As a joint public-policy and law student, I took Professor Chris Stone’s “Workshop on Crime and Criminal Justice Reform in Global Context” during the Spring of 2009. Harvard’s criminal justice program connects research closely with the world of practice, so as fieldwork for this class, I spent spring break in the Hague with justice and human rights NGOs from all over the world, leaders from the International Criminal Court, and staff from Harvard’s Hauser Center. On this trip the group I was a part of was tasked with beginning to understand and describe the ‘network’ of the ICC within the larger international criminal justice system.

Universities and research centers are an important segment of the nonprofit sector. Students, teachers, and researchers at these NGOs provide unique resources, expertise and mobilization support for many human rights and justice efforts. Strengthening relationships with these groups is a key priority for the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) over the next three years.

In preparation for the Consultative Conference on International Criminal Justice to be held in September at the United Nations in New York, a planning meeting was held in May 2009 in which Hauser Center staff interviewed Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Prosecutor of the ICC and two graduate students at Harvard University on student engagement, the preparatory session, and the September conference.