Guantánamo Bay: an IHL and ICL perspective

John Balouziyeh is an attorney at the international law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP specializing in human rights, the rule of law, transitional justice, public international law and foreign investment. He has acted for a range of clients, including the UN, the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG), the Norwegian Refugee Council, the International Development Law Organization, the World Bank and a range of multinational corporations. He has advised clients on international investment, public international law and human rights compliance. John is an instructor in the American Red Cross’s International Humanitarian Law program and has served as a Judge Advocate in the Guantánamo Bay war crimes tribunals, the Pentagon and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In addition, he has served as a human rights officer with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and as an international humanitarian law consultant to the UN responsible for designing and delivering a curriculum on international law to Iraqi prosecutors, investigators and judges adjudicating war crimes committed in Iraq.

Alka Pradhan is an expert on the application of human rights and humanitarian law to counterterrorism situations, and the impact of torture on fair trials. She is currently Human Rights Counsel at the Guantanamo Bay Military Commissions, representing one of the defendants in the capital case of United States v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (the “9/11 case”), and Associate Counsel in the Al Hassan case at the International Criminal Court. Ms. Pradhan was a member of the Drafting Committee of the Principles of Effective Interviewing (the "Mendez Principles").