Alexis Demirdjian

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Alexis Demirdjian
Alexis Demirdjian, April 2019.jpg
Demirdjian in 2019

Alexis Demirdjian is a Canadian attorney, currently serving as a Trial Lawyer for the Office of the Prosecutor at the ICC since 2015. He previously worked as a trial attorney at the ICTY 's Office of the Prosecutor in The Hague. [1] He was also part of the defence team of General Enver Hadzihasanovic between 2002 and 2005. He graduated from the Université du Québec à Montréal with a Masters in international law, after having completed his law degree (LL.B.) from the Université de Montréal. [2] He is a member of the Barreau du Québec (Quebec Bar) since 2003.

Contents

Professional experience

Throughout his career, Demirdjian has worked on several cases dealing with war crimes and crimes against humanity, in situations relating to leadership (both civilian and military authorities). In particular, in addition to working on the case of General Hadzihasavonic, he was part of the Prosecution trial team (at the ICTY) in the Vukovar 3 case (Mile Mrksic, Veselin Sljivancanin and Miroslav Radic), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Minister of Interior of the Serb Republic, Mico Stanisic, as well as his regional chief, Stojan Zupljanin) and Croatia (case of Goran Hadzic, Croatian Serb political leader). Since 2015, he's been part of the Prosecution trial team in the case of Laurent Gbagbo and Charles Blé Goudé at the International Criminal Court.

Publications

Demirdjian has published articles about topics dealing with international criminal law procedure as well as on the Armenian genocide. He edited and co-authored an interdisciplinary volume called The Armenian Genocide Legacy for the centennial anniversary of the Armenian genocide. [3] The book was published by Palgrave Macmillan in November 2015. [4] At the same time, Demirdjian organized an international conference to discuss the papers contained in the book which was hosted in The Hague on 5–7 March 2015. [5]

On the same topic, Demirdjian published an article in 2018 in the Journal of International Criminal Justice entitled "A Moving Defence: The Turkish State and the Armenian Genocide" dealing with the policy of denial of the Turkish government since the genocide of 1915 until present day.

Demirdjian has also published on the issue of State cooperation with international tribunals, converting part of his Masters thesis in an article published by the International Criminal Law Quarterly in 2010, entitled "Armless Giants: Cooperation, State Responsibility and Suggestions for the ICC Review Conference".

Demirdjian published a 2005 paper with Rodney Dixon, a member of Association of Defence Counsel of the ICTY, [6] about plea-bargaining at the ICTY, where they noted that defense attorneys advising clients must be extremely resourceful in exploring all possible grounds for mitigation given the broad discretionary powers of the Trial Chambers. They noted that sentence reductions were unlikely due to the serious nature of the crimes brought before the Trial Chambers, adding that in most cases, the Trial Chambers would follow the recommendations of the OTP. They identified several key "mitigating circumstances" including the resources of the tribunal, protecting the interests of the victims and a genuine admission of guilt. [7]

Teaching

Since 2011, Demirdjian has been teaching on an annual basis international criminal law, in particular on the topic of "modes of liability" during summer course programs organized by Leiden University's The Hague campus and the Asser Institute.

As of January 2019, Demirdjian is an adjunct professor at Stockton University's School of General Studies and teaches - as part of the Masters of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide - a full semester online course entitled "Genocide, International Tribunals and Courts". [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genocide</span> Intentional destruction of a people

Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part. In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia</span> 1993–2017 Netherlands-based United Nations ad hoc court

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal was an ad hoc court located in The Hague, Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crimes against humanity</span> Authoritative and systemic acts that severely violate human rights

Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic criminal acts which are committed by or on behalf of a de facto authority, usually by or on behalf of a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the context of wars, and they apply to widespread practices rather than acts which are committed by individuals. Although crimes against humanity apply to acts which are committed by or on behalf of authorities, they do not need to be part of an official policy, and they only need to be tolerated by authorities. The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place during the Nuremberg trials. Initially considered for legal use, widely in international law, following the Holocaust, a global standard of human rights was articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Political groups or states that violate or incite violations of human rights norms, as they are listed in the Declaration, are expressions of the political pathologies which are associated with crimes against humanity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International criminal law</span> Public international law

International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetration. The core crimes under international law are genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Cayley</span>

Andrew Thomas Cayley,, is an English and Welsh King’s Counsel and is His Majesty's Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service having been appointed by the Attorney General of England and Wales, Suella Braverman MP, KC on 19 January 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Command responsibility</span> Doctrine of hierarchical accountability

In the practice of international law, Command responsibility is the legal doctrine of hierarchical accountability for war crimes, whereby a commanding officer (military) and a superior officer (civil) is legally responsible for the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by his subordinates; thus, a commanding officer always is accountable for the acts of commission and the acts of omission of his soldiers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joint criminal enterprise</span> Concept in international criminal law

Joint criminal enterprise (JCE) is a legal doctrine used during war crimes tribunals to allow the prosecution of members of a group for the actions of the group. This doctrine considers each member of an organized group individually responsible for crimes committed by group within the common plan or purpose. It arose through the application of the idea of common purpose and has been applied by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to prosecute political and military leaders for mass war crimes, including genocide, committed during the Yugoslav Wars 1991–1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trial of Radovan Karadžić</span>

The Prosecutor v. Radovan Karadžić was a case before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands, concerning crimes committed during the Bosnian War by Radovan Karadžić, the former President of Republika Srpska. In 2016, Karadžić was found guilty of 10 of 11 counts of crime including war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, and sentenced to 40 years imprisonment. In 2019, the sentence was increased to life in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles A. Adeogun-Phillips</span>

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O-Gon Kwon is a noted international South Korean judge, best known for being one of the three judges in the trial of Slobodan Milošević. He also sat on the bench for the trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić.

An atrocity crime is a violation of international criminal law that falls under the historically three legally defined international crimes of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Ethnic cleansing is widely regarded as a fourth mass atrocity crime by legal scholars and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the field, despite not yet being recognized as an independent crime under international law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Morrison (barrister)</span> British judge (born 1949)

Sir Howard Andrew Clive Morrison, is a British lawyer and from 2011 to 2021 a Judge of the International Criminal Court based in The Hague, Netherlands. Currently UK advisor on war crimes to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trial of Ratko Mladić</span> 2011–2017 war crimes trial at The Hague, Netherlands, concerning the Bosnian War

The Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladić was a war crimes trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, Netherlands, concerning crimes committed during the Bosnian War by Ratko Mladić in his role as a general in the Yugoslav People's Army and the Chief of Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska.

Peter Robinson is an American lawyer who has defended political and military leaders at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunals. His clients include Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadžić, Rwandan National Assembly President Joseph Nzirorera, Yugoslav Army Chief of Staff Dragoljub Ojdanic, and the lawyer for Liberian President Charles Taylor.

James Kirkpatrick Stewart is a Canadian lawyer with over thirty years of experience as Crown counsel handling criminal trials and appeals for the prosecution, including more than eight years working with the United Nations in international criminal law prosecutions as a trial and appellate counsel and legal manager. Stewart was nominated by Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, as one of three candidates for election to the post of ICC Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecution). He was duly elected by the Assembly of States Parties on 16 November 2012 for a period of nine years. Mr Stewart was sworn in on 8 March 2013 and as Deputy Prosecutor of the ICC, he will report directly to the Prosecutor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flavia Lattanzi</span> Italian lawyer

Flavia Lattanzi is an Italian lawyer specialized in international law who is ad litem judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) since 2007 and professor at the Roma Tre University. Between 2003 and 2007, she served as ad litem judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabrielle Louise McIntyre</span> Australian lawyer

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Nations Detention Unit</span>

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References

  1. ↑ "Lebanese students visited ICTY" . Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  2. ↑ "Canadian lawyer Alexis Demirdjian will present his new book 'The Armenian Genocide Legacy'". Horizon. 10 November 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  3. ↑ "Book Launch: 'The Armenian Genocide Legacy'". The Armenian Weekly . 11 April 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  4. ↑ "The Armenian Genocide Legacy | SpringerLink".
  5. ↑ "Post-Conference Summary".
  6. ↑ "Rodney Dixon QC". Temple Garden Chambers. Retrieved 30 December 2017.
  7. ↑ Zyberi, Gentian; Rohan, Colleen (31 March 2017). Defense Perspectives on International Criminal Justice. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1-108-16164-0.
  8. ↑ "Spring 2019 Program - MAHG - Stockton University" (PDF).
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