2023 Peace Through Law Lecture

Bensouda Fatou

When a peace process is initiated, the question should not be about a contest between peace and justice, whether peace and justice can be sequenced or whether under certain circumstances, the ICC Prosecutor, should refrain from exerting their mandate. Rather the line of query should focus on what mechanisms can be employed to ensure that those most responsible for atrocity crimes are held accountable, in accordance with the State Parties’ obligations under the Rome Statute, while achieving lasting and viable peace and stability.

The Peace Through Law Lecture is an annual keynote lecture which explores the attainment of peace through the successful implementation of justice and the rule of law. Beyond the cessation of hostilities alone, the lecture promotes a broad definition of peace as a freedom from disturbance, discrimination, and other inequities which supports human flourishing. Each year, a distinguished legal scholar or practitioner is invited to lecture on how their scholarship and work promotes and affects the attainment of peace through law.

This year's award winner is Dr. Fatou Com Bensouda, a Gambian lawyer and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who has served as the Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom since 3 August 2022.

Bensouda served as Prosecutor from June 2012 to June 2021, after having served as a Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the Prosecutions Division of the ICC from 2004 to 2012. Before that she was Minister of Justice and Attorney General of The Gambia from 1998 to 2000. Bensouda has also held positions as a legal adviser and a trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).

Register here to attend.

This lecture series is generously sponsored by the Thomas F. Fay Peace Through Law Endowment for Excellence.