Conflict Mediation and Negotiation Course
Module 1
This module will acquaint you with fundamental concepts and core terminology essential for engaging in conflict mediation and peace negotiations.
Experts
Dr. Gregory Noone
Dr. Gregory P. Noone, Ph.D., J.D., is the Executive Director, a Senior Peace Fellow, and Senior Legal Advisor for the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG). Dr. Noone currently co-leads the Sudan and Kenya programs, and serves as a Senior Legal Advisor for the Ukraine Accountability Initiative. Previously, he led the Yemen track two diplomacy team, and served as the Senior Legal Advisor for the Human Rights Documentation Solutions project. Dr. Noone has conducted PILPG justice system assessments in Uganda and Côte d’Ivoire as well as provided transitional justice assistance in post-Gaddafi Libya and to the Syrian opposition. Dr. Noone was also part of the international effort investigating the Myanmar government’s atrocities committed against their Rohingya population. He worked as an investigator in the refugee camps in Bangladesh and as one of the legal experts on the report’s findings. Click here to learn more about Dr. Greg Noone.
Professor Yvonne Dutton
Dr. Yvonne Dutton is a Senior Legal Advisor at PILPG. She is a Professor of Law at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law teaching evidence, criminal law, criminal procedure, international criminal law, international law, and comparative law.
Professor Dutton has practiced law as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where she tried narcotics trafficking and organized crime cases.
Berhanemeskel Nega
Mr. Nega has over thirty-five years of professional experience in international affairs and multilateral diplomacy, mediation, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. From 2015 to 2020, Mr. Nega served as the Head of Office and Director of Political Affairs at the United Nations in Sudan, where he worked to support the Juba and Doha peace processes and to facilitate the national dialogue and reconciliation processes. Prior to that role he served as the Chief of Staff for the United Nations Peacebuilding Mission in Guinea Bissau. Mr. Nega also served as the Chief of Staff, Deputy Head of Mission, and Acting Executive Representative of the United Nations Secretary General in Sierra Leone.
Prior to these deployments, Mr. Nega served as a Diplomat in the Ethiopian Foreign Service, including as the representative to the United Nations and other international forums. Mr. Nega has extensive experience in the negotiations of international instruments, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Amb. Donald J. Planty
Ambassador Donald J. Planty is a Senior Peace Fellow at Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG). Ambassador Planty is also a Senior Advisor of the Albright Stonebridge Group (ASG), where he advises clients on international issues. He is also President and CEO of Planty & Associates LLC, his own consulting firm. He is former Senior Foreign Service Officer of the United States and U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala with 40 years of experience in the public and private sectors. Ambassador Planty is an expert on Latin American affairs and European security issues, drawing on his experience living and working in Panama, Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Norway, Italy, and Spain. As Ambassador to Guatemala, he was instrumental in facilitating negotiation of the historic 1996 Peace Accords, which ended four decades of internal conflict in that country.
Dr. Paul R. Williams
Dr. Paul R. Williams holds the Rebecca I. Grazier Professorship in Law and International Relations at American University where he teaches in the School of International Service and at the Washington College of Law. Dr. Williams is also the co-founder of the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), a pro bono law firm providing legal assistance to states and governments involved in peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and the prosecution of war criminals. As a world renowned peace negotiation lawyer, Dr. Williams has assisted over two dozen parties in major international peace negotiations and has advised numerous parties on the drafting and implementation of post-conflict constitutions. Several of Dr. Williams' pro bono government clients throughout the world joined together to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. More information about Dr. Williams can be found at www.drpaulrwilliams.com.
Professor Milena Sterio
Milena Sterio is the Charles R. Emrick Jr. - Calfee Halter & Griswold Professor of Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Managing Director at the PILPG. She is a leading expert on international law, international criminal law and human rights. Sterio leads PILPG’s Thought Leadership Initiative.
Sterio is one of six permanent editors of the prestigious IntLawGrrls blog, and a frequent contributor to the blog focused on international law, policy and practice. In the spring of 2013, Sterio was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, spending the semester in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Baku State University. While in Baku, she had the opportunity to teach and conduct research on secession issues under international law related to the province of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh. Serving as a maritime piracy law expert, she has participated in meetings of the United Nations Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia as well as in the work of the United Nations Global Counterterrorism Forum. Sterio has also assisted piracy prosecutions in Mauritius, Kenya and the Seychelles Islands. Sterio is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the University of Paris I, and was an associate in the New York City firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton before joining the ranks of academia full time. She has published seven books and numerous law review articles. Her latest book, “The Syrian Conflict’s Impact on International Law,” (co-authored with Paul Williams and Michael Scharf) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.