International criminal justice - my summer

After a great meal with a friend currently in law school, we begun to talk about international criminal justice. He's taking one such class and as we talked about the many topics that plague international justice now (and for many years), it reminded me to post my blog about my summer at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown, Sierra and in the international capital of international law, the Hague.

Sierra Leone
I will write more about life in Sierra Leone later. Now I want to tell you about my experience at the Special Court. I took the summer off to learn more about international criminal law and practice and what better place was there than the Special Court? The prosecution team was very knowledgable and helpful as I settled in. We were working on the sentencing appeals in the RUF trial. For more information go to http://www.sc-sl.org/CASES/ProsecutorvsSesayKallonandGbaoRUFCase/RUFSummaryoftheCharges/tabid/185/Default.aspx . In addition to the legal experience, it was interesting to learn more about the history of the war, the subsequent reconclilation and better yet the resilience of the people.

The Hague
I had to leave Sierra Leone early to attend the Hague Academy. That was great. Housed in the International Court of Justice I had the opportunity not only to learn a lot of legal theory, but also the opportunity to meet some of the world's best jurists at the ICJ (from left to right: Judge Burgenthal, Judge Koroma, Judge Trindade). I also met a lot of lawyers from around the world all doing interesting stuff. I was inspired.

That said, my friend and I are still debating how to improve the international criminal system. We have concluded that a lot more is being done than has been done in the past and as young lawyers we hope to continue to contribute to the betterment of the system.

African Social Enterprise Forum

The African Social Enterprise Forum--Saturday September 26,2009 at the Desmond Tutu Center, NYC--will have at least US$4 billion social investment capital represented as well as senior executives from leading social entrepreneurship organizations such as Acumen Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation, Endeavor, Ashoka and Social Private Equity South Africa.


The forum will respond to the question raised at the Skoll Forum, "Are the Only Innovations in Social Entrepreneurship Anglo-Saxon?", by highlighting Africa's most innovative, world class social entrepreneurial solutions.

I am very happy to be speaking about the structural, regulatory and legal requirements for setting up different types of businesses in Africa.

Please visit www.asef2009.weebly.com to register.

Sierra Leone – Virgin territories: A new market for innovative investment.

I've been in Sierra Leone for close to three weeks now and so far it has been great. I am here doing several things: 1. working as an intern for the Office of Prosecution at the United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone 2. scoping out investment and entrepreneurship opportunities for Transitional Trade 3. helping organize TAN CON SL, whose theme is above "Sierra Leone – Virgin territories: A new market for innovative investment" (trying to get in some much needed rest and relaxation by going to the beach every other day is also high on my agenda).

So far, working on an appeals case at the Court is needless to say, interesting. As a transactional attorney now working on a litigation matter, it is great to put into practice skills I haven't really used since law school. It is also great to see a practical application of international law. I'll deal more with the Court at a later date.

Sierra Leone is not only very peaceful, it is very beautiful and there is great investor potential. This post conflict country has opportunities in reconstruction as well as construction in different sectors such as infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, telecommunications, water etc. Name it and there is probably great potential. As we organize this year's conference, we not only aim to highlight what Sierra Leone has to offer, but I also aim to engage investors and would be investors in dialogue about the importance of social investment in Africa as well as corporate social responsibility.

I'll continue to post as I can, but for now, I bid you farewell from sweet Salone.

A Promise to Be Ethical in an Era of Immorality

I was reading the New York Times Article entitled "A Promise to Be Ethical in an Era of Immorality" and it got me thinking about doing business in post conflict countries. Is there a way that business leaders doing business in those areas (and the rest of the world for that matter) can take a similar oath to be ethical? If that were possible would the blood diamond conflict in Sierra Leone have happened? Would the war in the Congo currently be taking place? I can go on, but I don't think it's necessary to list all the wars and conflicts that have arisen as a result of unethical business leaders.

How can ethics lessons be taught to business leaders at all levels from the smallest of business owners to business leaders heading multinationals? Can you imagine if there was enforcement all over the world if such "promises" were broken? How can such lessons be adapted in post conflict countries' business environments?

During our orientation as freshmen at Davidson College, we too, had to sign an honor code pledging to uphold the highest standards of integrity. I really believe that Davidson College produces ethical leaders. I'm glad that more schools are adopting such practices.

I hope we can find out the answers/solutions fast because I think that we have the opportunity to prevent future conflicts.


To read the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/business/30oath.html?_r=2&em

Iron ladies of Africa that have inspired me

Left to right: Ms. Wureh, Esq. (Chair of the International Colloquium, Jacqueline Musiitwa, Esq., Minister King-Akerele, Liberian Foreign Affairs Minister)

For the past month I have been negligent about updating the blog. Being super busy is not an excuse (even though it has been super busy). I have taken time out during the past month to learn and absorb a lot of what has been hapening around the world. I have continued to post Twitter updates of news that is relevant to Transitional Trade`s work. Sad to say, the situation in the Congo and Darfur remain the same, violence in Sri Lanka, Iraq and Pakistan has escalated. It is sometimes disheartening for me because as one conflict subsides, another arises. Not all is grim though. A few weeks ago I attended a dinner hosted by Ambassador Barnes fo Liberia at which several other Liberian politicians and business people were congregated to discuss the trade potentials in Liberia. I was especially inspired by the words of Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honorable King-Akerele who challenged everyone in the room to find the many opportunities in Liberia and take part in Liberia`s continuing success. The night after I was one of many who saw President Sirleaf-Johnson discuss her new book, This Child Will be Great. It was such a humbling experience to see such an accomplished woman discuss her trials abd tribulations and better yet learn how she overcame them. Then, two weeks ago, I moderated a panel at the Stanford African Business Forum, where many speakers gave updates on the postive developments taking place in Africa`s economy. The Honorable Amina Ali, African Union Ambassador to the United States spoke about Africa`s potential to grow into a greater trade force than it is. Indeed, Africa is ready for business. Lastly, this past weekend I moderated a panel at the Rwanda Convention which was held in Montreal, Canada where the Rwandan Minister of Commerce, Monique N`Sanzabaganwa spoke about all of the positive developments being made in Rwanda to improve the trading and investment environment.

Left to right: Jacqueline Musiitwa, Esq., Ambassador Amina Ali, African Union Ambassador to the United States

One of the most impressive elements of all of the above spokespersons for Africa is that they are all female. At the end of the day, an effective leader is an effective leader regardless of gender, but I think that the fact that at long last African women are taking such prominent roles in the public sector is an inspiration to us, the younger generation of aspiring leaders.

Africa related conferences I spoke at this weekend

This past weekend I had the pleasure of speaking at the Columbia African Economic Forum. I was a panelist on the Law & Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Globalized Markets & Legal Regimes (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/aef/law.html) and a moderator for the Post-Conflict Economic Development (http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/aef/post-conflict.html).

I had a great weekend interacting with people in different sectors and brainstorming creative solutions to Africa's problems. Better yet, several people and I got together to start taking action rather than just speaking. I was very inspired by the people I met.

The keynote speakers, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, William Kamkwamba, George Ayittey, were phenomenal. Great job Columbia!

I also spoke at the “Neo-Imperialism” in Post-Independence Africa:
Definitions, Case Studies and Human Impacts at Yale University. I also met some interesting people and learned a lot about different aspects of Neo-Imperialism in Africa. http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/african/Neo-ImperialismSchedule.pdf

I am even more ready than I was before to be of service to Africa.

Presiden Kagame of Rwanda interviewed on HARDtalk

Watch the interview with President Kagame of Rwanda. Some touch questions about Rwanda's role in the Congo are posed. A must see.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/7948535.stm