The Past, Present, and Future of the Palestine Investigation at the ICC

On May 20th, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan KC, announced that his Office had applied for arrest warrants against three senior Hamas leaders and two high-ranking Israeli government officials. This talk, which is based on Kevin Heller's role as Special Adviser on War Crimes to the Prosecutor, will discuss the past, present, and future of the investigation in Palestine. He will explain what a Special Adviser does, provide a history of the Palestine investigation, discuss the arrest-warrant applications, and offer a few thoughts for what the future might hold for the warrants and the investigation more generally. The event will draw on Prof. Heller’s expertise and involvement in the Palestine investigation to inform us all about the process and what we can expect from here.

Professor Kevin Jon Heller is Professor of International Law and Security, University of Copenhagen, Department of Political Science (Centre for Military Studies). He has been involved in the practice of international law throughout his career, most notably acting as one of Radovan Karadzic's formally-appointed legal associates at the ICTY; serving as the plaintiffs’ sole expert witness in Salim v Mitchell, a successful Alien Tort Statute case against the psychologists who designed and administered the CIA’s torture program; functioning as UNITAD’s Special Expert for International Criminal and Humanitarian Law, where he designed training programmes for the Iraqi judges, prosecutors, and investigators involved in Da’esh trials; and acting as legal advisor to and expert witness for Ramzi bin al-Shibh, who was one of the defendants in the 9/11 trial at Guantanamo Bay.

As Special Advisor on War Crimes to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Prof Heller has worked on the current Palestine Investigation, including the recent decision of the Prosecutor to seek arrest warrants for senior Israeli and Hamas leaders.

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