Human rights and nuclear legacy in the Marshall Islands

John Balouziyeh is a Partner at the international law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP. Acting for sovereign states, the U.N., corporations and individuals, he specializes in human rights, public international law, foreign investment and international dispute resolution. John previously served with the United Nations in Iraq as a Human Rights Officer, Legal Officer, International Consultant and Legal Expert. In those roles, he trained Iraqi prosecutors and judges on international criminal law, drafted public reports, prepared case assessments and conducted international criminal law investigations. He also monitored more than 40 war crimes trials before Iraq’s anti-terrorism courts through a joint initiative of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Clooney Foundation for Justice. He is a Senior Instructor in International Humanitarian Law with the American Red Cross and has served as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. military, holding a range of leadership and litigation roles, including Chief of International Law, Chief of National Security Law, Defense Counsel and Prosecutor (trial counsel). His assignments have included service at the Guantánamo Bay war crimes tribunals, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and postings across the Middle East. John is the author of Public International Law: Conventions, Cases and Commentary (Kluwer Law International, 2025), which has been acclaimed as a “solidly researched and intensely readable exposition of international law,” as well as more than a dozen other books written in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. He currently serves as Co-Vice Chair of the IBA Human Rights Law Committee, an Advisory Board Member of the IBA War Crimes Committee and a member of the Crimes Against Humanity Convention Working Group. John is admitted to practice law in New York, Washington, DC, Barcelona and before the International Criminal Court.

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").

Baroness Kennedy is one of the country’s most distinguished lawyers. Born and brought up in Glasgow, she is a member of the Bar, a King’s Counsel, a Bencher of Gray’s Inn, an Honorary Writer to the Signet and the recipient of 42 Honorary Degrees from many universities including those of Glasgow and Edinburgh in recognition of work on women and the law and on widening participation in higher education. She has also been honoured by the Governments of France and Italy for her considerable work on women’s rights. She was created a life peer in 1997 and has been a strong advocate for social justice and the rule of law in the House of Lords. She has recently been awarded the Order of the Thistle, the highest honour in Scotland. Over the last thirty years she has been at different times Chancellor of Oxford Brooke’s University, Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, President of the School of Oriental and African Studies and Principal of Mansfield College Oxford. She was also Founder of the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford in 2018. Helena Kennedy’s public service has covered many fields. She was a Commissioner on the Education Commission from 1992-4 and led a government inquiry in Further Education from 1994 – 1997, producing the seminal report, Learning Works.  She was Chair of the British Council from 1998 – 2004, Chair of the Human Genetics Commission from 1998- 2008. She has chaired many public inquiries including in 2004 the Inquiry into Sudden Infant Death for the Royal Colleges of Pathology and of Paediatrics and in 20012 an Equality and Human Rights Commission Inquiry in Scotland addressing Human Trafficking. She also led the recent Scottish Parliamentary Inquiry into Misogyny. She is President of Justice; the law reform think tank and currently is director of the International Bar Association’s Institute of Human Rights. Helena Kennedy has authored a number of groundbreaking books on women and the law. She is President of the Helena Kennedy Foundation which gives bursaries to disadvantaged students. In 2021, when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Baroness Kennedy evacuated 102 women judges and prosecutors who were on death lists (with their families so the total number was 508) by raising the funds, securing safe houses,  chartering planes, and resettling the women around the world. She is currently working for the President of Ukraine on war crimes and trying to recover the thousands of children who have been abducted from Ukraine by Russian forces.