Amicus Curiae Observations by Public International Law & Policy Group in the case of The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda
The Ntaganda Case
On July 8, 2019, the ICC Trial Chamber VI found Bosco Ntaganda, Former Deputy Chief of Staff and commander of operations of the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC), guilty, beyond reasonable doubt, of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed in Ituri, DRC, in 2002-2003.
On November 7, 2019, Bosco Ntaganda was sentenced to a total of 30 years of imprisonment. On March 30, 2021, the ICC Appeals Chamber confirmed the conviction and the sentence in this case.
For more information on the case, visit the ICC’s website here.
Amicus Curiae Observations by Public International Law & Policy Group
PILPG provided answers to the questions of how "attack" is defined under international humanitarian law, particularly in the context of cultural property and hospitals, and whether the meaning of the term “attack” in article 8(2)(e)(iv) of the Rome Statute covers act such as pillaging and destruction, and acts committed in the course of a ratissage operation.
On March 30, 2020, the Appeals Chamber of the ICC delivered its judgments confirming the decision of Trial Chamber VI, which found Bosco Ntaganda guilty of 18 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. PILPG’s amicus brief was cited multiple times in the Chamber’s judgments.
Blog Post in Articles of War, a publication of the Lieber Institute at West Point
PILPG Managing Director Professor Milena Sterio, Senior Legal Advisor Jonathan Worboys, and Counsel Eian Katz published a post on the Articles of War blog about PILPG's International Criminal Court amicus curiae brief in the Bosco Ntaganda appellate case.
Click here to access the blog post.
Click on the image above to access PILPG’s amicus curiae observations.
PILPG Experts
Dr. Paul R. Williams
Dr. Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca I. Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University where he teaches in the School of International Service and at the Washington College of Law. Dr. Williams is also the co-founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), a pro bono law firm providing legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and the prosecution of war criminals. As a world renowned peace negotiation lawyer, Dr. Williams has assisted over two dozen parties in major international peace negotiations and has advised numerous parties on the drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions. Several of Dr. Williams' pro bono government clients throughout the world joined together to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Dr. Williams has served as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as well as an Attorney-Adviser for European and Canadian affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser. He received his J.D. from Stanford Law School and his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Dr. Williams is a sought-after international law and policy expert. He is frequently interviewed by major print and broadcast media and regularly contributes op-eds to major newspapers. Dr. Williams has authored six books on various topics concerning international law, and has published over three dozen scholarly articles on topics of international law and policy. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on a number of occasions relating to specific peace processes, transitional justice, and self-determination. Dr. Williams is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, and has served as a Counsellor on the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law. In 2019, Paul was awarded the Cox International Law Center's Humanitarian Award for Advancing Global Justice. More information about Dr. Williams can be found at www.drpaulrwilliams.com.
Dean Michael P. Scharf
Dean Michael P. Scharf is the Co-Founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG). He is also the Co-Dean of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the Joseph C. Hostetler—BakerHostetler Professor of Law.
Scharf has led USAID-funded transitional justice projects in Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, and Turkey (for Syria), and maritime piracy projects in Kenya, Mauritius, and The Seychelles. During a sabbatical in 2008, Scharf served as Special Assistant to the Prosecutor of the Cambodia Genocide Tribunal and during the elder Bush and Clinton Administrations, he served in the Office of the Legal Adviser of the U.S. Department of State, where he held the positions of Attorney- Adviser for Law Enforcement and Intelligence, Attorney-Adviser for United Nations Affairs, and delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
A graduate of Duke University School of Law (Order of the Coif and High Honors), and judicial clerk to Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat on the Eleventh Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, Scharf is the author of over 100 scholarly articles and 20 books, four of which have won national book of the year honors. A past recipient of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law Alumni Association's "Distinguished Teacher Award" and Ohio Magazine's "Excellence in Education Award," Scharf continues to teach International Law and was ranked as among the most cited authors in the field since 2010 by the 2016 and 2019 Sisk/Leiter studies. Since 2013, Scharf has been the producer and host of "Talking Foreign Policy," a radio program broadcast on WCPN 90.3 FM and other NPR affiliates across the country. Scharf was recently elected President-elect of the American Branch of the International Law Association.
Professor Milena Sterio
Milena Sterio is the Charles R. Emrick Jr. - Calfee Halter & Griswold Professor of Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Managing Director at the PILPG. She is a leading expert on international law, international criminal law and human rights. Sterio leads PILPG’s Thought Leadership Initiative.
Sterio is one of six permanent editors of the prestigious IntLawGrrls blog, and a frequent contributor to the blog focused on international law, policy and practice. In the spring of 2013, Sterio was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, spending the semester in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Baku State University. While in Baku, she had the opportunity to teach and conduct research on secession issues under international law related to the province of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh. Serving as a maritime piracy law expert, she has participated in meetings of the United Nations Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia as well as in the work of the United Nations Global Counterterrorism Forum. Sterio has also assisted piracy prosecutions in Mauritius, Kenya and the Seychelles Islands. Sterio is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the University of Paris I, and was an associate in the New York City firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton before joining the ranks of academia full time. She has published seven books and numerous law review articles. Her latest book, “The Syrian Conflict’s Impact on International Law,” (co-authored with Paul Williams and Michael Scharf) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.
Dr. Brianne McGonigle Leyh
Dr. Brianne McGonigle Leyh is a Senior Legal Advisor with PILPG. She is also an Associate Professor at Utrecht University specializing in human rights law and global justice, with a focus on victims’ rights, transitional justice, social justice, and the documentation of serious crimes. She is a member of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), the Montaigne Centre for Rule of Law and Administration of Justice, and the research platform Contesting Governance. She is also an executive editor of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights and coordinates the education program of the Utrecht Centre for Global Challenges (UGlobe), which is a centre supporting and encouraging study and research on international issues across the humanities and law at Utrecht University. Since 2017 she has been a member of the Utrecht Young Academy. The Utrecht Young Academy is a platform for the exchange of critical perspectives on academia, policy, and society. In 2020, together with Dr. Tessa Diphoorn from Cultural Anthropology, she launched a Podcast “Travelling Concepts on Air” to address issues of interdisciplinarity in scholarship. Her teaching focuses on human rights and transitional justice, with a strong emphasis on community engaged learning through the honors program legal clinic and inter-faculty courses like the Da Vinci Project.
In addition to her academic work, she sits on the advisory boards of the Netherlands Helsinki Committee and Pro Bono Connect. She received her Bachelors degree (BA) from Boston University, graduating magna cum laude with a self-crafted major in the study of international law and human rights, her Law degree (JD) from American University’s Washington College of Law, graduating cum laude, and her Masters (MA) in International Affairs from AmericanUniversity’s School of International Service. In 2011 she obtained her PhD from Utrecht University’s Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) where she wrote her award-winning dissertation on victim participation in international criminal proceedings.
Dr. Julie Fraser
Dr. Julie Fraser is Assistant Professor with the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM) and the Montaigne Centre at Utrecht University. She has published, taught, and presented at conferences worldwide on a variety of topics relating to international human rights law and transitional justice. Her most recent publication is an edited volume with Dr Brianne McGonigle Leyh entitled Intersections of Law and Culture at the International Criminal Court (Edward Elgar 2020). This work takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of international law in practice, and builds upon her PhD research.
Julie defended her PhD in 2018, which was awarded the Max van der Stoel Prize in Human Rights and was published as a monograph entitled Social Institutions and International Human Rights Law Implementation: Every Organ of Society (Cambridge University Press 2020). As part of her doctoral research, Julie assisted the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women with their 65th session in Geneva in 2016, and undertook field research in Java, Indonesia in 2017.
Prior to academia, Julie practiced law as a qualified solicitor, including working with the International Criminal Court and as a lawyer with the Australian Government Solicitor.
Julie has been affiliated with PILPG since 2012 and presently is a Senior Peace Fellow.
Jonathan Worboys
Jonathan Worboys is a barrister and international lawyer focusing on public international law and international criminal law. He is a member of the United Kingdom Attorney General’s Panel of Counsel for Public International Law and ranked in leading legal directories for the “way he sparks of ideas”.
In recent years, Jonathan has acted as counsel and legal adviser to States, corporations, private individuals and NGOs in some of the most significant recent legal matters (e.g. EU withdrawal, the ICJ Chagos Request for an Advisory Opinion and Micula v Romania enforcement proceedings); developed a unique public international law advisory practice, where he works with clients on an ongoing and long-term basis to find solutions to complex legal and policy issues; represented clients in cases at all levels of the English courts (High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court); been invited to appear amicus curiae before the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court; acted for clients in arbitration proceedings under most of the major arbitral rules (e.g. ICC, UNCITRAL, LCIA); acted against States in arbitration enforcement proceedings before the English Courts, and acted for private parties in arbitration-related court proceedings; acted for Governments, opposition groups and private parties during multiple high stakes international negotiations, peace processes and cases before the UN (e.g. Sudan’s peace process and the Syrian peace process; cases before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, UN Special Rapporteurs and Universal Periodic Reviews; constitutional negotiations); and been engaged by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office to act and advise on a continuing basis as an Assistant Legal Adviser for more than three years in relation to the law of treaties, EU Withdrawal, overseas territories and the law of the sea and oceans.
Jonathan is a Visiting Lecturer in public international law at King’s College London and a Senior Legal Adviser with the Public International Law & Policy Group in Washington DC. He has published and spoken widely on international law and maintains a keen interest on the interaction between law and diplomacy.