The crime of gender persecution under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court
Kellogg College is pleased to welcome you to this session of our series of 'In Conversation with...' events.
Patricia Sellers, Special Advisor for Slavery Crimes to the Office of the Prosecutor and Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, and Anna Arutshyan, Director of Women’s Solidarity Fund, will be in conversation with Karim Asad Ahmad Khan KC and Antônia Pereira de Sousa about the crime of gender persecution under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
Until the adoption of the Rome Statute (the first international criminal law statute) gender persecution was not explicitly recognised in international treaty law. Sexual and gender-based crimes have always been weaponised especially against women during armed conflicts. Despite the official recognition of gender persecution for over 20 years, the Office of the Prosecutor of International Criminal Court (ICC) has recently started to bring charges of gender persecution as a crime against humanity.
In December 2022, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court released the recent Policy on the Crime of Gender Persecution. The Policy addresses various elements of the regulatory framework and tends to analyse the investigation and prosecution stages of gender persecution.
In celebration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Karim Asad Ahmad Khan KC and Antônia Pereira de Sousa discuss the holistic approach for the investigation of the crime of gender persecution analysed in the recent policy and the adopted strategy to address the sexual and gender-based crimes under the jurisdiction of International Criminal Court.
Speakers:
Karim A. A. Khan KC is the Prosecutor of International Criminal Court.
Karim was an Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and served as the first Special Adviser and Head of the United Nations Investigative Team to promote accountability for crimes committed by Da'esh/ISIL in Iraq (UNITAD) between 2018 to 2021. UNITAD was established pursuant to Security Council resolution 2379 (2017), to promote accountability efforts for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by Da'esh/ISIL.
Karim is a barrister and King's Counsel with more than 30 years of professional experience as an international criminal law and human rights lawyer. He has extensive experience as a prosecutor, victim's counsel and defence lawyer in domestic and international criminal tribunals, including, but not limited to, the International Criminal Court, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He has also represented victims of human rights violations in Africa and Asia. Karim is a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn and was appointed a Recorder of the Crown Court in 2018. He was elected as the second President of the ICC Bar Association in July 2017 and is a worldwide Ambassador of the African Bar Association. He has published a number of leading texts on international criminal law and is the co-author of 'Archbold International Criminal Courts', now in US 5th edition.
Antônia Pereira de Sousa is currently Senior Special Assistant to the Registrar of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She previously was appointed as the first Focal Point For Gender Equality of the ICC for a period of two years (2021-2023). She has also served as External Relations and Cooperation Officer in the ICC Registry (2016-2021), and an Associate Cooperation Adviser in the Office of the Prosecutor from 2008 to 2016. Previously, she worked at the Research Center on Public Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal in Canada, where she carried out legal research and published in the fields of international law, globalization and governance and global security issues. Ms. Pereira de Sousa also worked for a local NGO in Cape Town, South Africa, on matters related to outreach and legal services to refugees and asylum seekers. Ms. Pereira de Sousa is a founding member of the LGBTQI+ informal network “ICCQ” within the Court; she is also a member of the board of directors of the Women in International Law (WIL) network in the Netherlands. Ms. Pereira de Sousa holds a Master in International Humanitarian Assistance from the Faculty of Law of Aix-en-Provence, as well as a graduate degree from the Institute of Political Studies of Aix-en-Provence.
This is an in-person event, free and open to all.
The talk will begin at 17:00, followed by a drinks reception at 18:30.
This event will be photographed and filmed. If you do not wish to appear in the photographs/footage, please let the photographer/videographer know. Should you have any further queries, or be unable to attend after booking, please contact [email protected].