The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “the Court”), Karim A.A. Khan QC of the United Kingdom, announced on September 17 the appointment of 17 eminent experts as Special Advisors, in accordance with the provisions of Article 42(9) of the Rome Statute.
The Special Advisors to the Prosecutor, says the ICC, are outstanding professionals with extensive experience and recognized expertise in their field. They provide advice to the Prosecutor within their respective mandates as Special Advisors and may contribute to training provided by the Office. They are required to sign a confidentiality agreement and serve on a pro bono basis, in accordance with the standards of conduct set out, inter alia, in Annex I of Administrative Instruction ICC/AI/2016/002.
The new advisers, who come from different regions of the world and have a wide range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, the ICC explains, will enrich the Office with their extensive knowledge and experience in different legal systems and in various specialties. These appointments, according to the ICC, are part of Prosecutor Khan’s vision, articulated at the outset of his tenure, to build on what has been achieved so far, to strengthen the Office’s ability to effectively carry out its mandate under the Statute, and to benefit from further specialization on a wide range of issues from public international law to sexual violence in conflict, crimes against and affecting children, or crimes of slavery, among other priority areas identified by the Prosecutor.
Prosecutor Khan, the ICC reports, has created a number of entirely new special advisor positions, including for cases related to the crime of aggression, the situation in Darfur, Sudan, gender-based persecution, genocide, international criminal law research and exchange, Islamic law, knowledge transfer, slavery crimes, and public international law. He also appointed a number of special advisers without portfolio, another first for the office.
Former UN Under-Secretary-General
Senegalese Adama Dieng was appointed Special Adviser without portfolio. Adama Dieng served as United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, a position he held from July 2012 to July 2020. He also served as Registrar of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from 2001 to 2008.
Prior to joining the United Nations, Adama Dieng served for 10 years as Secretary General of the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (1990-2000). While serving as Secretary-General, Mr. Dieng was appointed UN Independent Expert for Haiti (1995-2000). He also served as the UN Secretary-General’s envoy to Malawi in 1993 to mediate between the government and advocacy groups. He was the driving force behind the creation of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and also drafted the African Convention against Corruption.
In Senegal, Adama Dieng was a clerk at the Supreme Court. He is the author of numerous articles on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. He is a former founding board member of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and former president of the Martin Ennals Foundation. In recognition of his contribution to strengthening the rule of law and fighting impunity, he was named honorary chair of the Washington-based World Justice Project. He has led numerous fact-finding missions on human rights and the rule of law, as well as trial observation missions.
Adama Dieng is a recognized human rights expert and lecturer on issues of international humanitarian law, human rights, rule of law and international criminal justice. He has received numerous honors around the world, including the Raça Negra Tropheu for his outstanding contribution to the fight against racism and racial discrimination.
He is currently a member of the UN Internal Justice Council and a Special Advisor to the High Committee on Human Brotherhood.
Adama Dieng holds a law degree from Senegal and a certificate from The Hague Academy of International Law Research Center and a certificate on internal and external security from the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Paris.
He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Exeter.
Adama Dieng speaks several languages, including French and English.
Former Chief Justice of Tanzania
Mohamed Chande Othman of Tanzania has also been appointed Special Advisor without Portfolio.
Mohamed Chande Othman served as Chief Justice of Tanzania from December 2010 to January 18, 2017. Prior to that, he served as a High Court judge and an appellate judge in the Court of Appeal, Tanzania’s highest court. Justice Othman is currently mandated by the UN General Assembly as an Eminent Person, appointed since 2017 by the UN Secretary General, to examine the conditions and circumstances that led to the tragic death in 1961 of Dag Hammarskjold, the second UN Secretary General, and the members of the group accompanying him.
Judge Othman was also one of nine members of the group of independent experts appointed by the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “Court”) in December 2019 to review the performance, efficiency and effectiveness of the Court and the Rome Statute system. Justice Othman’s previous positions include serving as the Chief Prosecutor of East Timor and as the Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Under the auspices of the UN, he was a member of the UN Human Rights Council’s High Level Commission of Inquiry on the situation in Lebanon, as well as the UNHRC’s Independent Expert on the human rights situation in Sudan (2009-2010).
His publications include books and peer-reviewed articles on international humanitarian law, international criminal law, refugee law, criminal law and evidence, and peacekeeping.
The other Special Advisors appointed by the ICC Prosecutor are Christine Van den Wyngaert, Special Advisor without Portfolio; Payam Akhavan, Special Advisor on Genocide; Veronique Aubert, Special Advisor on Crimes Against and Affecting Children; Morten Bergsmo, Special Advisor on Knowledge Sharing; Amal Clooney, Special Advisor on Darfur; Lisa Davis, Special Adviser on Gender Persecution; Kevin Jon Heller, Special Adviser on International Criminal Law Research and Exchange; Claus Kress, Special Adviser on the Crime of Aggression; Vaughan Lowe QC, Special Adviser on Public International Law; Tim McCormack, Special Adviser on War Crimes; Intisar A. Rabb, special advisor on Islamic law; Leila NadyaSadat, special advisor on crimes against humanity; Kim Thuy Seelinger, special advisor on sexual violence in conflict; Patricia V. Sellers, special advisor on crimes of slavery; and Ali Soufan, special advisor on investigations .
