Advanced Seminar on the Investigation and Prosecution of International Crimes
From 19 to 23 September 2022, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (the Mechanism), the Nuremberg Academy and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) jointly hosted an Advanced Seminar on the Investigation and Prosecution of International Crimes in Dakar, Senegal.
The participants, 21 high-level prosecutors and investigating judges from francophone Africa, were selected from countries facing challenges of investigating and prosecuting international crimes: Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Conakry, Mali, Niger and Senegal as well as from the Special Court in the Central African Republic.
The seminar presented an opportunity for the participants and the training team to share their opinions, experiences and expertise in order to create a network of experts capable of collaborating on the prosecution of international crimes in Africa.
It consisted of two online sessions addressing war crimes and crimes against humanity, held via Zoom, followed by five days of in-person training. This seminar built on and incorporated lessons-learned from previous collaborations between the Nuremberg Academy and the Mechanism.
The trainers during the in-person training in Senegal were:
- Serge Brammertz, Prosecutor, International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals
- Laurel Baig, Senior Appeals Counsel, International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals
- Barbara Goy, former Senior Appeals Counsel, International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (now at the International Criminal Court)
- Mbacké Fall, Judge, Supreme Court of Senegal, former Prosecutor General of the Chambres africaines extraordinaires au sein des juridictions sénégalaises
Ms Goy and Jean-Jacques Badibanga (Senior Trial Attorney, International Criminal Court) delivered
the on-line preparatory sessions.