Marc Perrin de Brichambaut (; born 29 October 1948) is a French career judge and diplomat. On 10 December 2014 he was elected a judge to 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 f ...

(ICC) in The Hague. Until 30 June 2011 he was the Secretary General of the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, pro ...

Early life and education

Marc Perrin de Brichambaut was born in Rabat,

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

. He graduated from France's

École nationale d'administration The École nationale d'administration (generally referred to as ENA, en, National School of Administration) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by President Charles de Gaulle and principal author of the 1958 Constitution Michel Deb ...

in Paris in 1974.

Career

De Brichambaut joined the

Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...

, France's supreme court for judicial review, in 1974. In 1983 and 1984, de Brichambaut was chief of staff to

Roland Dumas Roland Dumas (; born 23 August 1922) is a French lawyer and Socialist politician who served as Foreign Minister under President François Mitterrand from 1984 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1993. He was also President of the Constitutional Counci ...

, then Minister of European Affairs, and after Dumas became

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...

, de Brichambaut continued to serve as his chief of staff. In 1986, he moved to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, where he worked as cultural Counsellor for the French Embassy, returning to Paris in 1988 as Principal Adviser to

Defense Minister A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in s ...

Jean-Pierre Chevenement. He was also adviser to French Foreign Minister

Claude Cheysson Claude Cheysson (; 13 April 1920 – 15 October 2012) was a French Socialist politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of Pierre Mauroy from 1981 to 1984. Career Cheysson was born in Paris and attended the Cours Hattemer, ...

. From 1991 to 1994, de Brichambaut was the head of French Delegation at the

Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was a key element of the détente process during the Cold War. Although it did not have the force of a treaty, it recognized the boundaries of postwar Europe and established a mechanism f ...

(later (OSCE) in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. He was appointed Conseiller d'Etat in 1992. From 1994 to 1998, de Brichambaut headed the French Foreign Ministry's Legal Division. In that capacity, he led the French delegation to the Rome Conference and signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on behalf of his country. Before being appointed as OSCE Secretary General he was Director for Strategic Affairs at the Ministry of the Armed Forces. He served as Secretary General of the OSCE in Vienna from 2005 to 2011.

Judge at the International Criminal Court

On 10 December 2014 de Brichambaut was elected a judge to the

(ICC) in The Hague. In his capacity as presiding judge of Trial Chamber VII in 2016, he convicted former vice-president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Jean-Pierre Bemba Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo (born 4 November 1962) is a politician in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was one of four vice-presidents in the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 17 July 2003 to December 2 ...

and four members of his legal team of interfering with witnesses; the verdicts marked the first time the court found suspects guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice. As presiding judge of Trial Chamber II, he issued a landmark ruling in 2017 by finding former Congolese militia leader

Germain Katanga Germain Katanga (; born 28 April 1978), also known as Simba (), is a former leader of the Patriotic Resistance Force in Ituri (FRPI), an armed group in the Ituri Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).International Criminal Court ( ...

liable for $1 million in

damages At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...

to his victims; this was the first time the court ordered a convict to pay damages to individual victims. Shortly after, he also found

Thomas Lubanga Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (born 29 December 1960) is a convicted war criminal from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the first person ever convicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). He founded and led the Union of Congolese P ...

liable for compensation of $10 million to 425 former child soldiers. In a high-profile decision on

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

’s failure to arrest and surrender

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan to the Court while he was on its territory, de Brichambaut issued a separate opinion in 2017 and held that both countries were obliged to arrest Bashir because they had both signed the

Genocide Convention The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. It was ...

. In March 2018, the ICC judges elected de Brichambaut as Second Vice-President for a three-year term.New ICC Presidency elected for 2018-2021

(ICC), press release of 11 March 2018.

References

External links

International Criminal Court

Secretary General Official site

OSCE Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perrin de Brichambaut, Marc 1948 births Living people French politicians École nationale d'administration alumni Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe French officials of the United Nations 21st-century French judges International Criminal Court judges French judges of international courts and tribunals OSCE Secretaries General