Speaker details

Biography

Valerie Oosterveld is a full Professor at Western University’s Faculty Law (Canada). Her research and writing focus on gender issues within international criminal justice. She has published widely on the interpretation of sexual and gender-based crimes by international criminal tribunals and gender-sensitive investigation and prosecution. She is the co-editor (with Indira Rosenthal and Susana SáCouto) of Gender and International Criminal Law (Oxford University Press, 2022). She was awarded the 2022 Royal Society of Canada’s Ursula Franklin Award in Gender Studies. Valerie is the Acting Director of Western University’s Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction. She served as an Associate Dean at Western Law from 2014-2018, and as a Western University Faculty Scholar from 2017-2019. She is an active member of the Canadian Partnership for International Justice, and provides regular media commentary on international criminal law issues. In 2010, she served on the Canadian delegation to the Review Conference of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Kampala, Uganda. Before joining the Faculty of Law in 2005, Valerie served in the Legal Affairs Bureau of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. In this role, she provided legal advice on international criminal accountability for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. She served on the Canadian delegation to various ICC-related negotiations, including the Assembly of States Parties. Prior to joining the Legal Affairs Bureau, Valerie was a member of the Canadian delegation to the 1998 UN Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an ICC. In this role, she negotiated various gender provisions, as Canada played a leading role in pressing for a gender-sensitive Rome Statute.