Kimberly Prost (born June 4, 1958) is a Canadian judge on the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC or ICCt) is an intergovernmental organization and international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals ...

. She was elected to a nine-year term on December 8, 2017 and assumed full-time duty on March 9, 2018. She is the third Canadian Judge to have served on the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

(following Jules Deschênes and Sharon Williams). Prior to her election to the bench, she served as Chef du Cabinet to the President of the International Criminal Court. From June 2010 to August 2015, she was the first Ombudsperson for the UN Security Council's Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee, tasked with advising the Committee and making recommendations on requests from individuals or organizations who are subject to global sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans, as a result of "listing" by this committee.https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2010/sc9947.doc.htm UN Security Council press release

History

Kimberly Prost graduated as a gold medalist from the Faculty of Law at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.Canadian Department of Justice The Department of Justice (french: Ministère de la Justice) is a department of the Government of Canada that represents the Canadian government in legal matters. The Department of Justice works to ensure that Canada's justice system is as fair, ...

in 1982 and worked for five years at the

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

regional office as a federal prosecutor. In 1987, she joined the Department of Justice’s Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Unit in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, and worked as head of the Baltic team on possible prosecutions for

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

, war crimes and

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

. In 1990, she took a position within the International Assistance Group, which acts as Canada's central authority for international cooperation on criminal matters, and was named the Director of the organization in 1994. As Director of the IAG, she participated in the negotiation of over 40 bilateral

extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdict ...

and

mutual Legal Assistance A mutual legal assistance treaty (MLAT) is an agreement between two or more countries for the purpose of gathering and exchanging information in an effort to enforce public or criminal laws. A mutual legal assistance request is commonly used to fo ...

treaties for Canada with other countries. She joined the Canadian delegation for the negotiations of the Rome Statute for an International Criminal Court and she participated in the negotiation of the related Rules of Procedure and Evidence. She was on the Canadian delegation to the

Ad Hoc Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning literally 'to this'. In English, it typically signifies a solution for a specific purpose, problem, or task rather than a generalized solution adaptable to collateral instances. (Compare with ''a priori''.) Com ...

Committee for the negotiation of the

United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC, also called the Palermo Convention) is a 2000 United Nations-sponsored multilateral treaty against transnational organized crime. History The convention was adopted by a r ...

and the UN Convention against Corruption. In July 2000, she joined the

Commonwealth Secretariat The Commonwealth Secretariat is the main intergovernmental agency and central institution of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is responsible for facilitating co-operation between members; organising meetings, including the Commonwealth Heads o ...

as Head of the Criminal Law section, Deputy Director of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division where she championed a broad program to deliver assistance to member countries in a range of criminal justice programs. She ran an intensive pan-Commonwealth program on counter-terrorism legislation and implementation of the relevant international instruments, as well as police and prosecutor training in the investigation and prosecution of terrorism and

terrorist financing Terrorism financing is the provision of funds or providing financial support to individual terrorists or non-state actors. Most countries have implemented measures to counter terrorism financing (CTF) often as part of their money laundering l ...

. She has also managed a project which brought together experts to develop model legislation for implementation of the Rome Statute. She joined the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Vienna as Head of the Legal Advisory Section within the Division of Treaty Affairs in March 2005. In June that same year, she was elected by the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

as an

ad litem ''Ad litem'' (Latin: "for the suit") is a term used in law to refer to the appointment by a court of one party to act in a lawsuit on behalf of another party such as a child or an incapacitated adult, who is deemed incapable of representing them ...

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. On July 3, 2006 she was sworn in as a judge of the Tribunal where she served for four years on the multi-accused trial of ''Popovic et al.'' She was also a Pre-trial and Presiding Judge in the ''Tolimir'' case. In June 2010, she was appointed Ombudsperson for the Security Council Al Qaida Sanctions Committee and she served in that post for five years before moving to the International Criminal Court. She is a member of the

Crimes Against Humanity Initiative The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative is a rule of law research and advocacy project of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute. Started in 2008 by Professor Leila Nadya Sadat, the Initiative has as its goals the study of the need for a compre ...

Advisory Council, a project of the

Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law, established in 2000 as the Institute for Global Legal Studies, serves as a center for instruction and research in international and comparative law. Background ...

Washington University School of Law Washington University in St. Louis School of Law (WashULaw) is the law school of Washington University in St. Louis, a private university in St. Louis, Missouri. WashULaw has consistently ranked among the top law schools in the country; it is ...

to establish the world’s first treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prost, Kimberly

Judges A judge is an official who presides over a court. Judge or Judges may also refer to: Roles *Judge, an alternative name for an adjudicator in a competition in theatre, music, sport, etc. *Judge, an alternative name/aviator call sign for a membe ...

International Criminal Court judges Canadian diplomats International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia judges Ombudsmen University of Manitoba alumni Canadian lawyers 1958 births Living people Canadian women judges Canadian women diplomats Robson Hall alumni Canadian judges of United Nations courts and tribunals Canadian judges of international courts and tribunals