Brenda Hollis, Prosecutor, at the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2017
Brenda J. Hollis, is an American lawyer. She was appointed by
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon (; ; born 13 June 1944) is a South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations between 2007 and 2016. Prior to his appointment as secretary-general, Ban was his country's Minister ...
as
Prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
of the
Special Court for Sierra Leone
The Special Court for Sierra Leone, or the "Special Court" (SCSL), also called the Sierra Leone Tribunal, was a judicial body set up by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations to "prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibil ...
in February 2010,
replacing
Stephen Rapp. Hollis was the Chief Prosecutor at the Special Court and served as the lead prosecutor in the trial and appeal of the case against
Charles Taylor, the former President of
Liberia
Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean ...
. Hollis previously served as the Prosecutor of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone, which replaced the Special Court in December 2013; currently James Johnson, an adjunct professor at
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Case Western Reserve University School of Law is one of eight schools at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. It was one of the first schools accredited by the American Bar Association. It is a member of the Association of American ...
, serves as the Chief Prosecutor for the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone. She also serves as the Reserve International Co-Prosecutor for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, and works as a consultant in international criminal law and procedure.
Hollis had worked as a consultant to the Prosecutor of the Special Court in 2002 and 2003, taking part in the initial investigations and providing advice on the requirements of international criminal law. In 2006, she again worked as a consultant for the Special Court, amending the indictment against Charles Taylor and preparing the case for trial.
Hollis worked as a legal consultant working with judges, prosecutors and investigators of the Indonesian ad hoc Human Rights Courts and the Special Tribunal for Iraq. She worked with NGO groups to prepare submissions to the Prosecutor of the ICC, and providing technical assistance to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, Prior to her legal consultancy work, Hollis worked in a variety of capacities in the Office of the Prosecutor at 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 ...
, organizing, preparing and participating in the prosecution of its first cases including the Tadic case - the first litigated case in an international tribunal since Nuremberg, and the Furundzija case, the first case to charge sexual violence as torture.
[
Hollis served as a US Air Force Officer for 22 years. She retired with the rank of Colonel.]
Hollis has a Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
from the University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
and a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
from Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...
. She has received honorary degrees from Case Western School of Law and Bowling Green State University.
References
External links
UN Biography Brenda Hollis
Brenda Hollis Named Special Court Prosecutor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hollis, Brenda
Year of birth missing (living people)
Bowling Green State University alumni
University of Denver alumni
Living people
American lawyers
American women lawyers
21st-century American women