Expert Roundtable:

Exploring the Nexus Between Constitution-Drafting and Transitional Justice

Event Description

Join PILPG and partners on November 18 from 12 pm to 1 pm EDT for a conversation with experts regarding the best practices in incorporating transitional justice in constitution-drafting processes.

This event is part of an ongoing project by the Global Initiative for Justice, Truth and Reconciliation to enhance the synergies between transitional justice and constitution-drafting in order to support stronger outcomes for durable peace. As recognized by scholars and practitioners, transitional justice and constitution-drafting often have similar goals for achieving a transformed post-conflict society, ensuring adequate space for reform, promoting healing and justice through the creation of institutions, and solidifying norms and arenas for dialogue. However, more often than not, the two processes are envisioned as distinct tracks, not as synergistic components of peacebuilding.

During this event, speakers will discuss challenges in integrating transitional justice into constitution-drafting processes, highlight lessons learned from various country examples, and provide recommendations to how local actors may best enhance the synergy between transitional justice and constitution-drafting within their country contexts. This event will be moderated by PILPG President Paul Williams.

This is part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes periodic expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and atrocity crimes prosecution. This event is co-sponsored by the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC), the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), and the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI).

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Speakers

**Kora Andrieu**

Kora Andrieu is a transitional justice expert specialized in transitional justice, conflict resolution and reconciliation. She has directly worked for the operationalization of transitional justice and reconciliation processes and mechanisms in Tunisia, South Africa, Libya and Mali.
She worked 3 years for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Tunisia and 2 years for the United Nations Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), assisting government institutions, judicial sector and civil society organizations to design, frame and monitor transitional justice mechanisms dealing with rehabilitating victims of past gross human rights violations including through reparations programs, truth-seeking and inquiry commissions, and specialized judicial chambers. As a Political Officer for the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), for 3years, she designed supported the implementation, managing and monitoring of a national reconciliation program for Libya funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund, that included conducting a series of local mediation and dialogue processes, and that led to the signing of local peace agreements in more than 8 localities, and to the development of a comprehensive strategy for national reconciliation in Libya. She was the main drafter of the final report of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission in Mali.
Kora worked for the past 3.5 years for the American Bar Associatoin Rule of Law Initiative in Libya, implementing programs on transitional justice, local reconciliation, and psychosocial support to victims.
Kora has previously worked in South Africa with the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, supporting victims of apartheid in their advocacy efforts for rehabilitation and reparations, as well as with the International Center for Transitional Justice in New York, and with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was a senior consultant for various institutions such as the United Nations Development Program, Impunity Watch, Lawyers without Borders, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GiZ).

She is the author of various articles on transitional justice, including: “Confronting the Dictatorial Past in Tunisia: Human Rights and the Politics of Victimhood in Transitional Justice Discourses in Tunisia since 2011”, *Human Rights Quarterly*, 38 (2016), 261-293; “Political Liberalism in Transition: John Rawls and ‘a Theory’ of Transitional Justice”, in *Transitional Justice Theories,* Friederike Mieke and Suzanne Buckley, ed., Routledge, 2012; “Dealing with a New Grievance: Should Corruption be Part of the Transitional Justice Agenda Too?” *Journal of Human Rights,* vol. 11, No. 4, 2012; “An Unfinished Business: Transitional Justice and Memorialization in Post-Soviet Russia”, *The International Journal of Transitional Justice*, vol. 5, No. 2, July 2011; “Civilizing Peacebuilding: Transitional Justice, Civil Society and the Liberal Paradigm”, *Security Dialogue,* 41 (3), September 2010; “Sorry for the Genocide: How Public Apologies can Help National Reconciliation”, *Millennium Journal of International Studies*, 42, 2009.
Kora is also the author of two books on transitional justice: *La justice transitionnelle. De l’Afrique du Sud au Rwanda,* Paris, Gallimard, coll. “Folio”, 2012, and *Quelle justice pour les peuples en transition? Démocratiser, Pacifier, Réconcilier* (with Geoffroy Lauvau), Paris, Presses de la Sorbonne, 2014, as well as an upcoming novel on victims’ memories of the past in Tunisia.

**Tom Cornell**

Tom Cornell is an associate (barrister) in Debevoise LLP’s International Dispute Resolution Group, resident in London. His practice focuses on international arbitration and complex multi-jurisdictional litigation. He previously clerked for the Master of the Rolls and practiced from a Magic Circle firm.

Mr. Cornell represents corporate clients, sovereigns and international organizations on a range of contentious and non-contentious matters, particularly in investor-state arbitration, public international law disputes, commercial arbitrations and litigation in the English courts. He also has experience of anti-corruption, extradition and related criminal investigations, including parallel litigation in the civil courts.

As a barrister, Mr. Cornell has full rights of audience before all courts and tribunals in England & Wales. Prior to joining Debevoise, Mr. Cornell practiced at one of London’s leading barristers’ chambers and was Judicial Assistant to the Rt. Hon. Lord Dyson MR at the Court of Appeal for Easter and Trinity terms 2015. He also worked as a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Mr. Cornell graduated from Oxford University with a BA (First Class Honors) and holds an LL.M. (with Distinction) in public international law from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, where he was awarded the Blackstone Chambers Prize. In addition, Mr. Cornell previously served as a research assistant at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, where he worked on a number of national and international projects. He is fluent in English, Spanish, French and Italian.

Mr. Cornell has a particular interest in international sanctions law and since 2015 has been a guest lecturer in the subject at Lund University in Sweden. He is the author of a chapter focusing on the impact of sanctions on English-law governed contracts and English-seated arbitrations in International Arbitration in England - Perspectives in Times of Change, published by Wolters Kluwer (August, 2022) and a co-author of Sanctions Law, published by Hart Publishing (January, 2019). Other publications include “Court of Appeal Confirms Sanctions Provision Operates to Bar Recovery of Interest on Arbitral Award (Ministry of Defence & Support for Armed Forces of Islamic Republic of Iran v International Military Services Ltd),” LexisNexis Corporate Crime News (February, 2020); “The EU Blocking Regulation: compliance programmes for US and EU companies,” WorldECR (December, 2018) and “UK High Court rules on sanctions clauses in insurance contracts and considers application of the EU Blocking Regulation,” World ECR (November, 2018).

**Jonathan Worboys**
Jonathan Worboys is a barrister and Senior Legal Adviser with PILPG. His practice focuses on international litigation and advisory work across all areas of public international law. He has acted as counsel in cases before the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court and Kosovo Specialist Chambers. He has acted for Governments, opposition groups and private parties during international negotiations, mediations and cases before UN Special Procedures.

MODERATOR

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.