Justice and Accountability Network Australia (JANA) Annual Report Launch

Annual Report Launch: 'Universal Jurisdiction in Australia’ with Keynote by US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, Beth Van Schaack.

Justice and Accountability Network Australia (JANA)) HYBRID EVENT (in person and online)

How can Australia play a bigger role in accountability for those suspected of atrocity crimes? How can we draw upon global best practices to pursue accountability for atrocity crimes committed abroad through domestic Australian processes, like exercising universal jurisdiction and mutual legal assistance (MLA)? 

Australia has played a key role in establishing and supporting international criminal tribunals and mechanisms abroad. Yet, we also have an opportunity to contribute to accountability at home through local processes and in support of the Australian Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), which defines many of the core crimes, including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes (Division 268) and torture (Division 274).  

This event commences with a presentation from Ambassador Van Schaak highlighting how the international community can contribute to accountability processes using domestic systems, and cooperative mechanisms, through the prism of the Ukraine example. 

It also launches the inaugural Annual Report by Justice and Accountability Network Australia (JANA), titled 'Universal Jurisdiction in Australia'. It highlights a global perspective on how Australia is tracking, particularly in view of evolving global practices to bolster accountability at a time when international criminal tribunals are winding down, atrocity crimes go largely unpunished, and states increasingly play a more active role in the accountability process at home. 

From the ongoing atrocities in Ukraine to Myanmar, the event examines Australia's role in the global context, asks what actors contribute to accountability practices, and reflects upon how Australia can continue to draw upon global best practice for atrocity crimes accountability in the domestic context?

Keynote Speaker 

Ambassador (Professor) Beth Van Schaack, United States Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice, State Department.

Chair Professor Rain Liivoja, Deputy Dean (Research) at the University of Queensland Law School, where he leads the Law and the Future of War research group.

Panel members

• Professor Kevin Jon Heller, Special Advisor to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on War Crimes, and Professor of International Law and Security at the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for Military Studies.
• Dr Lauren Saunders CSC, is Co-Director of JANA and Adjunct Associate Professor with the the University of Queensland Law School. Lauren has spent over 20 years with the Australian Army as a signals officer and legal officer, and has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor, and is an academic and legal practitioner specialising in international humanitarian law and accountability processes and practices.
• Bob Reid AM, is a Co-Director of JANA. Previously, Bob worked for nearly 25 years in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, (ICTY), and between 1987 and 1992 was seconded to the Special Investigations Unit of the Federal Attorney-General's Office to investigate persons who entered Australia in the late 1940's-early 1950's and were alleged to have collaborated in war crimes with the Nazi regime during World War II. 
• Dr Melinda Rankin, Co-Director of JANA, Research Fellow at The University of Queensland, and author of De facto International Prosecutors in a Global Era (Cambridge University Press). She is an international expert in global practices of universal jurisdiction and the influence of non-state actors and civil society in accountability processes. 

This event is co-hosted with the Law School and the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect at the University of Queensland, and the Justice and Accountability Network Australia (JANA).