The Peace and Justice Initiative is a network of international criminal law professionals. Our legal, investigative and military experts have experience of working in the whole spectrum of international and mixed courts and tribunals.

Our aim is to encourage the national adoption of laws under which crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes can be prosecuted. Our ultimate goal is universal national implementation of the ICC Statute.

The Peace and Justice Initiative is a network of international criminal law professionals, comprising:

• lawyers
• investigators and analysts
• military experts and analysts
• academics

International criminal law has undergone rapid growth in recent years through the work of the ad hoc Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda (ICTY and ICTR), the International Criminal Court (ICC) and mixed and other tribunals and courts such as those in Cambodia and Sierra Leone. The Peace and Justice Initiative harnesses the collective experience of the professionals, who have conducted the investigation, analysis and legal proceedings in these fora. That experience and the studies of academics in this field are focused on enabling effective national prosecutions of crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.

Adam Fletcher has undergraduate degrees in arts (majoring in French) and law, and is currently completing a Master of Public and International Law degree at the University of Melbourne.  Before joining the APT in September 2009, he worked in private practice on refugee cases, then for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Australian Government’s Office of International Law in the Attorney-General's Department.

Emily Farell is a Program Associate in the Education Program at The Advocates for Human Rights. Ms. Farell received a Masters Degree in International Human Rights from American University in Washington, D.C. and a B.A. in International Development from the University of Minnesota. Ms. Farell has worked in the field of human rights education and advocacy for the past 10 years. As an educator and community organizer, Ms. Farell has designed and facilitated trainings for a variety of age groups on peace and conflict resolution, racism, the global economy, poverty, social justice, and human rights. As a practitioner, Ms. Farell has spent time in both India and Thailand working with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on women’s rights, human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, micro-credit enterprise and reproductive health. For the U.S. State Department, Ms. Farell served as writer and editor for the 2006 Human Rights Report on human rights violations in Burma and Thailand.

Jarwlee Tweh Geegbe is the Executive Director of one of Liberia's fore-runners of Prison/penal reform, Anti-torture advocacy, the Rescue Alternatives Liberia. Mr. Geegbe has over 15 years of advocacy of prisoners' rights and anti-torture in Liberia. He led RAL and other civil society organizations to have Liberia ratified the UNCAT and OPCAT and other international instruments in 2004.

Now he is leading RAL and other CSOs in domesticating the UNCAT and OPCAT in Liberia through the National Legislature, "Making Torture a Crime" under the Liberian law.

Michele Garnett McKenzie is the Director of Advocacy at The Advocates for Human Rights, responsible for policy advocacy and community and coalition engagement around The Advocates' priority issues. She received her J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School and her B.A. from Macalester College. Ms. McKenzie has worked extensively in the area of the rights of refugees and migrants. She joined the staff of The Advocates in 1999 as a staff attorney representing asylum seekers and immigration detainees and in 2003 became the Refugee and Immigrant Program Director managing the Asylum, Detention, and Walk-In Clinic Projects in addition to legal and policy advocacy relating to immigration. Prior to joining The Advocates, Ms. McKenzie was in private immigration practice in Saint Paul, Minnesota and served as a Judicial Law Clerk for the Executive Office for Immigration Review in Arizona and Nevada. She has been an adjunct clinical faculty member of William Mitchell College of Law and the University of Minnesota Law School. Ms. McKenzie serves on the national leadership teams of the Detention Watch Network and the Immigration Advocates Network and on the advisory committee of Sarah's...An Oasis for Women, a ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet housing women in transition. She is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association and is admitted to practice in the State of Minnesota.

Madeline Lohman is a Program Associate in the Education Program at The Advocates for Human Rights, where she oversees community and school-based education related to U.S. immigration. She is also the co-author of a training on using human rights to advance social justice in the United States.  Ms. Lohman received her Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, with a focus on international human rights law and Latin America, and her B.A. in British history and literature from Harvard. Prior to joining The Advocates, Ms. Lohman worked at a variety of nonprofits, including Freedom House in Washington D.C., International Relief Teams, Human Rights Education Associates, and PACT Bolivia.

Maria (Masha) Lisitsyna is project manager on Central Asia for the Open Society Justice Initiative. The project focuses on domestic and international anti-torture litigation, international advocacy, and capacity building of local lawyers and human rights organizations. Lisitsyna recently served as a Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch focusing on civil and political rights in Turkmenistan and the rights of migrant workers in Russia and Kazakhstan. Lisitsyna cofounded and served for more than ten years as the executive director of the Youth Human Rights Group, one of the main human rights NGOs in Kyrgyzstan. In 2005, she served as a member of Kyrgyzstan’s Constitutional Council. Lisitsyna holds a JD from Kyrgyz-Russian Academy of Education.

Paul Mageean is the Director of the Graduate School for Professional Legal Education at the University of Ulster.  He qualified as a solicitor in 1991 and spent almost five years in private practice with one of Belfast’s leading criminal law firms, P.J. McGrory & Co. In 1995 Paul joined the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), Northern Ireland’s foremost human rights organisation, as their Legal Officer.  During his time at CAJ, Paul successfully brought a number of cases to the European Court of Human Rights leading to the ground-breaking judgments of Kelly v UK and Shanaghan v UK.  Paul also led CAJ’s policy work on emergency laws, criminal justice, and inquests.  Paul authored the New Tactics Tactical Notebook, International Monitoring Bodies sharing how CAJ successfully utilized shadow reports to the Committee Against Torture - one of the mechanisms available through the United Nations for monitoring governments that have signed international conventions. After a short period as Acting Director at CAJ, Paul joined the Court Service as Head of the Criminal Justice Secretariat in 2004, where he had responsibility for ensuring implementation of the relevant recommendations of the Criminal Justice Review within the Court Service.  Before taking up his current appointment, he spent three years with Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland which has a statutory remit to inspect the criminal justice agencies.  Paul has published a number of academic articles on the human rights aspects of the peace process.  He has also been involved in extensive human rights training, particularly in the Middle East.

Nicholas works as an Advocate of the High Court of Uganda and he is also a member of the Uganda Law Society and the East African Law Society. He is Nicholas also a Consulting Associate on Human Rights with Akijul Consultancy in Kampala, Uganda. He is a member of several human rights initiatives in Uganda which include among other the Coalition Against Torture and the Police Accountability Project of Human Rights Network Uganda.

Nicholas previously worked as a Policy and Advocacy Officer with the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI) where his main brief included research, treaty reporting and advocacy. He has also worked with the International Criminal Court, the Centre for Conflict Management and Peace Studies of Gulu University and the Gulu District Land Tribunal.

Among the major consultancy work that he has undertaken is the National Consultation on Agenda Item No. 3 in the Juba Peace Talks, the drafting of the Prevention of Torture Bill 2009, the establishment of the Right to Health Unit of the Uganda Human Rights Commission, drafting of the guidelines on demonstration for the Uganda Human Rights Commission and the formation of the Independent Development Fund Uganda (a CSO funding mechanism).

Currently, Nicholas is undertaking national consultation on the Uganda Police Review