ABILA Outstanding Achievement Award

Acceptance Remarks

Delivered 25 October 2025 (reward accepted by JC Johnson)

Thank you for honoring me with this award. It is an honor to be recognized in this way, but even more of an honor to have been nominated by outstanding professionals who are deserving of the award based on the contributions each has made to the development of international criminal law. And to stand in the company of such distinguished former recipients, who have made immeasurable contributions to the advancement of international law.

I write to you from Ukraine, where the men and women of the investigative and prosecutorial branches of the Ukrainian government continue to advance the rule of law in most challenging times. So, to my regret, I cannot be with you to thank you in person.  Jim Johnson, my longtime friend and colleague, is accepting the award on my behalf. Jim has himself made significant contributions to international criminal law, and I thank you, Jim, for standing in for me today.

It is of particular significance to me that  I receive this honor at a conference dedicated to exploring how crises can shape international law.  My involvement in investigation and prosecution of international crimes has been possible because of the international community’s response to crises – those arising from the horrific crimes of the Nazis in WWII, those carried out against the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Ukraine, Palestine and Israel, and of too many other countries.

The response to each of these crises, and the efforts of the exceptional men and women who ensured the effective implementation of these responses,  has shaped international criminal law as we know it today.

I accept this honor with great humility, for many reasons. First and foremost because I am being given an award for work I have been privileged to do, both as an Air Force officer and judge advocate who prosecuted crimes, and as a prosecutor at several international criminal tribunals and courts. It is my great and continuing privilege to be part of the effort to bring some measure of justice to victims of life altering crimes, and some measure of accountability to those responsible for these crimes.

Also, because throughout my career in the Air Force and at the international criminal courts and tribunals, I have had the privilege of working with gifted, dedicated women and men.  Women and men who have remained steadfast in their commitment to the rule of law, and to the most critical component of justice and accountability measures  – independent, impartial investigation and prosecution based on facts and law, not on political affiliations or beliefs.  I accept this award on their behalf.

Finally, and most importantly, I accept this award with great humility because the true recipients of the award are the victims of these horrific crimes, who have been subjected to wrongs the magnitude of which we cannot imagine.  Old and young, male and female –  killed, tortured, raped, mutilated, displaced, suffering individual harm and witnessing the horrors inflicted on family members, friends and communities – and forced to pick up their lives after experiencing such suffering.  Their strength and resilience are indeed humbling. I dedicate the award to them.

Thanks once again to all of you.  Keep up the critical work of enforcing universal norms of behavior, and speaking out and acting against those who violate those norms and inflict such suffering and chaos globally.