Focal Points
The ICCBA Executive Council has appointed Regional and Thematic Focal Points to conduct outreach activities on behalf of the ICCBA within each Focal Point’s area of responsibility.
The mandate of ICCBA focal points includes:
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Explaining the role of the ICCBA to List Counsel and Support Staff.
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Offering expert advice to the Executive Council.
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Explaining the benefits of joining the ICCBA as a Full, Associate or Affiliate Member to eligible individuals.
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Explaining the work and jurisdiction of the ICC to legal professionals in the region in question.
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Serving as a local conduit between the association, and List Counsel and ICCBA members, to convey suggestions, concerns and/or recommendations List Counsel and members may have regarding the work of the ICCBA.
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Where required, to assist the ICCBA President and Executive counsel in liaising with national bar associations.
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Providing recommendations to the ICCBA President on the training needs of local counsel and on other relevant issues in the region in question.
If you would like to contact any focal point, please send an email to: focalpoints@iccba-abcpi.org
Regional Focal Points
AFRICAN STATES
Yaré Fall
I was sworn in to the Bar of Senegal on March 9, 1990. This long experience allowed me to familiarize myself with the different legal systems and instruments of the world. In addition to my registration on the ICC List of Counsel, I am also registered on the List of Counsel for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. In addition, I am a Member of the Executive Council of the Coalition for an African Court and President of the Senegalese Section of Avocats-Sans Frontières. I was Vice-President of the Senegalese League of Human Rights and representative of counsel on the Advisory Committee of the Court. I also led one of the teams of lawyers, before the Extraordinary African Chambers. I have also been duty counsel on many occasions, in the situation of Côte d'Ivoire and Burundi. In addition to having participated in practically all the training sessions organized by the Registry for Counsel, I was also part of the team of Expert Trainers twice, at the sessions held in Arusha and The Hague, in the months of February and June 2016. Finally, I am currently part of the LRV team in the Central Africa II case.
ASIA-PACIFIC STATES
Rangajeeva Wimalasena
Rangajeeva Wimalasena has been a judicial officer for the last twenty years in three commonwealth jurisdictions in the Asia Pacific region. He started his career in 1999 as a Prosecutor in Sri Lanka and later joined the bench in 2003 as a Magistrate. Having served as a Magistrate as well as a District Court Judge in Sri Lanka he joined the Fiji Judiciary in 2009. He was appointed a judge of the High Court of Fiji in 2018 and was the first judge of the Anti-corruption Division of the High Court of Fiji. He is currently serving as a Justice of Appeal in the Court of Appeal in Nauru, which is the apex court. Apart from his judicial career, he is serving as a director and board member in a number of not-for-profit organizations in Australia on pro bono basis. He is also the Chair of Queensland Child Protection Advocates Group. He is an accredited mediator by the Singapore and Fiji Mediation Centers. His educational background includes a Master of Laws in International human rights, Children’s and women’s rights and a Bachelor of Laws. He also has a Graduate Certificate in Policy and Governance from Queensland University of Technology.
EASTERN EUROPEAN STATES
Silvia Berbec
Silvia Antoaneta Berbec is a lawyer at the Bucharest Bar, Romania, since 2008. She has experience in the field of public international law, international protection of human rights and criminal law. She has experience in litigation before national and international courts. She completed traineeships at the United Nations, the European Parliament, the Court of Justice of the European Union, visiting professional at the International Criminal Court (Pre-Trial Division). Mrs. Berbec works also as a consultant for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) on legal matters related to the situation of unaccompanied and separated children displaced from Ukraine. Since 2011, she also holds the position of president of the Association Pro Refugiu, a non-governmental organisation based in Bucharest, whose mission is to promote and protect the rights of victims of crime, asylum seekers and refugees. Mrs. Berbec is frequently involved in the coordination of European legal projects implemented in partnership with organisations and institutions from the member states of the European Union.
LATIN AMERICAN STATES AND CARIBBEAN STATES
Juan Carlos Manríquez
Chilean Lawyer, with 30 years of experience, Professor of Economic Criminal Law, Litigation, Cybercrimes, Data Protection and Privacy in Criminal Proceedings, and International Criminal Law in Universidad Catolica de Chile (LLM) and Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso (Chile). Lecturer and Speaker in different Congress and Doctoral and Magister Programs in Chile, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Spain, etc. Litigator, LLM (California Western School of Law, San Diego, USA, 2016); Specialist in Economic and Corporates Criminal Law (Universidad Castilla – La Mancha, Spain, 2011); Advanced Diploma in International Criminal Law and before the International Courts (The Syracuse Institute, Italy, 2018); Legal Advisor for Senate and Deputies Chamber in Chile. Former President of Valparaiso Bar Association (many periods), Chile. Full member of ICCBA, and Counsel before ICC – CPI (admitted in 2018), Member of AFBA, Member of Privacy Rules International.
WESTERN EUROPEAN AND OTHER STATES
Paolo Iorio
Paolo Iorio is member of the Bar of Rome, since 1978 and counsel at the ICC since 2011. He is specialised in international and comparative criminal law. He dealt with many cases all over the Europe and world. In 2005 he was appointed by British Government to. deal with the extradition case regarding the terroristic attack in tube station in London. He taught comparative criminal law a indenture professor for 12 years at the Luiss University in Rome as well as Roma 3 University for one year. He has published 14 books on international and criminal comparative law. As member of the International Authority of Anti-corruption association he gave lectures at the National Procuratorate Office in Beijing.
Thematic Focal Points
GENDER EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
Noor Azab
A lawyer for 22 years, I studied law at Jerash Private University, a Master’s degree in Women’s Studies at the University of Jordan, and I am currently completing my PhD in Philosophy at the University of Jordan. I work in addition to the legal profession as a consultant to represent victims at the International Criminal Court, and the President of the E.A.F.U Association for "Justice and Equality". Governments, international organizations, and civil society organizations seek to reduce the gender gap between the two sexes in all fields in order to achieve equality and the enjoyment of every individual's right, regardless of his gender, race, or religion. Therefore, I believe that all members of society should enjoy equal rights before the law and in all parts of society, and the necessity Work to change traditional ideas and societal stereotypes that support discrimination around the world. We must work to raise awareness of acceptance of the other, diversity in society and human nature, respect the privacy of the other, guarantee freedoms through legal means, and introduce legislation and laws that raise the percentage of protection for freedoms, the lives of individuals, and equality among them.
SEXUAL AND GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
Regina Weiss
Regina is a human rights barrister based in Tasmania, Australia, where her domestic civil practice as counsel principally relates to historical sexual and serious physical institutional abuse of minors and other vulnerable persons. From 2007 to 2016, Regina was an ICC prosecution lawyer in the formative years of the Court, where she worked on cases emanating from Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo amongst others. She prosecuted war crimes and crimes against humanity including sexual and gender-based violence in the context of large-scale atrocities, worked in situ with victims and witnesses of SGBV and has appeared as prosecution counsel before the Pre-Trial and Trial Chambers of the ICC. Prior to her call to the Bar, Regina held senior legal positions in the Australian Federal Government. Regina is also Chair of the Australian Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Committee in Tasmania and an advisory board member of the Hague Justice Portal.