Professor Guénaël Mettraux

The prestigious human rights expert is a judge of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and presiding member of the EU’s Human Rights Review Panel, as well as a defence lawyer who has appeared before international criminal jurisdictions.

Over the past decade, he has represented several high-ranking military and civilian leaders accused of international crimes, including General Sefer Halilović, Ljube Boškoski, General Ante Gotovina and Assad Hassan Sabra.

Professor Mettraux also acts as a consultant before the International Criminal Court in cases such as Prosecutor v Jean-Pierre Bemba, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in cases such as The Prosecutor v Mico Stanišić, and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for former head of state Khieu Samphan.

As well as publishing extensively in the field of international criminal law, he is a professor of law at Penn State Dickinson Law, a guest lecturer at Sciences Po Paris, and a guest lecturer at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.

Commenting on his appointment by NUIG, Professor Mettraux said: “I feel extremely honoured and privileged to be given the opportunity to contribute to an institution that has done so much to keep the light of human rights alive in an increasingly complicated time.

“I hope to contribute to a new generation of young women and men committed to the ideals of human rights.”