Regional and National Focal Points
The ICCBA Executive Council has appointed Regional and National Focal Points (contact details provided below) to conduct outreach activities on behalf of the ICCBA within each Focal Point’s area of geographic responsibility.
The mandate of ICCBA focal points includes:
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Explaining the role of the ICCBA to List Counsel and Support Staff in the country / region in question.
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Explaining the benefits of joining the ICCBA as a Full, Associate or Affiliate Member to eligible individuals.
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Explaining the work and jurisdiction of the ICC to legal professionals in the country / region in question.
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Serving as a local conduit between the association, and List Counsel and ICCBA members, to convey suggestions, concerns and/or recommendations List Counsel and members may have regarding the work of the ICCBA.
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Where required, to assist the ICCBA President and Executive counsel in liaising with national bar associations.
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Providing recommendations to the ICCBA President on the training needs of local counsel and on other relevant issues in the country / region in question.
Regional Focal Points
Africa
Asia
Shyamala Alagendra
Dato’ Shyamala Alagendra is a Malaysian lawyer of 20 years standing. She served as a Prosecution trial lawyer at the SPSC (Timor Leste), SCSL and ICC. She acted as Defence Counsel before the STL, EULEX Court (Kosovo) and at the ICC (in both Kenya cases and is presently Counsel for Saif Al-Islam Gadafi). She also represents victims of human rights violations in several jurisdictions in Africa and Asia. In 2017, Shyamala was elected to the ICCBA Executive Council and re-elected to the Victims Committee.
Contact Details:
Eastern Europe - Co-Focal Point
Vladimir Tochilovsky
Trial attorney in the ICTY (1994—2010). Member of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (2010—2016). Deputy Regional Attorney for judicial matters and District Attorney in the Ukraine 1976—1994. Official representative of the ICTY to the UN negotiations for the establishment of the ICC (1997—2001). Member of two expert groups that prepared recommendations for the ICC Office of the Prosecutor (2002—2003). A Ph.D. holder, was a professor at Mechnikov National University, Ukraine (1991—1994). Authored numerous publications, including books, on international criminal justice.
Contact Details:
Eastern Europe - Co-Focal Point
Jens Dieckmann
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.
Contact Details:
Middle East Co-Focal Point
Mohamed Aouini
Mohamed Aouini obtained his Law Degree in 1979, and has held the following positions: Judge (1980-1985); Lawyer (since 1986); Mr. RUGGIU's lead counsel before the ICTR (1997-2000); Member of the Tunisian Parliament (1994-2009); Vice-President of the Arab Parliament (2005-2009). He is fluent in Arabic, French and German, with basic knowledge of English and Dutch. He is the main Council of Merhi before the STL (January 2014) and Al Mahdi before the ICC (2015).
Contact Details:
Middle East Co-Focal Point
Emile Aoun
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.
Contact Details:
Latin America
National Focal Points
Austria
Belgium
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 visiting professor at the University College Leuven-Limburg and at l’Université Libre de Bruxelles, and has published widely on international justice. Previously, 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.
Contact Details:
Canada
Christopher Gosnell
Christopher Gosnell has defended cases before the ICC, ICTY, ICTR, MICT and SCSL. He is Lead Counsel for one of the accused in the Bemba et al. contempt proceedings, and Associate Counsel for Bosco Ntaganda. He formerly worked as a Prosecutor at the ICTY, in the Office of Public Counsel for Victims at the ICC, and in Chambers at the ICTR. He clerked at the Supreme Court of Canada and practiced at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York before turning to the field of International Criminal Law.
Contact Details:
China
France
Emmanuel Altit
I am a member of the Paris Bar. Before the ICC, I am Lead Counsel for President Gbagbo and Counsel for the gabonese opposition. I have 20 years of experience in international criminal law. For example, I appeared as Lead Counsel before the ICTR; in Cambodia for victims of the Khmer Rouge regime, etc. I represent victims of terrorism and political opponents in the Middle East. I represented a Guantanamo detainee. I was the lawyer of the Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya, etc.
Contact Details:
+31 70 515-8725
Germany
Natalie von Wistinghausen
Natalie von Wistinghausen, who was born in Belgium, was admitted to the Berlin Bar, Germany, in 2001. Since being called to the Bar, she specialises in criminal defense as a trial advocate and has acquired wide-ranging legal experience in domestic and international legal criminal work. Natalie was admitted to the List of Counsel of the Defence Office of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in 2009, and is currently assigned as Co-counsel to protect the interests and rights of one of the accused in the case of The Prosecutor v. Ayyash et al. At the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), she was Legal Assistant in one of the defense teams in the case The Prosecutor vs. Bizimungu et al. Before the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main, she was Lead Counsel in the first Rwandan genocide case before a German court. She represented the accused in pre-trial, trial and appellate proceedings. Natalie moved from Berlin to The Hague in spring 2016. Her office remains in Berlin (www.nvw-law.com).
Contact Details:
Greece
Dr. Victor Tsilonis
Victor Tsilonis is a barrister, member of the Thessaloniki Bar (Greece) and ICCBA’s Focal Point for Greece. In January 2019 he was also elected for a four-year term as the alternate member of the ICC Disciplinary Board. As a co-founder of NEWLAW (www.newlaw.gr/en), Victor rendered NEWLAW, apart from the first Greek law firm offering online legal services, the first Greek law firm capable of handling international criminal law cases. He has written and presented papers in the field of international criminal law, human rights, criminal justice, data protection and prisoners’ rights.
Contact Details:
Kenya - Co-Focal Point
Edinnah Arati
Edinnah Bosibori Arati joined the International Criminal Court in December 2015.She has over twelve years of private practice with experience in criminal and family law commercial as well as public interest litigation. She has consulted for a joint project of Puntland Center for Human Rights and Democracy (PUNCHAD) and UNHCR project as the senior Legal Consultant providing technical and legal support on Refugee Law and Human Rights in Puntland, Somalia. Her most recent assignment is her appointment to Kenya’s Judiciary Technical Committee on Criminal Justice Reforms in Kenya.
Contact Details:
Kenya - Co-Focal Point
Nigeria
Netherlands
Dr. Caroline Buisman
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.
Contact Details:
+31 (0)20 7028400 / +31 (0)649672987 (T)
+31 (0)20 7028401 (F)
Palestine
Philippines
Professor Diane Desierto
Prof. Dr. Diane Desierto (JSD, Yale) is the Marks Distinguished Professor and Director of the ASEAN Law & Integration Center at the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law (USA); Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the Philippine Judicial Academy of the Supreme Court of the Philippines and External Executive Director (Associate Dean) of the University of the Philippines Law Graduate Program at Bonifacio Global City; Senior Fellow, KFG "International Law - Rise or Decline?" Berlin-Potsdam Research Project; 2017 Director of Studies at the Hague Academy of International Law; Adjunct Fellow at the WSD Handa Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Stanford University; and international dispute resolution partner at Desierto & Desierto Law (Ortigas Center, Philippines).
Contact Details:
+632 470 2036 (office); +63 917 8012113 (mobile)
Sierra Leone
Ibrahim Yillah
Ibrahim Yillah graduated with an LLB from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone (1996). He later obtained an LLM at University of Pretoria, South Africa in Human Rights Law. He was appointed Principal Defender of the Residual SCSL. He previously served as Counsel in the SCSL Defence Office, and as an ICC Prosecution Trial Attorney (2005-2011). He has considerable criminal litigation experience. He is also working as an environmental law consultant in Sierra Leone and is a member of a team working on elaborating a Draft Statute on Arbitration in Sierra Leone.
Contact Details:
FocalPoint@iccba-abcpi.org
Singapore
Shalini Jayaraj
Contact Details:
FocalPoint@iccba-abcpi.org
United Kingdom Co-Focal Point
United Kingdom Co-Focal Point
United States of America
Colleen Rohan
Colleen Rohan has practiced as defense counsel for over 30 years; in the international courts since 2005. She was twice elected President of the Association of Defence Counsel Practicing before the ICTY. Her international cases include: Popović, Haradinaj, and Karadžić (ICTY); witness counsel in Kenya confirmation hearings and Assaf v. ICC (ICC); and the Drenica war crimes cases in Kosovo (EULEX). She has written and lectured extensively on international criminal law. Her newest book is “Defence Perspectives on International Criminal Justice”. She maintains law offices in The Hague and is a member of 9 Bedford Row Chambers international group (London).
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