End of immunity: Accountability for aggression, genocide, war crimes & crimes against humanity

We are please to welcome Chile Oboe-Osuji, former Judge and former President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who will engage in the theme of his book End of Immunity: Holding World Leaders Accountable for Aggression, Genocide, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity, which unpacks the history and theory of the concept of immunity – a timely and urgent issue of our own troubled times.

Our speaker

Chile Oboe-Osuji
Former Judge and former President of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji was the 4th President of the International Criminal Court. He is the Distinguished International Jurist at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at the Toronto Metropolitan University.

From 2012 to 2021, he served as a judge at the ICC, first as a trial judge and eventually as an appellate judge.

Prior to joining the ICC, Dr Eboe-Osuji served as the Legal Advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. Earlier in his career he worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, as a senior prosecution counsel. Before joining the international public service, he practiced law as a barrister in Canada (his adoptive country) and Nigeria (his birth country).

Comments by:

Sabine Nölke
Retired (2021) Canadian diplomat and international lawyer

Sabine Nölke is a retired (2021) Canadian diplomat and international lawyer and a member of the World Refugee and Migration Council's Canadian Anti-Corruption Task Force. Her career at Global Affairs Canada she focused on international humanitarian law; human rights; international peace and security; atrocity crimes; disarmament; economic sanctions; terrorism; and transnational organized crime. From 2015-19 she served as Canada's Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the international courts and tribunals in The Hague. She holds degrees from Western University (BA, MA, LLB) and the London School of Economics (LLM), as well as an honorary LLD from Western.

Errol P. Mendes
Full Professor, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa & National President, International Commission of Jurists, Canada Section (ICJ Canada)

Professor Mendes is a lawyer, author, professor and has been an advisor to governments, corporations, civil society groups and the United Nations. He has acted as a human rights Tribunal and Boards of Inquiry adjudicator in Canada under the Ontario Human Rights Code and as a member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. In 2005-2006, he served as a Senior Advisor in the Privy Council Office of the Government of Canada. He also served as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court in 2009. He was appointed as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School in 2013 and a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University in 2020-2021. He was a Commissioner on the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 2009-2019 and National President of the International Commission of Jurists, Canadian Sections since 2014.

Moderator

Alex Neve
Senior Fellow, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) & Adjunct Professor of International Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa

Alex Neve is a visiting and adjunct professor in international human rights law at the University of Ottawa and Dalhousie University, and a Senior Fellow with the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He served as Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada from 2000 – 2020. He is a lawyer, with a Master’s Degree in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex. Alex is an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has honorary doctorate of law degrees from the University of New Brunswick, the University of Waterloo and St. Thomas University.