June 2016, Ms. Sooka
was appointed by the president
of the UN Human Rights Council to
chair a three-person Commission
on Human Rights in South Sudan, a
post she currently holds.
___
tsElIsO
thIPANYANE
professor of International Law,
University of pretoria;
Special Adviser to the Minister of
International Relations and Co-
operation; and Member of the UN
International Law Commission
Tseliso Thipanyane is the CeO of
the Safer South Africa Foundation,
and former CeO of the South
- 10 -
African Human Rights Commission
(SAHRC), prior to which he had
been SAHRC head of research for
over 13 years, mainly responsible
for the monitoring of economic
and social rights. past posts include
those of researcher on criminal
justice at the University of kwaZulu-
Natal, and law lecturer at the
University of the Western Cape
(criminal procedures), Columbia
University Law School, New York
(African human rights systems)
and Ramapo College of New
Jersey (African politics and human
rights). Mr. Thipanyane has written
widely on human rights issues and
presented conference papers
in over twenty countries across
Africa, europe, America and Asia.
Admitted as an advocate of the
High Court of Lesotho and South
Africa, he also served on the
project committee on child justice
of the then SA Law Commission.
He is a member of the executive
Committee of the Council for the
Advancement of South Africas
Constitution.
___
DIrE
tlADI
professor of International Law,
University of pretoria;
Special Adviser to the Minister of
International Relations and Co-
operation; and Member of the UN
International Law Commission
Dire Tladi holds the posts of
professor of international law in
the Department of public Law
and Institute for International
and Comparative Law in Africa
at the University of pretoria, and
extraordinary professor in the public
Law Department of the University
of Stellenbosch. He has served
as principal State Law Adviser
BI OGR A PH I ES

on International Law in the South
African Department of International
Relations and Co-operation, and
Legal Counsellor to the South Africa
Mission to the United Nations. His
main academic specialisations are
in public international law, human
rights law, environmental law and
international criminal law. On 1
January 2012 he commenced a
five-year term as member of the
United Nations International Law
Commission.
___
across Africa, Asia, the Middle east,
the Americas and the Balkans. He
continues to vindicate the rights of
victims of past conflicts in the South
African courts.
___
FrANs
vIlJOEN
Director, Centre for Human Rights;
professor of International Human
Rights Law

hOwArD Frans Viljoen is currently the

vArNEY Director of the Centre for Human
Rights at the University of pretoria.
Senior Consultant, International His research area is international
Centre for Transitional Justice, human rights law, with a focus on
Advocate of Johannesburg Bar the African regional human rights
system that has been established
under the auspices of the African
Howard Varney is a senior Union. He has been involved in
programme adviser with the advocacy and training in the
International Centre for Transitional African regional human rights
Justice (ICTJ), and a practising system, and has published widely
advocate at the Johannesburg on international human rights law,
Bar. In the early 1990s he was an including International human
attorney with the Legal Resources rights law in Africa. He is editor-in-
Centre in Durban, where he chief of the African Human Rights
represented victims of political Law Journal and co-editor of the
violence in public interest litigation, english and French versions of the
judicial inquests, and commissions African Human Rights Law Reports.
of inquiry. In the mid-1990s he
led an independent criminal
investigation in South Africa into
organised political crime, which
resulted in significant criminal
trials. He worked with the South
African Truth and Reconciliation
Commission as a consultant on
range of matters. Varney was the
chief investigator for the Sierra
Leone Truth and Reconciliation
Commission. He assisted the east
Timor Commission for Reception,
Truth and Reconciliation with the
compilation of its final report. As an
ICTJ consultant, he has assisted with
the development of transitional
justice initiatives in several countries

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 CONTACT
BEttINA AmBAch
Director, Wayamo Foundation
Rietzestr.21, 10409 Berlin, Germany
Tel. +49 30 921 455 45
info@wayamo.com www.wayamo.com
info@theafricagroup.org www.theafricagroup.org