International Criminal Court Bar Association

Philippe Larochelle is the founder of Larochelle Avocats, www.larochelleavocats.com, a litigation boutique based in Montreal, Canada. Mr. Larochelle maintains an active practice in international criminal law since 2001, representing clients before the ICTR, the ICC and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. He has also assisted groups of victims, including before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.After obtaining genocide acquittals for his clients before the ICTR and in Canada, and the release by the ICC of his most recent client, Maxime Mokom, Mr. Larochelle practices now includes a sharp focus on neglected post-acquittals matters : relocation, compensation and review. One of his ICTR pro bono mandate is that of André Ntagerura, acquitted by the ICTR in February 2004 and still trying to find an acceptable relocation plan in 2024, 20 years later.

Paul Bradfield is a graduate of University of Galway (BA, LLB), University College Cork (LLM in Criminal Justice) and the Honorable Society of Kings Inns (Barrister-at-Law), and was called to the bar in 2009. He completed his PhD at the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway in 2021, with his thesis assessing the use of amnesty as a response to conflict in northern Uganda. Paul has worked at various international courts in both Defence and Prosecution roles, including the tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court. He is an admitted member of the ICC's List of Counsel. In the field, he has worked for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Uganda, and for Irish Rule of Law International in Malawi, on a range of transitional justice, human rights and access to justice issues. Domestically, he was previously a Prosecutor in the Central Criminal Court for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Haneen is an international criminal law practitioner from Syria; she has experience in the defence in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Kosovo Specialist Chambers. She is currently part of the defence team of Mr. Ali Abd Al Rahman as a legal assistant. Prior to her current position, she was a member of the defence teams of Mr Mokom and Mr. Al Hassan. Haneen has experience working on SGBV (UN Team of Experts on the Rule of Law and Sexual Violence), reparations, and a wide range of procedural issues related to international criminal proceedings, namely disclosure and management of evidence. Haneen is a graduate of LLM Public International Law from Leiden University and the Sorbonne.

Anta Guissé has been a practising lawyer at the Paris Bar in France since 1999. Her working language is French, while she also speaks English. As a criminal defence lawyer, she has appeared regularly before national criminal courts and the Assize Court in particular. In addition, Ms Guissé has several years of experience appearing before the international jurisdictions. Between 2002 and 2010, she worked with several different defence teams before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, firstly as a legal assistant and then as counsel. In 2010, Ms Guissé had an assignment in a team of Legal Representatives of Victims before the International Criminal Court. She was also Defence Counsel at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Since 2012, Ms Guissé has been acting as an international lawyer for former Chairman KHIEU Samphân before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and is currently Counsel for Mr. Yekatom at the ICC. Ms Guissé also regularly presents at training workshops for colleagues on the subject of international criminal justice.

Michael Herz is an international criminal lawyer with over fifteen years’ experience, including for over seven years at the OPCD of the ICC. In addition, he has worked on defence teams at the SCSL and ECCC, for the prosecution at the ICTR, and in the judicial chambers of the ICTY. He is also a door tenant at 33 Bedford Row chambers in London. Michael has been involved with the work of the ICCBA since 2017, including acting as its Secretary in 2022-23.

Audrey MATEO is currently a Legal adviser in the Defence team of Mr. Abd-Al-Rahman at the ICC. She was also an active member of the Executive Committee at the ICCBA  (2023-2024). In 1997, she completed her law studies in Aix en Provence and Montpellier, France. She then studied in Cape Town, South Africa where she obtained an LL.M. in human rights and international law at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Early in her career, at the European Commission in Brussels, she worked in the task-Force on the Future on the European Union. She then worked as a Legal officer for 10 years in Chambers at the ICTY and at the ICC in the Katanga trial. She lived two years Cambodia where she worked as both a legal and pro bono consultant for human rights NGOs and supporting victims’ lawyers before the ECCC. She was also a consultant at the at the KSC-SPO. Since 2021, Audrey works as an UNHCR judge at the Cour Nationale du droit d’ Asile in Paris, and she also gives trainings as a consultant on the prevention of sexual harassment at work. She is also an active member of the Association des Magistrats Internationaux Francophones (AMIF).

Marie-Hélène Proulx is a lawyer admitted to the Québec Bar since 2003, and a former President of the ICCBA. She is an Associate Tenant at 33 Bedford Row Chambers in London where she specialises in strategic human rights litigation. She represented several accused persons before international tribunals, including Patrice-Édouard Ngaïssona, Dominic Ongwen, Al Hassan Ag Abdoul Aziz at the ICC, and Hassan Habib Merhi before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. She was also appointed Ad Hoc Counsel at the Office of Public Counsel for the Defence and acted as Rule 74 Legal Adviser at the ICC. She acted as Counsel for Jean de Dieu Kamuhanda, and is currently a pro bono Counsel for Mr. Siméon Nchamihigo and Jean-Baptiste Gatété before the IRMCT. She also worked as a Legal Officer at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and at the ICC, Teaching Assistant at the University of Geneva and Legal Adviser at the ICRC Advisory Service on International Humanitarian Law at the Geneva Headquarters. She obtained a law degree from the Université de Montréal (Canada) as well as a LL.M from the University Centre for International Humanitarian Law (now Geneva Academy).

Gregory Townsend started as a deputy public defender in Los Angeles. In 1998, he joined the ICTR, where he clerked for a judge and worked as a prosecuting trial attorney. He later became a prosecutor for the UN peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and ICTY. He served as Head of Office for the SCSL in The Hague. He joined the STL in 2010 as chief legal advisor to the Prosecutor. From 2014 to 2018, he served as Chief of the Registry’s Court Support Services Section for ICTY & MICT, where he oversaw witness protection, court operations, judicial records and legal aid. He is a professor of international law and on the list of counsel to represent victims before the ECCC, KSC and ICC.

Since being called to the Berlin Bar, Natalie von Wistinghausen specialises in criminal law as a trial advocate and has acquired wide-ranging legal experience in domestic and international legal criminal work. She was admitted to the List of Counsel at the ICC, the KSC, the STL and the MICT. Before the ICTR, she was Legal Assistant in the defense team of former Cabinet Minister Justin Mugenzi and in Germany, she was Lead Counsel in a case against Rwandan bourgmestre Rwabukombe who was accused of charges relating to the genocide. Besides her domestic work as defense counsel, she was assigned as Co-Counsel to protect the interests and rights of one of the accused in the in absentia proceedings of at the STL. She also worked as a Senior Rule of Law expert in the UK government project „Strengthening the Judicial System in Kosovo“. Since 2019 Natalie is representing Yazidi victims in universal jurisdiction cases against alleged „ISIS“ members before Higher Regional Courts in Germany. She has also filed criminal complaints on behalf of NGOs who are representing victims of chemical attacks in Syria as well as victims of international crimes committed in Ukraine. In October 2021, she was appointed as Common Legal Representative of Victims in the case against Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman (situation in Darfur, Sudan) at the ICC.