Learn more about the experts who provided lectures during PILPG’s July 2023 International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law Training by reading their biographies below.
Dr. Gregory P. Noone is the Executive Director of the Public International Law and Policy Group (PILPG). Dr. Noone currently leads 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. Previously, Dr. Noone worked as a Senior Program Officer for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), served as a Captain in the United States Navy, as the Commanding Officer of the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS) reserve unit, and as the Commanding Officer of the Navy JAG International and Operational Law reserve unit as well as the Director of the Department of Defense’s Periodic Review Secretariat (PRS).
Dr. Greg Noone
Meriam Al-Rashid is a Partner at US Office of Eversheds Sutherland, where she represents and advises clients on complex international disputes with a focus on public international law including issues related to human rights, international investment arbitration, international commercial arbitration, and foreign investor risk management. Meriam has served as counsel in disputes and transactions involving parties from across the globe, including the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Meriam also works on matters surrounding post-conflict peace negotiations and governance, and investigation and adjudication of war crimes, including but not limited to: analyzing and documenting atrocity crimes against the Rohingya in Myanmar for the determination of genocide, crimes against humanity and atrocity crimes as well as international adjudication of atrocity crimes in mass deportation or displacement.
Meriam Nizah Al-Rashid
Christian P. Fleming is an experienced litigator, specializing in plaintiff’s personal injury cases and criminal defense. Chris is also currently assigned as the Commanding Officer of the Navy Reserve Defense Institute of International Studies. Previously, he served as the Commanding Officer of the Navy Reserve unit that supports the Naval Justice School, and as the Executive Officer of the Navy Reserve Naval War College’s International Law Department. He has taught courses on the law of armed conflict and trial advocacy throughout the world.
As a Navy JAG, Chris’s first tour was in the Trial Service Office, Pacific Detachment, Yokosuka, Japan, where he served as a military prosecutor. Upon joining the Navy Reserves, Chris was assigned to the International and Operational Law Unit as an international law attorney. Called back to active duty in 2008, Chris served as the legal advisor to the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group, Forward Headquarters, Kuwait.
Christian P. Fleming
Rick Lorenz is a PILPG Senior Peace Fellow and a Senior Lecturer at the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Law School. He previously served as a judge advocate for the US Marine Corps, including a tour as an infantry company commander. He was the senior legal advisor for the US military intervention in Somalia in 1992, and returned there as senior legal advisor for the UN evacuation in 1995. In 1996 he served in Bosnia as a senior legal advisor for the NATO implementation force, and went on to teach Political Science at the National Defense University (NDU). He developed and taught the first course in Environmental Security at NDU in 1997. After his retirement from the Marine Corps as a colonel in 1998 he spent a year as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in St Petersburg, Russia, teaching courses in international law, environmental law and US foreign policy. In 2000 he served as a United Nations legal affairs officer in Kosovo, working in the UN Civil Administration.
Colonel (ret.) Fredrick Lorenz
Dr. Gregory Townsend is a renowned international lawyer-practitioner, scientist and lecturer with 20 years of experience in the field of international criminal law. He was previously serving as Chief of the Court Support Section and Senior Legal Officer for the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) and UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He also served as Senior Legal Officer for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and Special Court for Sierra Leone, and was a Trial Attorney for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and for the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo.
Dr. Gregory Townsend
Charline Yim is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, specializing in international arbitration and public international law. She regularly advises clients in relation to investment treaty and international commercial disputes, as well as cases before international human rights and criminal law tribunals. Her diverse pro bono practice includes advising stakeholders in treaty negotiations, representing victims of violations of international human rights in domestic and international proceedings, and representing asylum-seekers and victims of domestic violence in immigration proceedings. Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Charline was an associate in the dispute resolution group of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP and a fellow to the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Charline Yim
Marieke de Hoon is a PILPG Senior Peace Fellow and Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam. Marieke is an experienced academic researcher, assistant professor and senior legal counsel in international law, politics, conflict and human rights, and her PhD is on the Law and Politics of the Crime of Aggression. She specializes in analyzing complex conflict situations, researching legal, political and societal contexts, and communicating to various audiences through media and public events.
Dr. Marieke de Hoon
Marryum Kahloon
Marryum Kahloon is a Senior Associate in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Marryum specializes in international arbitration and public international law disputes. She has advised on cases before the International Court Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, she represents clients in investor-State and commercial disputes under a broad range of arbitration rules. Marryum maintains an active international human rights pro bono practice and her experience includes drafting and submitting petitions to United Nations organs, working with international criminal tribunals, advising on treaty negotiations, and supporting non-governmental organizations with research and strategy.Marryum previously worked at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Paris, France, and was also the judicial clerk to the Honorable Margaret McMurdo AC, President of the Court of Appeal of Queensland.
Kate Gibson is Senior Legal Advisor at the Public International Law & Policy Group and currently the co-counsel of Mr. Bosco Ntaganda before the International Criminal Court. She was the Co-Counsel of the former President of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadzic, before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and the Co-Counsel of Liberian President Charles Taylor before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Kate was the youngest person to be appointed as Lead Counsel in a genocide case before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She spent 10 years representing the former Vice President of the Congo, Jean-Pierre Bemba, before the International Criminal Court, and also represented victims in the first case before the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. She currently is part of the legal team of former Kosovan President Hashim Thaci before the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.
Kate Gibson