Guide to Specialists

Colette Rausch
Deputy Director, Rule of Law Program

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Phone: (202) 429-3860

E-mail: crausch@usip.org

Colette Rausch is the deputy director of the Institute's Rule of Law program, one of the Centers of Innovation. Her focus is on criminal justice and police reform initiatives that have included missions and projects in Afghanistan, Liberia, and Nepal. Before joining the Institute, she worked at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission in Kosovo, serving first as head of the Rule of Law Division and then as director of the Department of Human Rights and Rule of Law.

Previously, Rausch was with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), serving as the DOJ’s resident legal adviser in Hungary and later in Bosnia. In Hungary, she worked on the development of a crime task force. She also served as the DOJ program manager for Central and East Europe, establishing criminal justice development and training projects in Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, and Macedonia.

In addition to her international assignments, Rausch was a federal prosecutor with the DOJ in Las Vegas, Nevada, working in both the white collar and violent crime units. Before joining DOJ, she was with the state of Nevada’s Attorney General’s Office, where she was instrumental in creating the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud Unit. She also served as an assistant federal public defender in Nevada.

A recipient of numerous DOJ performance and special achievement awards, Rausch received a B.A. from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law.

Publications:

• "Model Codes: Laying the Foundations of the Rule of Law," Civil War and the Rule of Law: Security, Development, Human Rights, co-authored with Vivienne O'Connor, Agnès Hurwitz, with Reyko Huang, eds. (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008).
• Model Codes for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice Volume II: Model Code of Criminal Procedure, co-editor (USIP Press, forthcoming).
• Constituent Assembly Elections and Security in Nepal
  USIPeace Briefing (July 2007)
• Model Codes for Post-Conflict Criminal Justice Volume I: Model Criminal Code, co-editor (USIP Press, July 2007).
• Nepal in Transition: Developing Security and Rule of Law Strategies
  USIPeace Briefing (May 2007)
• "Justice and Police Reforms in Kosovo," in Constructing Justice and Security after War, edited by Charles T. Call (USIP Press, 2007).
• Combating Serious Crimes in Postconflict Societies: A Handbook for Practitioners and Policymakers, editor (USIP Press, 2006).
• "Foreign Assistance, Human Rights and Post-Conflict Societies," Australian Journal of Human Rights, (Vol. 11(2), p.21-25, 2006).
• "A Toolbox to Tackle Law Reform Challenges in Postconflict Countries: The Model Codes for Postconflict Criminal Justice," International Peacekeeping: The Yearbook of International Peace Operations, co-authored with Vivienne O'Connor (Volume 10, 2006).
• Nepal: Rule of Law and Human Rights Challenges
  USIPeace Briefing (August 2005)
• "The Assumption of Authority in Kosovo and East Timor: Legal and Practical Implications," Executive Policing: Enforcing the Law in Peace Operations, Renata Dawn, ed. (Oxford University Press, 2002).