The Collaborative Approach: Combatting Conflict through Cooperation

Professor Aziza Ahmed is an internationally renowned expert in health law, criminal law and human rights. Her scholarship examines the legal, regulatory and political environments regarding health in US domestic law, US foreign policy, and international law. She teaches Property Law, Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights, and International Health Law: Governance, Development and Rights. Professor Ahmed has been selected as a fellow with the Program in Law and Public Affairs (LAPA) at Princeton University for 2017-2018. She is combining a sabbatical and her fellowship, spending the academic year developing her work on law, feminism and science into a book with particular emphasis on how women’s health advocates shaped the AIDS response. She has also written extensively about abortion and reproductive health. Professor Ahmed’s scholarship has appeared in the University of Miami Law Review, American Journal of Law and Medicine, University of Denver Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Boston University Law Review (online) and the American Journal of International Law (online), among other journals.

Diane Marie Amann is the Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center at the University of Georgia School of Law, and also, in Spring 2021, Visiting Professor of Law at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. She has served since 2012 as the International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Special Adviser on Children in & affected by Armed Conflict. On October 1, 2020, Professor Amann and four co-plaintiffs filed suit in federal court in Manhattan to block, on First Amendment and statutory grounds, an Executive Order targeting ICC personnel; a preliminary injunction issued in January of this year. Professor Amann’s scholarship examines international criminal justice, human and child rights, constitutional law, and security governance. Keenly interested in women as creators and shapers of international law, Professor Amann researches the roles they played – as lawyers and legal aides, journalists and artists, interpreters and translators – in post-World War II proceedings. Her book on women at the Nuremberg trial before the International Military Tribunal is under contract with Oxford University Press.

Olympia Bekou is Professor of Public International Law and Head of the School of Law at the University of Nottingham. A qualified lawyer, she specializes in international criminal law. Professor Bejou has undertaken numerous capacity-building missions, including in post-conflict situations (such as Colombia, the DRC, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Uganda), has provided legislation drafting assistance to Samoa (with legislation enacted in November 2007) and Jamaica, and has been involved in training the Thai judiciary. She is Deputy Director of the Case Matrix Network a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for International Law Research and Policy (CILRAP), and Editor of the Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher (TOAEP). She is also a member of the Executive Board of Civitas Maxima. Professor Bejou is responsible for the National Implementing Legislation Database (NILD) of the ICC Legal Tools Project, the creator of the Cooperation and Judicial Assistance Database (CJAD),and has taught extensively worldwide. In 2014, she was awarded the University of Nottingham Knowledge Exchange and Innovation Award for Societal Impact in Social Sciences for her work and in 2015-2016 she was recognised as an Impact Leader as part of ESRC’s impact leaders programme.

Eric Friedman is the Global Health Justice Scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center's O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law in Washington, DC. He focuses on global health and human rights, promoting the right to health through scholarship and several initiatives, and centers his efforts around equity, empowerment, and accountability. Mr. Friedman is a member of the Executive Committee of the Framework Convention on Global Health Alliance, advocating for a global health treaty that is based on the right to health and aimed at closing health inequities, and serves on the Sustainable Health Equity Movement steering committee. Previously, he was Senior Global Health Policy Advisor at Physicians for Human Rights, where his policy advocacy work addressed health systems, the global shortage of health workers, and HIV/AIDS. While at Physicians for Human Rights, Mr. Friedman also served on the Board of the Global Health Workforce Alliance and chaired the Health Workforce Advocacy Initiative. He holds a law degree from Yale Law School.

Larry Gbevlo-Lartey is Founder and current Chairman of the Human Security Research Centre, a non-profit civil society organization based in Accra. His research interests are in the areas of national stability, operational planning, human security and the prevention of violent extremism. From 2016 to 2020, he worked for the African Union Commission as the Special Representative for Counter-Terrorism Cooperation and Director of the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT) which is located in Algiers, Algeria. Mr. Gbevlo-Lartey is a visiting lecturer at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre in Accra. He holds a bachelor’s degree in administration and a master’s degree in international affairs both from the University of Ghana, Legon. He is a barrister-at-law, a certified mediator, and arbitrator. He is also a graduate of the Ghana Armed Forces Senior Command and Staff College.

Paul Gumagay is Acting Deputy Director at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of International Affairs (OIA). He is responsible for all legal and policy issues relating to international enforcement assistance, technical assistance, regulatory policy, and supervisory cooperation. Previously, Mr. Gumagay was Counsel to the Director of OIA. Before joining the Director’s Office, he was Senior Special Counsel in OIA, where his work focused on cross-border enforcement cooperation and assistance, legal policy, and technical assistance. Mr. Gumagay was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Working Group on Bribery at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Prior to joining OIA, he served as Counsel to an SEC Commissioner. In that role, he advised the Commissioner on legal and policy issues relating to SEC enforcement actions, rulemakings, adjudications, whistleblower initiatives, and international issues. Paul also negotiated rulemakings relating to derivatives, crowdfunding, proprietary trading, disclosure rules for investment companies, and others.

Dr. Steven J. Hoffman is the Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology and a Professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science at York University, the Director of the Global Strategy Lab, the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance, and the Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Population & Public Health at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He holds a courtesy appointment as a Professor of Health Research Methods, Evidence & Impact (Part-Time) at McMaster University. He is an international lawyer licensed in both Ontario and New York who specializes in global health law, global governance and institutional design. His research leverages various methodological approaches to craft global strategies that better address transnational health threats and social inequalities. Past studies have focused on access to medicines, antimicrobial resistance, health misinformation, pandemics and tobacco control.

Seamus Hughes is the Deputy Director of the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. He is an expert on terrorism, homegrown violent extremism, and countering violent extremism (CVE). Professor Hughes has authored numerous reports for the program including “ISIS in America: From Retweets to Raqqa” and “The Travelers: American Jihadists in Syria and Iraq.” He regularly provides commentary to media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, CNN, MSNBC, FoxNews, BBC, PBS, and CBS’ 60 Minutes. He has testified before the U.S. Congress on multiple occasions. Professor Hughes previously worked at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), serving as a lead staffer on U.S. government efforts to implement a national CVE strategy. He regularly led engagements with Muslim American communities across the country, provided counsel to civic leaders after high-profile terror-related incidents, and met with families of individuals who joined terrorist organizations.

Michael H. Huneke is a partner in the Anti-Corruption & Internal Investigations practice group at Hughes Hubbard & Reed. Mr. Huneke advises clients on the navigation and resolution of multi-jurisdictional criminal or Multi-Lateral Development Bank anti-corruption investigations, assisting companies subject to post-resolution monitorships or other commitments, designing and executing risk-based strategies for due diligence on third parties, conducting pre- and post-acquisition anti-corruption due diligence and integration, and the design and implementation of compliance risk assessments, compliance program enhancements, and second-level controls. Mr. Huneke was recently one of four Hughes Hubbard attorneys to receive Global Investigations Review's "Most Important Development in the Practice or Law of International Investigations" 2020 award on behalf of the firm and its Anti-Corruption & Internal Investigations team for his representation of Airbus in its historic settlement to successfully resolve bribery and corruption allegations. He is also the co-author of the treatise Anti-Corruption Law and Compliance: Guide to the FCPA and Beyond (Bloomberg BNA, with Kevin Abikoff and John Wood).

John H. Knox is the Henry C. Lauerman Professor of International Law at Wake Forest University. Between 2012 and 2018, he served as the first UN independent expert, then the first special rapporteur, on the human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment. In that capacity, he conducted regional consultations, carried out country visits, and issued a series of reports clarifying the application of human rights law to environmental issues. His mandate culminated with the presentation to the United Nations of Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment in March 2018, and a report later that year urging the UN to recognize the human right to a healthy environment. Professor Knox graduated from Stanford Law School in 1987. He worked at the U.S. Department of State and a private law firm before he became a professor at Penn State University in 1998. He joined Wake Forest in 2006. Between 1999 and 2005, he chaired a national advisory committee to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and from 2008 to 2012, he was special counsel to the Center for International Environmental Law.

Daniel Magraw is an international lawyer with experience in international law; institutions; processes and policies, particularly relating to environmental protection; dispute settlement; investment; and human rights, including climate change and environmental justice. He is Professorial Lecturer and Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and President Emeritus of the Center for International Environmental Law. Professor Magraw teaches international environmental law and policy at SAIS, as well as human rights and environment at the University of Miami School of Law. He has worked in government, nongovernmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, business, and academia, in the United States and abroad. Professor Magraw serves as a consultant to the United Nations regarding environment, human rights and investment.

Michael Matheson has been teaching at the George Washington University Law School since 2002 and has taught at the law school's program at Oxford University. Prior to 2002, he directed the international law program at the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University and was a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has taught courses on public international law, international criminal law, the law of armed conflict, U.S. foreign relations law, and conflict resolution. He has published books on the UN Security Council, on international humanitarian law, and on international tribunals; and has also published numerous articles and other pieces. Mr. Matheson served for four years as a member of the UN International Law Commission, and as Director of Studies of the Hague Academy of International Law. He has argued and briefed many cases before international tribunals, including a number before the International Court of Justice. He has testified on many occasions before Congressional committees.

James R. May is Distinguished Professor of Law, Founder of the Global Environmental Rights Institute, and co-Founder of the Dignity Rights Project and the Environmental Rights Institute at Widener University Delaware Law School, where he has served as the H. Albert Young Fellow in Constitutional Law. At Widener University, he has served on the President’s Executive Team, and as inaugural Chief Sustainability Officer, co-chair of the University Sustainability Council, Adjunct Professor of Graduate Engineering, and Phi Kappa Phi inductee. Professor May has taught 20 courses, founded or co-founded three law centers, four non-profit environmental organizations and a joint degree program, directed an environmental law clinic, and held numerous visiting appointments. He is a former national defense engineer and litigator who has prosecuted hundreds of public interest claims in federal court. Professor May serves as the Special Representative on Environmental and Nature Rights for the International Council of Environmental Law, and as a member of the Global Pandemic Network, the World Commission on Environmental Law, and the Normandy Chair for Peace.

Patricia Viseur Sellers is an international criminal lawyer. She is the Special Advisor for Gender for the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Ms. Sellers is a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College of the University of Oxford where she teaches international criminal law and human rights law. She is a Practicing Professor at London School of Economics and a Senior Research Fellow at the Human Rights Center of the University of California, Berkeley. She was the Legal Advisor for Gender, Acting Head of the Legal Advisory Section and a prosecutor at the Yugoslav (ICTY) Tribunal from 1994-2007 and the Legal Advisor for Gender at the Rwanda Tribunal (ICTR) from 1995-1999. She developed the legal strategies and was a member of the trial teams of Akayesu, Furundzija, and Kunarac. These landmark decisions remain the pre-imminent legal standards for the interpretation of sexual violence as war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, torture and enslavement. Ms. Sellers advises governments, international institutions and civil society organisations on international criminal law and humanitarian law.

Mubin Shaikh is a former supporter of the global Jihadist culture who became an undercover operative for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Integrated National Security Enforcement Team. Mr. Shaikh worked multiple classified infiltration operations, online and on the ground. He has a Master of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism, is an external subject matter expert to international diplomatic and expert institutions, and trains police, intelligence, and special operations forces on a range of topics. Mr. Shaikh is currently a Professor in the School of Public Safety at Seneca College, and a Counter Extremism Specialist for the NGO, Parents for Peace. He is also co-author of the acclaimed book, Undercover Jihadi and is featured in a permanent exhibit at the new International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, under, “Preventing Terror.”

Professor Dinah Shelton is the Manatt/Ahn Professor emeritus at the George Washington University Law School. She served as a member of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (2010-2014) and 2010 she was president of the Commission. Professor Shelton is the author of three prize-winning books, Protecting Human Rights in the Americas (co-authored with Thomas Buergenthal), Remedies in International Human Rights Law, and the three-volume Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity. She has also authored other articles and books on international law, human rights law, and international environmental law. Professor Shelton is a member of the board of editors of the American Journal of International Law. She has served as a legal consultant to international organizations and is on the board of numerous human rights and environmental organizations. In 2006, Professor Shelton was awarded the Elisabeth Haub Prize for Environmental Law and 2013 she received the Goler Butcher Prize in Human Rights; she was conferred the degree of doctor honoris causa at the University of Stockholm in 2012 and the Pazmany Peter Catholic University of Budapest in 2014.

As Director of National Security Advocacy at Human Rights First, Rita Siemion advocates for national security and counterterrorism policies that respect human rights and the rule of law. She is an expert in the intersecting legal frameworks that govern counterterrorism operations at home and abroad, including the law of armed conflict, international human rights law, and state sovereignty law. She leads the organization’s effort to ensure that US national security policies comply with these bodies of international law as well as with domestic law limitations on the authority to use force and conduct war. Ms. Siemion is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and Associate Adjunct Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law. She teaches courses on covert action, targeted killing, the law of armed conflict, and international human rights law in the national security and counterterrorism context. Before joining Human Rights First, Rita worked on a range of national security issues as Senior Counsel at The Constitution Project, including surveillance and privacy rights in the digital age, and spent several years in private practice litigating civil and human rights matters.

Professor Andy Spalding teaches and writes in the area of international anti-corruption law. He is a member of the Frequent Visiting Faculty at the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) in Austria, Senior Editor of “The FCPA Blog,” and was the founding President of the American Society of International Law’s Anti-Corruption Interest Group. As Chair of the Olympics Compliance Task Force, Professor Spalding collaborates with a team of international academics and practitioners, and with the International Olympic Committee, to design and promote Olympic host-country anti-corruption and human rights measures. Professor Spalding writes principally in two areas: international anti-bribery law; and corruption and human rights in mega sports. His anti-bribery research focuses on the causes and effects of uneven global enforcement; the impact of current enforcement on bribery’s victims, especially in developing countries; the universality of the anti-corruption ethic; and whether freedom from corruption should be understood as a human right.

Jessica Tillipman is the Assistant Dean for Government Procurement Law Studies and Government Contracts Advisory Council Professorial Lecturer in Government Contracts Law, Practice & Policy. She also teaches Anti-Corruption & Compliance, a course that focuses on anti-corruption, ethics, and compliance issues in government procurement. Prior to joining GW Law, Dean Tillipman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lawrence S. Margolis of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims and was an associate at Jenner & Block, where she specialized in Government Contracts and White-Collar Criminal Defense. Dean Tillipman is a Senior Editor of the “The FCPA Blog”—a leading Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resource on the internet. She has also published numerous articles that address legal and policy issues involving anti-corruption, government procurement, white-collar crime, and government ethics law.

Liza Vertinsky is an Associate Professor at Emory School of Law, an Emory Global Health Institute Faculty Fellow, and Project Leader for the Emory Global Health Law & Policy Project. She came to Emory in 2007 after a decade of legal practice focusing on intellectual property transactions in the biomedical industry and university technology transfer. Her areas of expertise include biomedical innovation, the intersection of IP and global health, public health law, law & economics, and the regulation of healthcare markets and technologies. Professor Vertinsky’s research program is motivated by a deep interest in how legal rules influence the ways in which individuals and groups organize their economic activities. She is particularly interested in exploring the institutional environments within which alternative forms of intellectual production take place, with a focus on biomedical innovation, innovations in global health, and the intersection of artificial intelligence, innovation, and competition. Professor Vertinsky clerked for Judge Stanley Marcus, first for the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida and then for the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She received a BA from Oxford University, a JD from Harvard Law School, an MA in economics from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD in economics from Harvard University.