All our best to Diane Orentlicher as she heads to State's Office of War Crimes Issues

It is IntLawGrrls' great honor to announce that one of our longtime members, Diane Orentlicher, has just started as Deputy, Office of War Crimes Issues, at the U.S. Department of State!
An internationally renowned expert in international criminal law, Diane will work with Stephen J. Rapp, the former Prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone who assumed his duties as Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues at the beginning of September. (prior post) She'll be an integral player in the work of the office, which, as stated on its website:
► "advises the Secretary of State directly and formulates U.S. policy responses to atrocities committed in areas of conflict and elsewhere throughout the world";
► "coordinates U.S. Government support for war crimes accountability in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Iraq, and other regions where crimes have been committed against civilian populations on a massive scale"; and
► "works closely with other governments, international institutions, and non-government organizations, and with the courts themselves, to see that international and domestic war crimes tribunals succeed in their efforts to bring those responsible for such crimes to justice."
Diane will be leaving her position as Professor of International Law and Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Washington College of the Law, American University, Washington D.C., which has posted on her appointment here. She's also served inter alia on the boards of the Open Society Justice Initiative and (along with IntLawGrrl Beth Hillman and yours truly) of the National Institute of Military Justice. Diane served as an independent expert on combating impunity by September 2004 appointment of then-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
We at IntLawGrrls will miss our colleague-turned-guest/alumna, whose transnational foremother, "Beatrice," was the inspiration for our Women at Nuremberg series. We look forward to all good things at State.
To all of us, Diane writes:

'It's been an honor to be a small part of an incredible project. I've learned so much from the smartest 'Grrls around -- and will remain an avid reader of IntLawGrrls' sensational posts.'

Heartfelt congratulations, Diane!

Go On! International prosecutors' chautauqua

(Go On! is an occasional item on symposia of interest.) The meaty topic to be addressed at an August 29 discussion at New York's Chatauqua Institution is "The Laws of War: Past, Present, and Future". Featured is a stellar panel of men who've served as prosecutors in international criminal tribunals; in order of tribunal seniority, they are:
►International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg: Whitney Harris, Henry King
►International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia: David Tolbert
►International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: Hassan Jallow
►International Criminal Court: Luis Moreno-Ocampo
►Special Court for Sierra Leone: David M. Crane, Desmond DeSilva, Stephen Rapp
►Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: Robert Petit
Moderating the event, whose cosponsors include the American Society of International Law, will be a number of international criminal law experts. Among them is our colleague Leila Nadya Sadat. She's the only woman on the program, though women've worked on the prosecution in all these jurisdictions. One is Cecilia Goetz (above), among a number of women prosecutors at Nuremberg. Learning more about them is, thanks to our own Beatrice, an ongoing IntLawGrrls quest. (More on Goetz' colleagues -- IntLawGrrls Women at Nuremberg series --begins tomorrow.)
Understood that U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, once Chief Prosecutor at the ad hoc tribunals, and her successor, Carla del Ponte, might be tad busy these days. But perhaps future sessions -- with luck, this "International Humanitarian Law Dialog" will become an annual event -- will feature them or others who might add insights to what promises to be a powerful dialogue.