Alumnus/Alumna of the Month

Kaoru Okuizumi '95

Read an Interview with Kaoru Okuizumi.

Since obtaining her J.D. from the New York University School of Law in 1995 and an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs of Princeton University in 1997, Okuizumi has been working in the fields of international criminal, humanitarian and human rights law. Her first assignment was as a Human Rights Officer with the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Eastern Slavonia , Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES), where she assisted in efforts to ensure the peaceful reintegration of the region into Croatia . In 1998 she moved to Bosnia , where she worked with international and national judges and lawyers at the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina , a court established under the Dayton Peace Accords to adjudicate human rights violations in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights. Later that year, Okuizumi returned to the United Nations to investigate human rights violations committed by Bosnian law enforcement officials as Chief of the Human Rights Investigations Desk of the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH). From 2000 to 2002, Okuizumi worked at the Registry Legal Advisory Section of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Netherlands.

In 2002, Okuizumi joined the Department of Justice of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). As Chief of the Department’s Legal Policy Unit, she advised the Director of the Department on legal and policy matters relating to the justice system of Kosovo, drafted and reviewed regulations and other legislation, and also facilitated legal assistance between Kosovo and other countries on criminal and civil matters. From 2003 – 2005, she served as Legal Advisor to the Registrar of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a war crimes court created jointly by the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone. Most recently, Okuizumi worked in the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) on matters relating to sexual exploitation and abuse committed by UN personnel. In January 2006, she will begin a new assignment as Legal Advisor with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Nepal.

Okuizumi is on the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Services Foundation, a new non-governmental organization (NGO) based in The Hague. Her articles on international human rights and humanitarian law have appeared in the Asian Wall Street Journal, Human Rights Quarterly, New YorkUniversity Journal of International Law & Politics,Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems and other publications.