Carla Ferstman

Carla Ferstman is the Director of REDRESS since 2004, and previously its Legal Director. In these roles, she gained expertise in the area of securing remedies and reparation for victims of international crimes. Ms. Ferstman was previously the Executive Legal Advisor of the Commission for Real Property Claims in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a mass claims body established under the Dayton Peace Agreement. Earlier, she served with the U.N. in Rwanda and with Amnesty International on an initiative on trials in the Great Lakes region of Africa. She has published extensively on victims’ rights and international justice; taught international law; and practiced law in Canada. She is a dual Canadian – British citizen and has lived and worked in diverse countries. Ms. Ferstman holds law degrees from the University of British Columbia and New York University and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Oxford.

During her time at USIP, Ms. Ferstman will analyze the challenges associated with securing remedies for serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law carried out in the context of U.N. mandated actions. This topic is timely given the expanding roles of the U.N. and the recent adoption by the International Law Commission of articles on the responsibility of international organizations. Attribution rules, organizational immunities and the lack of forums to adjudicate liability combine to impede access to remedies, resulting in the conundrum that the organization set up to promote peace, accountability and justice may detract from such aims. She argues that existing U.N. accountability regimes do not satisfy the requirements of justice, nor has this gap been filled by states’ actions to address the liability of their nationals.

Select Publications:

• “Limited charges & limited judgments by the International Criminal Court - Who Bears the Greatest Responsibility?” International Journal of Human Rights (2012) vol 12 (5).
• “Reparations”, in International Law, Oxford Bibliographies Online (2012).
• “Reparation as Prevention: Considering the Law and Practice of Orders for Cessation and Guarantees of Non-Repetition in Torture Cases” in Preventing Torture in the 21st Century: Monitoring In Europe Two Decades On, Monitoring Globally Two Years On, 2010 Special Issue of the Essex Human Rights Review (2010)
• “International Criminal Law and Victims’ Rights”, in W. Schabas, N. Bernaz (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of International Criminal Law, Routledge, (2010).
• Edwards and C. Ferstman (eds.) Human Security and Non-Citizens: Law, Policy and International Affairs. Cambridge University Press (2010).
• “The human security framework and counter terrorism: examining the rhetoric relating to 'extraordinary renditions'”, in A. Edwards and C. Ferstman (eds.) Human Security and Non-Citizens: Law, Policy and International Affairs. Cambridge University Press (2010).
• Ferstman, M. Goetz and A. Stephens (eds.) Reparations for Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes: Systems in Place and Systems in the Making, Martinus Nijhoff, The Netherlands (2009).
• Ferstman and M. Goetz, “Reparations before the International Criminal Court: The Early Jurisprudence on Victim Participation and its Impact for Reparation Proceedings”, in Reparations for Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes: Systems in Place and Systems in the Making, Martinus Nijhoff, The Netherlands (2009).
• “The ICC as a Tool for Social Transformation: Challenges and Prospects for Addressing Victims’ Rights”, in Criminal Jurisdiction 100 Years after the 1907 Hague Peace Conference - 2007 Hague Joint Conference on Contemporary Issues of International Law, Willem J.M. van Genugten, Michael P. Scharf, Sasha E. Radin (eds.), TMC Asser Press (2007).
• “The International Criminal Court’s Trust Fund for Victims: Challenges and Opportunities”, Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, Vol 7 (2005) 1.
• J. Herlihy, C. Ferstman and S.W. Turner. “Legal Issues in Work with Asylum Seekers”, in Broken Spirits: The Treatment of Traumatized Asylum Seekers, Refugees, War and Torture Victims, John P. Wilson, Boris Drožđek (eds.), Brunner-Routledge, NY, 2004.
• “The Reparation Regime of the International Criminal Court: Practical Considerations”, Leiden Journal of International Law, Volume 15 (2002) Issue 3, pp 667-686.
• “Domestic Trials for Genocide and Crimes against Humanity: The Example of Rwanda,” African Journal of International and Comparative Law, Vol.9, No. 4, December 1997.