Meet the Keynotes for The Lubanga Conference: Lessons Learned !
Matthew is currently working as a legal officer at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) where he has worked since August 2010. At the CICC Matthew supervises the Coalition's Trial Monitoring Programme as well as currently working on a number of topics including legal representation at the ICC, ICC strategic planning and the ICC's permanent premises project. Matthew holds an LLM (Cum Laude) in Public International Law from Leiden University and has obtained his legal practitioner's certificate from the University of Cardiff.
Nicole D Samson BA, MA, LLB has been working in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, the Netherlands for six years. She appeared as a trial lawyer in the prosecution against Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a Congolese national, for the war crimes of conscripting, enlisting and using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities. The trial lasted two and a half years. Prior to joining the ICC, Nicole spent six years at the Toronto, Canada office of Fasken Martineau specializing primarily in complex commercial litigation cases. Nicole is an alumnus of Mount Allison, Queen’s, and Dalhousie Universities in Canada and is a member in good standing of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Dr. Mladina is a licensed Clinical and Health Psychologist, working for the past seven years as Associate Victims Expert in Gender and Children Unit at the Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Court in The Hague and part-time as a faculty at Webster University in Leiden, teaching Physiological Psychology, Forensic psychology, Clinical Psychology, Psychological Reporting and Life Span Development.
Originally from Bosnia, she completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies in Austria.
The main focus of her job with the ICC, where she started working in 2004, is ensuring proper treatment of witnesses and victims during investigative interviewing across all situations (DR Congo, Uganda, Chad, Ivory Coast etc.) through conducting psycho-social pre-interview assessments of victim witnesses (sexual crimes and children) in the field; monitoring of victim's mental health throughout the interview; advising investigators on the most appropriate strategies for questioning etc.
Kristin Kalla, MPH is the Senior Programme Officer at the Trust Fund for Victims which supports the International Criminal Court in The Hague to ensure justice, and restore dignity for victims of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Kalla has helped to build the Trust Fund from its beginnings; was the Acting Executive Director from 2009-2010; and currently oversees the technical responses, programmes, field operations and reparation implementation strategies for victims under the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Kalla is a Palestinian American and senior executive with a standout record of contribution in leading humanitarian, development, human rights and public health efforts in 25+ countries in conflict and post-conflict situations – with the majority of this country level experience in Africa for UNICEF, WHO, USAID World Bank and CARE International, among others. Kalla has 25 years of experience as a trained public health specialist focusing on maternal and child health, and reproductive health issues with degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in African Studies and Medical Anthropology (MA) and Public Health (MPH). Her graduate research was conducted in northern Sudan with a thesis completed on “A Study of Harmful Traditional Factors Affecting Women’s Reproductive Health in Sudan”.
Ms. Kalla was selected in 1997 by HM Queen Noor of Jordan to participate in the first UN Leadership Academy launched by the former UN Secretary General at the UN’s 50th Anniversary; including participating in meetings with world leaders in Jordan and Palestine including touring refugee camps and communities in Gaza and the West Bank.
Liz Evenson is a counsel in Human Rights Watch’s international justice program, where the focus of her research and advocacy is the International Criminal Court. She previously conducted research on Uganda as a Leonard H. Sandler fellow in the organization’s Africa division. A Juris Doctorate graduate of Columbia Law School, Liz Evenson holds a bachelor's degree in political science and public policy from the University of Chicago and a Master of Philosophy degree in law from the University of Nottingham.
With her twin sister, Femke, Ilse and Femke van Velzen are a documentary filmmaking team that aim to expose cultural injustices. The two sisters each studied social and cultural development in Amsterdam and Utrecht. After graduating in 2002, they began their own production company IFPRODUCTIONS in March 2003.
IFPRODUCTIONS gives the sisters the freedom to work as independent filmmakers and producers. The sisters use their films as educational tools, and travel to developing countries to screen their films. These screenings help expose the inequality and violence to local communities in their current living conditions. The inspiration for the van Velzen sisters’ films is promoting human rights and women’s rights across the globe.
IF PRODUCTIONS' latest film is Justice for Sale. Other films that the van Velzen's have made include Fighting the Silence and Weapon of War.
Director of Outreach, International Justice Central (IJCentral)
Based in New York, Hannah Dunphy is the Director of Outreach for International Justice Central (IJCentral), the outreach initiative launched in conjunction with the documentary film “The Reckoning” by Skylight Pictures. She has been an adviser to the American NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court (AMICC) on outreach and advocacy since 2009. In addition to supporting organizations and community alliances advocating for the ICC, she works with the Faith and Ethics Network for the ICC (US-FENICC) and the Washington Working Group on the ICC (WICC), and other networks committed to full US participation in the ICC
A long time supporter of international criminal justice, Ms. Dunphy first campaigned for the International Criminal Court (ICC) alongside communities from Darfur, Sudan. Between 2003 and 2007, she worked extensively as a local, state and national youth coordinator for Amnesty International USA. As the chair of the National Youth Advisory Committee she developed national campus initiatives, trainings and national membership strategies. In 2007 she was an organizer with AIUSA’s International Justice and Accountability program.From 2005-2008, she was the Global Initiative and Outreach Manager for Student World Assembly, where she developed international human rights campaigns, and designed leadership development and youth advocacy training for student leaders in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.
Ms. Dunphy holds a BA in International Criminal Justice and Post-Conflict Resolution from New York University. She is currently completing her Masters degree in Conflict and Security at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School, where she is conducting research for her thesis on prospects for US ratification of the ICC’s Rome Statute.
Stephen J. Rapp of Iowa is Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice. Appointed by President Obama, he was confirmed by the Senate, and assumed his duties on September 8, 2009. Prior to his appointment, he served as Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone beginning in January 2007, leading the prosecutions of former Liberian President Charles Taylor and other persons alleged to bear the greatest responsibility for the atrocities committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone. During his tenure, his office achieved the first convictions in history for sexual slavery and forced marriage as crimes against humanity, and for attacks on peacekeepers and for recruitment and use of child soldiers as violations of international humanitarian law.
From 2001 to 2007, Mr. Rapp served as Senior Trial Attorney and Chief of Prosecutions at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, personally heading the trial team that achieved convictions of the principals of RTLM radio and Kangura newspaper—the first in history for leaders of the mass media for the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide.
Mr. Rapp was United States Attorney in the Northern District of Iowa from 1993 to 2001, where his office won historic convictions under the firearms provision of the Violence Against Women Act and the serious violent offender provision of the 1994 Crime Act. Prior to his tenure as U.S. Attorney, he worked as an attorney in private practice and served as Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency and as an elected member of the Iowa Legislature.
He received his BA degree from Harvard College in 1971. He attended Columbia and Drake Law Schools and received his JD degree from Drake in 1974.