Members of the Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia

Mohamed Chande Othman, chair (Tanzania)

Mohamed Chande Othman served as Chief Justice of Tanzania (December 2010 to 17 January 2017). He served as an Eminent Person appointed by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and was charged with the examination of new information relating to the tragic death on 17-18th September 1961 of the second United Nations Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjöld and other members of his party (appointed in 2017). In 2015, he was appointed by UN Secretary-General, Ban-Ki-moon as Chairperson of the Independent Panel of Experts on the Dag Hammarskjöld Investigations. In 2019-2020 he served as a member of the Independent Expert Review of the International Criminal Court and the Rome Statute System, having been appointed by the Assembly of State Parties of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Mr. Othman’s previous experience includes that of Prosecutor General of East Timor (Timor Leste) (2000-2001), Chief of Prosecutions of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) (1998-2000), and Senior Legal and Justice Sector Adviser (UNDP-Cambodia). He has also served as a member of the UN Human Rights Council’s High-Level Commission of Inquiry into the Situation in Lebanon following the Israel-Lebanon Armed Conflict in 2006 and as the UN Human Rights Council’s Independent Expert on the human rights situation in the Sudan (2009-2010).

Steven Ratner (United States of America)

Steven Ratner (United States of America) is currently serving as the Bruno Simma Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. Professor Ratner’s teaching and research focus on public international law, international humanitarian law, accountability for human rights violations, corporate and state duties regarding foreign investment, and the intersection of global justice and international law. He served as a member of both the UN Secretary-General’s Group of Experts for Cambodia and the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka. From 2008 to 2009, he served on the legal division of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. He also is a counsellor of the American Society of International Law.

Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka)

Steven Ratner Radhika Coomaraswamy, a lawyer by training and formerly the Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission, is an internationally known human rights advocate who has worked as the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (1994-2003) and as a Member of the Human Rights Council-mandated Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar from 2017 to 2019. Additionally, she served as Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (2006-2012), for which she was charged with preparing the annual report of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict. In 2014, Ms. Coomaraswamy was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as the lead author of a Global Study on the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1325 on women, peace and security. She received her B.A. from Yale University, her J.D. from Columbia University, an LLM from Harvard University and honorary PhDs from Amherst College, the Katholieke Universities Leuven, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Essex and the CUNY School of Law.

Former members

Kaari Betty Murungi (Kenya)

Kaari Betty Murungi (Kenya) has broad experience in transitional justice processes, women’s human rights, gender, constitutionalism and governance. Currently a lawyer and advocate of the High Court of Kenya, she has focussed much of her work to promote women’s human rights in the context of violent conflict. Ms. Murungi served as Vice Chairperson and Commissioner to the Kenya Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (2009-2010); as the Africa representative on the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims at the International Criminal Court (2009-2013); as a Senior Transitional Justice Advisor to the Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission in South Sudan; and as a member of the Human Rights Council-created Independent Commission of Inquiry for the occupied Palestinian territory.

Fatou Bensouda (The Gambia)

"Fatou Bensouda" Fatou Bensouda (The Gambia) served as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from June 2012 to June 2021. Ms. Bensouda previously held the position of ICC Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions) from 2004 to 2012, having been elected by the Assembly of States Parties. Prior to her work at the ICC, Ms. Bensouda worked as Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, rising to the position of Senior Legal Advisor and Head of the Legal Advisory Unit. Between 1987 and 2000, she served in successively senior positions in The Gambia, including Attorney General and Minister of Justice, in which capacity she served as Chief Legal Advisor to the President and Cabinet of The Gambia.