It is IntLawGrrls' great pleasure to welcome Valerie Oosterveld (pictured right) as a guest blogger. Valerie is Assistant Professor and Director of the International Law Internship Program at the Faculty of Law of the University of Western Ontario, where she teaches International Criminal Law, International Human Rights Law and Public International Law. Valerie received her LLB from the University of Toronto and her LLM and SJD from Columbia Law School.
Valerie's expertise in international criminal law stems from her participation as a member of the Canadian delegation to the International Criminal Court negotiations and its Assembly of States Parties. She also served in the Legal Affairs Bureau of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, where she provided legal advice on international criminal accountability for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, especially with respect to the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the Sierra Leone Special Court, and other transitional justice mechanisms such as truth and reconciliation commissions. Valerie has published extensively on gender issues in international criminal law, including two articles this year, one in Human Rights Review on gender-based violence before the Special Court for Sierra Leone and one in the Canadian Yearbook of International Law on the Special Court for Sierra Leone and forced marriage, the topic of her guest blog today (related to my blog last week on the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and forced marriage).
Heartfelt welcome!
