Executive Council
The Executive Council is mandated to manage the day-to-day operations of the association and carry out its strategic vision. An Executive Committee within the Executive Council, composed of the President, the Vice President for Defence, the Vice President for Victims, the Treasurer, and the Secretary, take a lead role in conducting the daily operations of the association. The Executive Council is assisted by the Executive Director.
Chief Charles Taku
President
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Jens Dieckmann
Vice President for Victims
​Jens Dieckmann is Senior-Partner of Becher & Dieckmann–Rechtsanwälte (Bonn, Germany) and Associate Member at 9 Bedford Row International (London). He represented clients at the ICTY and ICC. Currently, he is assigned Common Legal Representative, Associate Counsel, for victims in the ICC Banda case. He is Vice President of the ICDL-Germany and member of the ADC-ICT-Board (2014-2016 Vice-President). He is Co-Vice-Chair of the IBA War Crimes Committee.‎ 2016-2017 he was a member of the ICCBA Executive Council and Professional Standards Advisory Committee. 2017-2018, he is ICCBA Vice President for Victims and Victims Committee Chair.
Emile Aoun
Treasurer
​Mr. Emile Aoun is a Lebanese lawyer and professor of law. He is currently preparing his PhD at the Université de Paris II on the perspective of the principle of equality of arms in international criminal tribunals. Mr. Aoun is the author of several published legal studies. He has a Bachelor's degree in Law, a Bachelor's degree in Administrative and Political Sciences and in History. He holds two Masters in Public Law and in Private Law. He is Lead Counsel for the Ayyash defence team at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
Dr. Caroline Buisman
Vice President for Defence
​Dr. Buisman is a member of the Amsterdam and New York Bars and practices domestic and international criminal and human rights law. She has over fifteen years of experience researching and practicing international criminal law at the ICC, ICTY, ICTR and the SCSL and has published widely on this subject. She has an LLM from Columbia University (New York), a Masters of Law from Leiden University (Netherlands) and a Ph.D. from Brunel University (United Kingdom). She regularly teaches and participates in expert panels in the area of international criminal justice.
Xavier-Jean Keita
Secretary
​Mr. Keïta joined the ICC in 2007 as Principal Counsel for the Defence Office and was involved in all cases. He is fluent in French, English, Spanish, Wolof, Bambara and Malinké, practised law for over 33 years (Senegal and Paris Bar) and is specialised in Human Rights, International Relations and (International) Criminal Law. He is a founding member of the International Training Centre for Lawyers in Africa, ICB and the ICCBA. He is a qualified Mediator and acted as a Judge for five years at the International Organisation of La Francophonie.
Dato' Shyamala Alagendra
Dato’ Shyamala Alagendra is a Malaysian lawyer of 20 years standing and is presently the Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions for the Republic of Fiji. She previously served as a Prosecution trial lawyer at the SPSC (Timor Leste), SCSL (Sierra Leone) and at ICC. She acted as Defence Counsel before the STL, EULEX Court (Kosovo) and at the ICC (in both Kenya cases and for Saif Al-Islam Gadafi). She also represents victims of human rights violations and sexual abuse in several jurisdictions in Africa and Asia.
Caroline Buteau
Caroline Buteau, a Canadian lawyer specialized in international criminal law, has been working for more than 14 years for the defence of suspects and accused persons before International Criminal Tribunals (ICTR, ICC, STL). From 2007 to 2016, she worked for the Defence of the first Accused person before the ICC. Since 2016, she is a Legal Officer at the Defence Office of the STL. Ms. Buteau acted at several occasions as a trainer for the lawyers registered on the ICC List of Counsel. She is the co-editor of the Practitioner’s Handbook on Defence Investigations in International Criminal Trials.
Rodney Dixon QC
Rodney has over 20 years of experience practicing before all international courts. He has prosecuted and defended before the ICTY, including as defence counsel for the Prime Minister of Kosovo. He has defended Abdullah Al-Senussi before the ICC, and acted on behalf of victims and amici curiae in various Situations and cases. He has represented several governments at the ICC including Kenya in the Kenya cases, the UK in the Iraq Situation and the Government of Comoros in the Situation concerning the Mavi Marmara Flotilla. He has acted for the Rwandan Government before the ICTR. He specialises in public law, extradition and human rights in the UK, and appears in cases before the European Court of Human Rights and the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights. He is the co-author of Archbold International on the ICC procedure and practice (5th edition to be published in October 2018), and has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of War Studies, King's College. London.
Elisabetta Galeazzi
Elisabetta is an Italian Criminal Lawyer admitted to the ICC List of Counsel. She is Chair of the ICCBA Membership Committee, where she was elected for a second mandate. For over twenty years she has worked as a practitioner qualified to act as Defence Counsel and Counsel for Victims before Higher Courts. She is an elected member in governing bodies of national and international associations of counsel, and currently sits on the international committee of the Bologna Bar. She is also a trainer in compulsory training programs for counsel.
Karim Khan QC
​​Karim A.A. Khan, Queens Counsel, is a barrister admitted to practice in England and Wales, and Pakistan. He has over 25 years of experience in international and domestic legal practice, including criminal law, arbitration, and inter-state litigation. Karim has practiced before all of the international criminal courts and tribunals as a prosecutor, defence counsel or victims legal representative. At the ICC he has been Lead Counsel for seven defendants, and presently represents Abdallah Banda and Saif Al-Islam Gadafi. He also represents victims of human rights violations and human rights advocates in Africa and Asia.
Dr. Cyril Laucci
PhD in Law and Counsel registered (self-omitted) in the Bar of Marseille. Work / has worked as Legal Adviser for Chambers within the ICTR, the ICTY and the SCSL and within the Registry of the ICC and RSCSL. Editor of the Annotated Digest of the ICC Series (http://www.brill.com/products/reference-work/annotated-digest-international-criminal-court), on the basis of which an ICC Case Law Database is in development in partnership with Legal Tools. Elected to the Executive Council of the ICCBA and Chairperson of the ICCBA’s Legal Advisory Committee.
Leigh Lawrie
I am a Scottish advocate, with over 10 years of experience in international criminal law. I have served at the ICTY, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and the ICC in various capacities. I was counsel in two ICC cases, namely Prosecutor v. Ruto and Sang, Prosecutor v. Banda and an appeals consultant at the ICC for Mr Bemba in his successful appeal against conviction and sentence. Prior to my ICC defence work, I was a member of the prosecution trial and appeal teams which successfully prosecuted the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor at the SCSL. I currently practice criminal law and public law in Scotland. I was a member of the ICCBA’s Executive Council and its Legal Advisory Committee in its inaugural year. I was also the ICCBA’s first Secretary.
Paolina Massidda
Paolina Massidda is a member of the Genoa Bar (Italy) since 1994. She is specialised in human rights and international humanitarian law and she holds a master on international criminal law. In her over twenty years of experience, she practised before national and international tribunals, representing accused and victims. Since September 2005, she is the Principal Counsel of the independent Office of Public Counsel for Victims at the International Criminal Court. She is currently the common legal representative of victims in the Laurent Gbagbo and Blé Goudé case and in the Ongwen case. She also represents victims in the Lubanga, Katanga and Bemba reparations proceedings, as well as in the Gaddafi, Kony and Simone Gbagbo cases. She has published extensively on matters related to international criminal law and the rights of victims. She regularly trains and gives lectures in international criminal law. In 2017 and 2018 she has been member of the ICCBA Victims’ Committee.
Luc Walleyn
Luc Walleyn is member of the bar of Brussels (Belgium) since 1972 and counsel at the ICC since 2006. He is legal representative of victims in the Lubanga case and represented numerous victims of international crimes in Belgian courts. He teaches international criminal law as a visiting professor at the University College Leuven-Limburg and at the l’Université Libre de Bruxelles. He has published many articles on international justice. In the past, he was lay judge in Brussels, member of the Council of the Bar and President of Advocates Without Borders (ASF). He is a member of the ICCBA Executive Council and Victims Committee.
David Young
​David A. Young is a barrister admitted to practice in England and Wales, from Red Lion Chambers (London), a leading UK criminal law chambers. He is a specialist international trial lawyer who focuses on defending and advising persons accused before the international, foreign and national criminal courts. Since 2011 he has been instructed as lead Defence Counsel before the STL, where he represents the interests of Assad Sabra, who is accused of complicity in the assassination of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He holds a Masters degree in international human rights law, and has co-authored a leading criminal law textbook on the doctrine of Abuse of Process.