Speaker details

Biography

John Balouziyeh is a partner at the international law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP, where he specializes in human rights, public international law, international sanctions, and international dispute resolution. He represents sovereign states, the United Nations, corporations, and individuals. 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 in international criminal law, led international criminal investigations, prepared case assessments, and drafted public reports. Through a joint initiative of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Clooney Foundation for Justice, he also monitored more than forty war crimes trials before Iraq’s anti-terrorism courts. He is an IHL Ambassador and Senior Instructor in the American Red Cross’s International Humanitarian Law Program. As a Judge Advocate in the U.S. military, he has held leadership and litigation roles including Chief of International Law, Chief of National Security Law, defense counsel, and prosecutor (trial counsel). His assignments have included 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), praised as a “solidly researched and intensely readable exposition of international law,” and more than a dozen other books written in Arabic, English, French, and Spanish. He serves as Chair of the Arms Control and Disarmament Committee of the American Branch of the International Law Association; Co-Vice Chair of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Law Committee; Advisory Board Member of the IBA’s War Crimes Committee; member of the IBA’s Crimes Against Humanity Convention Working Group; and Advisory Board Member of the Network for Syrian Legislative Studies. John is admitted to practice law in New York, Washington, DC, Barcelona and before the International Criminal Court.