World Experts To Convene Conference On Sexual Violence As International Crime
June 2, 2009, Press releases

A Partnership of the American Bar Foundation and the University of Illinois College of Law
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lucinda Underwood
E-mail: lunderwood@abfn.org
Phone: 312.988.6573
Fax: 312.988.6579
Online: www.lexglobal.org
www.americanbarfoundation.org
WORLD EXPERTS TO CONVENE CONFERENCE ON SEXUAL VIOLENCE AS INTERNATIONAL CRIME
Luis Moreno Ocampo, International Criminal Court Prosecutor, and Navanethem
Pillay, U. N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, will keynote Hague conference
CHICAGO, IL -June 2, 2009 – The Center on Law and Globalization will convene an international conference, Sexual Violence as International Crime: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Evidence, June 16-18, The Hague, the Netherlands. The conference will be co-hosted by Center co-director John Hagan, PhD, recipient of the 2009 Stockholm Prize in Criminology, co-director Charlotte Ku, PhD, University of Illinois College of Law, in cooperation with the Grotius Center for International Legal Studies, Leiden University Campus/The Hague and The International Victimology Institute, Tilburg (INTERVICT), Tilburg University. The conference will bring together world experts on international law, global health, and social science and human rights to focus on innovations and challenges of empirical and other evidence for the prosecution of cases of sexual violence. Conference topics will include the development of evidence in relation to charges ranging from sexual slavery to crimes against humanity and genocide, procedural differences involved in prosecuting sexual victimization in domestic versus international courts, and the development of new social scientific, archival and medical data collection techniques to assist in the prosecution of these crimes.
Hagan, who is also a research professor at the American Bar Foundation and the John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Law at Northwestern University, will receive the 2009 Stockholm Prize in Criminology one week later on June 23, 2009, for his work on the causes and prevention of genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and in the Balkans. Hagan’s empirical research places the crime of mass rape in the examination of genocide and crimes against humanity.
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert’s column of May 30, 2009 addresses the crimes of rape in the precise locations at the heart of Hagan’s empirical research, refugee camps in Chad, across the border from Sudan. To access a two-part video interview of Hagan on his work on genocide and sexual violence, visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/ABFCOMM.
WHAT: Sexual Violence as International Crime: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Evidence
Organized by the Center on Law and Globalization of the American Bar Foundation and the University of Illinois College of Law, in cooperation with The Grotius Center for International Legal Studies, Leiden University Campus/The Hague and The International Victimology Institute, Tilburg (INTERVICT), Tilburg University
WHO: John Hagan, PhD, Center on Law and Globalization, American Bar Foundation, and Northwestern University
Kelly Askin, Open Society Justice Initiative
Anne-Marie de Brouwer, The International Victimology Institute Tilburg (INTERVICT), Tilburg University
Charlotte Ku, University of Illinois College of Law and Center on Law & Globalization
Terence Halliday, PhD, Center on Law and Globalization, American Bar Foundation
Carsten Stahn, Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University, The Hague
Christine Tremblay, Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University, The Hague
Larissa van den Herik, Grotius Centre of International Legal Studies, Leiden University
KEYNOTE ADDRESSES:
Luis Moreno Ocampo, Prosecutor, International Criminal Court, The Hague
Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
WHEN: June 16, 2009 3:00pm-5:00pm - Opening Session
June 17, 2009 -9:30am -5:00pm - Panels and Working Group Sessions
June 18, 2009 9:30am-5:45pm – Working Group Sessions and Closing Addresses
WHERE: June 16 Opening Session: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA); Bezuidenhoutseweg 67, The Hague. Note: Admission to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is by advance registration only. Passport required for entry.
June 17 and 18 Sessions: Aula and breakout rooms, Campus The Hague, Leiden University; Lange Voorhout 44, The Hague
The conference will have a distinct policy focus, assessing the role of new kinds of social
science evidence for criminal prosecutions. The conference will also seek to document practices that non-lawyers must confront in intervening in conflict situations.
About the Center on Law and Globalization
The Center on Law and Globalization is a Partnership of the American Bar Foundation and the University of Illinois College of Law. The Center brings together the top legal officials of international organizations, key journalists, and academic experts to understand behavioral and legal dimensions of critical global issues, to stimulate well-informed global policy choices, to advance empirical research on globalization and law and to advance the effective use of the law. To access the Center’s Smart Libraries – clustering the leading scholarship on globalization- visit www.lexglobal.org
Editors Note: Reporters are invited to attend all sessions. Please register online at grotiuscentre@campusdenhaag.nl. Please provide your email address and indicate the dates you plan to attend. Please have credentials present at all times.
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