Jean Ping
Chairperson of the African Union Commission
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 February 2008
Preceded by	Alpha Oumar Konaré
Personal details
Born	(1942-11-24) 24 November 1942 (age 69) Omboué, French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon)
Political party	Gabonese Democratic Party
Alma mater	University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne

Jean Ping (born 24 November 1942^[1][2][3]) is a Gabonese diplomat and politician who is currently the Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union.^[3][4] He was previously the Foreign Minister of Gabon from 1999 to 2008 and served as President of the United Nations General Assembly from 2004 to 2005.

Early life[link]

The son of Chinese trader Cheng Zhiping (Chinese: 程志平 Chéng Zhìpíng) of Wenzhou descent, and a Gabonese mother,^[2] Jean Ping was born in Omboué, Etimbwé Department, Ogooué-Maritime Province. Cheng immigrated to Gabon in the 1930s as a trader and married the daughter of a local tribal leader. The villagers initially called Ping the "son of Ping." In demonstrating respect to his wife's Christian beliefs, Cheng took his son to get baptized when he was a month old and named him "Jean." Cheng also attained substantial wealth through his many successful business enterprises in his newly adopted country. He sold china, wood, and seafood, and he also ran a bakery. Because of his good relationship with the locals, Cheng was elected to the local assembly three times.

Ping claims to have inherited his frugality, industry, and honesty from his father. Ping holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne).

Career[link]

In 1972, he began working at UNESCO in its Sector for External Relations and Cooperation as an international civil servant.^[1][3] In 1978, he became advisor to the Gabonese embassy in France,^[2] and he subsequently became Gabon's Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, in which position he served until 1984.^[1][3] He became Director of the Civil Cabinet of the President of Gabon, Omar Bongo, in 1984, serving in that position until 1990.^[1][2][3]

In 1987, Ping had an opportunity to visit his ancestral village of Wenzhou. While there, he met his 94 year old aunt. He mentioned that his visit was due in part to fulfill his deceased father's wish to visit his hometown.

On 26 February 1990, Ping became Minister of Information, Posts and Telecommunications, Tourism and Recreation, and Reform of the Parastatal Sector, in charge of relations with Parliament, as well as Government Spokesman. He served in that position for two months before becoming Minister of Mines, Energy, and Hydraulic Resources on 29 April 1990. He remained in the latter position until June 1991, then served as Minister of Mines, Energy, and Hydraulic Resources for a second time from 28 August 1992 to 24 March 1994. He was then Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, and La Francophonie from 25 March 1994 to 29 October 1994, then Minister Delegate to the Minister of Finance, the Economy, the Budget, and Privatisation from 30 October 1994^[3] until he was appointed as Minister of Planning, the Environment and Tourism on 28 January 1997.^[5] Two years later, he was promoted to the position of Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, La Francophonie, and Regional Integration on 25 January 1999. He remained Foreign Minister for nine years.^[3]

He was elected to the National Assembly from Omboué in the December 1996 parliamentary election, the December 2001 parliamentary election,^[2] and the December 2006 parliamentary election.^[6][7]

He was chosen to be President of the fifty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2004.^[8]

Ping was one of President Bongo's closest and longest-serving ministers and is considered one of the most powerful figures in Gabon. Ping was one of the key figures who helped arrange the visit to Gabon in 2004 of Chinese President Hu Jintao, who used the capital Libreville as the platform for making a land-mark speech promising a new era of engagement with Africa, "without political strings."

In the government named on 25 January 2007, Ping, previously a Minister of State, was promoted to the rank of Deputy Prime Minister while remaining in charge of foreign affairs.^[9][10]

On 7 December 2007, Gabon's Ambassador to Cameroon, Michel Mandougoua, announced that Ping would seek to succeed Alpha Oumar Konaré as chairman of the Commission of the African Union in early 2008.^[11] His candidacy was backed by the Economic Community of Central African States.^[12]

Ping was elected as chairman of the Commission at an AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 1 February 2008. He had been the frontrunner, enjoying the support of countries in Central, West, and East Africa. North African countries also ultimately backed him; Ali Triki of Libya was prevented from standing due to submitting his candidacy late. Southern African countries opposed Ping, however. In the election, he defeated Osman Abdulai Conteh of Sierra Leone and Inonge Mbikusita Lewanika of Zambia, winning 31 out of 46 votes^[4] and obtaining the necessary two-thirds majority in the first round.^[13] On 4 February, Bongo appointed Laure Olga Gondjout to replace Ping as Foreign Minister.^[14][15]

Ping officially succeeded Konaré as chairman of the Commission on 28 April 2008.^[16]

References[link]

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José Luis Moreno Ocampo^{[nb 1]} (born June 4, 1952)^[1] is an Argentine lawyer and the first Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC). He previously worked as a prosecutor in Argentina, famously combating corruption and prosecuting human rights abuses by senior military officials in the Trial of the Juntas. He has also lectured in criminal law and practiced law privately.

Career in Argentina[link]

Born in Buenos Aires, Moreno Ocampo graduated from the University of Buenos Aires Law School in 1978, and from 1980 to 1984 worked as a law clerk in the office of the Solicitor General.^[2]

From 1984 to 1992, Moreno Ocampo worked as a prosecutor in Argentina.^[3] He first came to public attention in 1985, as Assistant Prosecutor in the "Trial of the Juntas" with Chief Prosecutor Julio César Strassera. This trial was the first since the Nuremberg Trials that senior military commanders were prosecuted for mass killings.^[3][4] Nine senior commanders, including three former heads of state, were prosecuted and five of them were convicted.^[3] He served as District Attorney for the Federal Circuit of the City of Buenos Aires from 1987 to 1992, during which time he prosecuted the military commanders responsible for the Falklands War, the leaders of two military rebellions, and dozens of high-profile corruption cases.^[3][4] He also successfully argued for the agreement of United States prosecutors to extradite General Guillermo Suárez Mason to Argentina.^[2]

He resigned as a prosecutor in 1992 and established a private law firm, Moreno Ocampo & Wortman Jofre.^[3] He defended several controversial figures, including Diego Maradona, former economics minister Domingo Cavallo, and a priest accused of sexually abusing minors.^[4] He represented the victims in extradition proceedings against Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, and also in the trial of the murderer of Chilean General Carlos Prats.^[2]

During this time, he was also an Associate Professor of criminal law at the University of Buenos Aires and a visiting professor at Stanford University and Harvard Law School.^[2] He has acted as a consultant to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations.^[2] He is a former member of the advisory board of Transparency International and a former president of its Latin America and Caribbean office.^[2]

During the late 1990s, he starred in a reality television programme, Fórum, la corte del pueblo, in which he arbitrated private disputes.^[5][6]

The International Criminal Court[link]

The International Criminal Court's headquarters in The Hague

On 21 April 2003, Moreno Ocampo was elected unopposed as the first Prosecutor of the new International Criminal Court.^[3][4] He was sworn in for a nine-year term on 16 June 2003. As of April 2011, in his capacity as the Prosecutor of the Court he has opened investigations into seven situations in Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Uganda; the Central African Republic; Darfur, Sudan; the Republic of Kenya; the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire.^[7] Of these seven, three were referred to the Court by the states parties (Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic), two were referred by the United Nations Security Council (Darfur and Libya) and two were begun proprio motu by the Prosecutor (Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire^[8]). The court publicly indicted 28 people, proceedings against 22 of whom are ongoing. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for 19 individuals and summonses to nine others. Five individuals are in custody; one of them has been found guilty (with an appeal possible) while four of them are being tried. Nine individuals remain at large as fugitives (although one is reported to have died). Additionally, two individuals have been arrested by national authorities, but have not yet been transferred to the Court. Proceedings against six individuals have finished following the death of two and the dismissal of charges against the other four.

Moreno Ocampo also led an investigation against leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army, who in 2005 faced arrest warrants by the ICC for crimes against humanity. Moreno Ocampo also directed an investigation against Germain Katanga and Matthieu Ngudjolo Chui,^[9] who received arrest warrants in 2007 and 2008 respectively for crimes against humanity in the Democratic Republic of Congo.^[10] In March 2008, according to an Argentine online news report, Moreno Ocampo explained the FARC, the largest guerrilla group in Colombia, was plausible for an investigation by the International Criminal Court.^[9] Moreno Ocampo began implementing preliminary tests in Colombia, which involved evaluating prosecutions of paramilitary commanders in Colombia, interviews with victims of the FARC, among others.^[9] Moreno-Ocampo explained the FARC could be investigated for crimes against humanity.^[9] He paid a visit to Colombia in August, after which the ICC launched an investigation on the “support network for FARC rebels outside Colombia.”^[11]

The ICC's first trial, of Congolese militia leader Thomas Lubanga, was suspended on 13 June 2008 when the court ruled that the Prosecutor's refusal to disclose potentially exculpatory material had breached Lubanga's right to a fair trial.^[12] The Prosecutor had obtained the evidence from the United Nations and other sources on the condition of confidentiality, but the judges ruled that the Prosecutor had incorrectly applied the relevant provision of the Rome Statute and, as a consequence, "the trial process has been ruptured to such a degree that it is now impossible to piece together the constituent elements of a fair trial".^[12] On 2 July 2008, the court ordered Lubanga's release, on the grounds that "a fair trial of the accused is impossible, and the entire justification for his detention has been removed",^[13][14] but an Appeal Chamber agreed to keep him in custody while the Prosecutor appealed.^[15]

Moreno Ocampo agreed on November 18, 2008, to make all the confidential information available to the court, and the Trial Chamber reversed its decision and ordered that the trial could go ahead;^[16][17] but he would be widely criticised for his actions.^{[17][18][19][20]}

He was also criticised for his decision in July 2008 to publicly charge Omar al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Antonio Cassese,^[21] Rony Brauman^[22] and Alex de Waal^[23] argued that there was insufficient evidence to charge al-Bashir with genocide. Cassese, a former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, had chaired the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, which concluded in 2005 that the government of Sudan had not pursued a policy of genocide in Darfur.^[24]

De Waal argued that "for nineteen years, President Bashir has sat on top of a government that has been responsible for incalculable crimes [...] Two weeks ago, Moreno Ocampo succeeded in accusing Bashir of the crime for which he is not guilty. That is a remarkable feat."^[23] Cassese also argued that if Moreno Ocampo were serious about prosecuting al-Bashir, he should have issued a sealed request and asked the judges to issue a sealed arrest warrant, to be made public only once al-Bashir traveled abroad, instead of publicly requesting the warrant, allowing al-Bashir to avoid arrest simply by remaining in Sudan.^[21]

Moreno Ocampo requested arrest warrants in November 2008 for rebels responsible for the murder of members from an international peacekeeping force in Darfur.^[25] Leaders from three Darfur tribes, said to be the victims of war crimes, sued him for libel, defamation and igniting hatred and tribalism.^[26]

Moreno Ocampo announced the six prime suspects also known as the Ocampo Six in the Kenya post-election violence of 2007 on December 15, 2010. He named suspended Minister of Higher Education William Ruto, Minister for Industrialisation Henry Kosgey, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, former Commissioner of the Kenya Police Major General Mohammed Hussein Ali, Head of Public Services Francis Muthaura, and journalist Joshua Arap Sang as leading perpetrators of the incidents. His term at the ICC is due to expire in mid-2012.^[27]

Allegations of sexual misconduct[link]

In October 2006 a media spokesman in the prosecutor’s office filed an internal complaint accusing Moreno-Ocampo of sexual misconduct by forcing a journalist in South Africa to have sexual intercourse with him. As evidence the complainant introduced a recording of a telephone conversation made with the journalist two days after the alleged incident.^[28][29] A panel of three ICC judges investigated the complaint and found that because the alleged victim had withdrawn her earlier account of the incident the complaint was "manifestly unfounded"^[30] but Moreno-Ocampo generated a controversy when he summarily dismissed the staff member who made the complaint.

The Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization subsequently awarded the employee more than € 240,000 in moral and material damages, salary and interest^[30] ruling that Moreno-Ocampo had breached due process and seriously infringed the employee's rights.^[28][30] The ILO Tribunal held that the original complaint against Moreno-Ocampo had been made in good faith, and that Moreno-Ocampo should not have participated in the decision to fire the employee as he had a personal interest in the matter. In its judgement the ILO Tribunal noted that "The recorded telephone conversation that occurred two days after the alleged event indicated that the journalist was distressed. And in that conversation, she indicated unambiguously that the Prosecutor 'took [her] keys' and that she had consented to sexual intercourse 'to get out of [the situation]'".^[28]

Libya[link]

On March 3, 2011, Ocampo announced that "there will be no impunity in Libya" as he announced the beginning of an investigation on crimes against humanity committed by either Libyan security forces or the opposition to the Gaddafi government during the 2011 Libyan civil war. On May 16, 2011, he filed a request to the ICC to issue an arrest warrant against Muammar Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi, for crimes against Humanity^[31]. On June 27 2011, The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his son and his intelligence chief for crimes against humanity.

Notes[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• International Criminal Court: Office of the Prosecutor
• Case Closed: A Prosecutor Without Borders, "World Affairs", Spring 2009
• The Controversial Actions of the ICC Prosecutor: a Crisis of Maturity?, "The Hague Justice Portal", 15 September 2008
• "Farmers and Chickens" An interview with Luis Moreno Ocampo by Guernica Magazine's Joel Whitney
• Luis Moreno Ocampo at the Internet Movie Database

v t e International Criminal Court (ICC) Legal texts International Rome Statute (amendments) · Agreement on Privileges and Immunities · Agreements on the Enforcement of Sentences · Geneva Conventions · United Nations Charter UN resolutions General Assembly 3314 Security Council 1422 · 1487 · 1593 · 1970 National American Service-Members' Protection Act (United States) · Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (Canada) · International Criminal Court Act 2001 (United Kingdom) · Twenty-third Amendment of the Constitution (Ireland) · Völkerstrafgesetzbuch (Germany) Crimes Crimes of genocide · Crimes against humanity · War crimes · Crimes of aggression Organisation States parties List of states parties · Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the Assembly of States Parties · Review Conference Court Presidency · Judges (elections: 2003 · 2006 · 2007 · Jan. 2009 · Nov. 2009 · 2011 · next) · Prosecutor Investigations Official Democratic Republic of the Congo · Uganda · Darfur, Sudan · Kenya Complaints Iraq Individuals Detainees · Indictees Other American Non-Governmental Organizations Coalition for the ICC · Coalition for the ICC · European Union and the ICC · United States and the ICC · World Day for International Justice

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Fatou Bensouda
Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Designate
Taking office 16 June 2012
President	Song Sang-Hyun
Succeeding	Luis Moreno Ocampo
Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court
Incumbent
Assumed office 8 September 2004
President	Philippe Kirsch Sang-hyun Song
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	TBD
Personal details
Born	(1961-01-31) 31 January 1961 (age 51) Banjul, Gambia
Alma mater	University of Ife Nigerian Law School International Maritime Law Institute

Fatou B. Bensouda (born 31 January 1961) is a Gambian lawyer, former government civil servant, international criminal law prosecutor and legal adviser. She has been a Deputy Prosecutor in charge of the Prosecutions Division of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 2004. In December 2011, she became the consensus choice to serve as the next Prosecutor of the ICC.^[1]

Bensouda has previously served as Solicitor-General of Gambia, as well as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, advising both the President and Cabinet of the Gambia.

She has held positions of Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).^[2] She has considerable experience in national criminal prosecutions, diplomatic work and company management.

Early life and education[link]

Bensouda was born in Banjul, The Gambia. She attended primary and secondary school in the Gambia before leaving for Nigeria where she graduated from the University of IFE with an Bachelor of Laws (Hons) degree. She then obtained her Barrister-at-Law (BL) professional qualification from the Nigeria Law School. After acquiring a Master of Laws from the International Maritime Law Institute in Malta, she became the Gambia’s first expert in international maritime law and the law of the sea.

Bensouda is married to a Gambian–Moroccan businessman and they have two children.

Lawyer, government civil servant, and company manager[link]

Bensouda has had a long and distinguished national career in the Gambia in both private and public law. Between 1987 and 1993, she was successively Public Prosecutor, Senior State Counsel, and Principal State Counsel. Between 1993 and 1997, she served as Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions whilst also working as Lead Counsel to the Commission of Inquiry into the Financial Activities of Public Corporations: Presidential Commission of Enquiry 1994 (1994–1997). Subsequently, Bensouda was appointed as Solicitor-General and Legal Secretary of the Gambia (April 1997 to July 1998) before her appointment as Attorney-General and Secretary of State (Minister of Justice) of the Gambia (1998–2000). From March 2000 to January 2002, she was a Private Legal Practitioner at Ya Sadi, Bensouda and Co. Chambers in Banjul. She was also the General Manager of a leading commercial bank in the Gambia, the International Bank for Commerce (Gambia) Limited (January to May 2002).

Bensouda also took part in negotiations on the treaty of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Parliament, and the ECOWAS Tribunal. She has been a delegate at United Nations’ conferences on crime prevention, the Organization of African Unity’s Ministerial Meetings on Human Rights, as well as the delegate of the Gambia to the meetings of the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court.

International criminal prosecutor and legal adviser[link]

Bensouda’s international career as a non-government civil servant formally began at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she worked as a Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney before rising to the position of Senior Legal Advisor and Head of the Legal Advisory Unit (May 2002 to August 2004).

On 8 August 2004, she was elected as Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions) with an overwhelming majority of votes by the Assembly of State Parties of the International Criminal Court. On 1 November 2004, Bensouda was sworn into Office as Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions).

On 1 December 2011 the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC announced that an informal agreement had been reached to make Bensouda the consensus choice to succeed Luis Moreno-Ocampo as Prosecutor of the ICC.^[1] She was formally elected by consensus on 12 December 2011.^[2] Her term as Prosecutor is expected to begin in June 2012.^[1]

Awards and honours[link]

Bensouda has been the recipient of various awards, most notably, the distinguished ICJ International Jurists Award (2009), which was presented by President of India P. D. Patil. Bensouda was given this award for her contributions to criminal law both at the national and International level. Bensouda has also been awarded the 2011 World Peace Through Law Award presented by the Whitney Harris World Law Institute, Washington University, which recognized her work in considerably advancing the rule of law and thereby contributing to world peace.

Nominations[link]

Time magazine listed Mrs. Bensouda among the 100 most influential people in the world in its annual Time 100 issue.

Bensouda has been named by the leading African Magazine, Jeune Afrique, as the 4th most Influential Personality in Africa in the Civil Society Category.^[3] and one of the 100 most Influential African Personalities.^[4]

Professional or board membership[link]

Bensouda is a member of the International Association of Prosecutors, the Gambian Bar Association and the Nigerian Bar Association. She is also a member of the International Advisory Council of the International Board of Maritime Healthcare (since 2000); the Professional Women's Advisory Board (since 2000); the Board of Directors of The Gambia Committee on Harmful Traditional Practices GAMCOTRAP (National Branch of The Inter African Committee); and the Executive Committee of the Marina International School in the Gambia (since 1994). She has been a member of the Advisory Board of the African Centre For Democracy and Human Rights Studies (1998–2000) and The Gambia High School Board of Governors (1992–1995), as well as the 1st Vice President of The Gambia National Olympics Committee (GNOC).

Publications[link]

• From Human Rights to International Criminal Law (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers) Chapter by Bensouda on "Gender and Sexual Violence under The Rome Statute"
• "International Criminal Law in an African Context" by Hassan Jallow and Fatou Bensouda - Chapter 2 of The African Guide to International Criminal Justice; First published by the Institute for Security Studies (2008) www.issafrica.org
• International Criminal Justice: Law and Practice from The Rome Statute to its Review (Farnham: ASHGATE, 2010) - Chapter 6 by Bensouda "Challenges Related to Investigations and Prosecutions at the International Criminal Court"

Affiliations[link]

Bensouda’s work and long term commitment has led to her involvement as a Visiting Lecturer at both the University of Turin (UNICRI Joint Masters Program in International Crimes and Justice) and Kennesaw State University (PhD Program on International Conflict Management).

Other professional training[link]

To complement her academic training, Bensouda undertook various professional training courses, including a Diploma in Volunteerism at the International Olympic Committee in New York (November 2001); a "Diplome d’études en Langues Francais (DELF) 1er Degre" from Le Ministère de la Jeunesse, De L’éducation Nationale et De La Recherche de La République Française; a certificate course in Computer and Information Technology at the Management Development Institute in the Gambia (1998); Judicial Independence and Judicial Accountability in the Gambia (November 1993); Human Rights Training for Commonwealth Public Officials in Banjul (1989); an International Law Programme at the International Court of Justice in The Hague (1988); and a Conference on Mutual Legal Assistance at Oxford (September 1994).

Relevant meetings and selected papers as ICC Deputy Prosecutor[link]

• Speaker at the "Justice for All? The International Criminal Court: 10 year review" conference at the University of New South Wales, Sydney Australia, February 2012;
• Presented Keynote Address to the Regional Conference on International Criminal Court, sponsored by the League of Arab States and the state of Qatar at Doha, 25 May 2011;
• Participant at the American Society of International Law, in panel presenting the preliminary examination and policy paper including the status of ICC Situations and cases, Washington, D.C., March 2011;
• Discussant and Presenter to the PGA Regional Roundtable discussion on the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Monrovia, February 2011;
• Speaker and presenter at the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), "1325 in 2020: looking forward ... looking back", Durban, South Africa, October 2010;
• Participation together with International Prosecutors of other International Courts and Tribunals in all the four Annual International Humanitarian Law Dialogs, Chautauqua, 2008–2011;
• Speaker and presenter at the conference organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, on the role of leadership in promoting gender equality, Kigali, Rwanda, May 2010;
• Speaker at the seminar hosted by the NGO Africa Legal Aid (AFLA) on "Africa and the International Criminal Court", Kampala, Uganda, May 2010;
• Guest lectures at University of North Carolina Law School and Duke University, North Carolina, April 2010;
• Speaker at the International Coalition of the Cities Against Racism, Nuremburg, October 2009;
• Presenter and discussant at the IBA Conference on the ICC; "Prospects for International Criminal Justice in Mozambique; A prospective – legal and political challenges facing the ICC", Maputo, Mozambique, June 2009;
• Speaker and presenter at the Amnesty International USA Annual Meeting, "Peace and Justice: International Justice and Challenge of Enforcement", Washington, D.C., April 2008;
• Keynote Speaker to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Brussels, April 2008
• Presenter to the African Union Summit; African Women Consultations on Darfur, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2008;
• Presenter and discussant to the Inter-Parliamentarian Conference, "The Legacy of International Tribunals", New York City, November 2007;
• Public lecture, "The Future of The International Criminal Court", Carter Center, Atlanta, Georgia, 26 September 2011.
• Led ICC Office of the Prosecutor visit to Guinea following the events of September 2009;
• Led ICC Office of the Prosecutor visit to Côte d'Ivoire following the 2010 post-electoral violence.
• Speaker at the Justice Robert H. Jackson Centennial Lecture, Albany Law School, Albany, New York (April 12, 2012).

Conferences and workshops attended as a civil servant[link]

• Special Envoy of the President of the Gambia to the President of Nigeria, May 1999;
• Special Envoy of the President of the Gambia to the President of Zambia, October 1999;
• Assigned by the President of the Gambia to oversee the Department of State for Local Government, Lands and Religious Affairs, June 1999;
• Delegate to the Asian African Legal Consultative Committee Meeting, 39th session for Justice Ministers, February 2000, Cairo, Egypt;
• Inaugural Meeting of Women Ministers of Justice by Council of Women World Leaders and the United Nations, New York City, November 1999;
• Delegate of the Gambia to Preparatory Commission meetings on the Establishment of the International Criminal Court, New York City, 1999;
• Representative to the Commonwealth Law Minister’s Meeting in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, May 1999;
• Representative to the OAU Ministerial Meeting on Human Rights in Africa, Grand Baie, Mauritius, April 1999;
• Member of the Gambian delegation to the UNDP International Conference on Good Governance, United Nations, New York City, July 1997;
• Official to the Meeting of Law Ministers of Small Commonwealth Jurisdictions, Barbados, July–August 1997;
• Gambia’s delegate to the United Nations Conference on Crime Prevention and Treatment of Offenders, Preparatory Meeting, Kampala, Uganda, 1995;
• Member of delegation to the 9th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Treatment of Offenders, Cairo, Egypt, 1995;
• Ministry of Justice Permanent Delegate to Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)
• Legal Expert to the Sub-Regional Commission on Fisheries meeting on the Convention on the Rights of Hot Pursuit, Conakry, Guinea, 1993;
• Member of expert group working on ministerial adaptation of ECOWAS Convention on Extradition and Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance, 1988–1989.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• The Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions), International Criminal Court

The Assembly were a British synthpop project formed in 1983 in Basildon, England, by Vince Clarke (songwriting, keyboards, backing vocals) and Eric Radcliffe (songwriting, production).

Feargal Sharkey was hired as a guest vocalist for the A-side of the group's only single, "Never Never". Clarke and Radcliffe had planned to use a different singer on each track the group recorded,^[1] but the group disbanded after the release of "Never Never", and no other vocalists were employed by the duo.

Band history[link]

Clarke founded The Assembly shortly after disbanding Yazoo (featuring vocalist Alison Moyet), upon completion and distribution of Yazoo's 1983 album, You and Me Both.

The Assembly marked the most-involved phase of Clarke's long-term professional relationship with sound engineer Radcliffe, who had contributed significant influences to the recordings of Clarke's previous bands, Depeche Mode and Yazoo. However, the Assembly project never became a full-fledged band and resulted in only one single release, the UK hit "Never Never". It featured a sampled guitar track triggered note for note on a Fairlight CMI). The sound was augmented by session musician Clem Clempson on electric guitar.^[1]

Former Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey was hired to sing on this track. Clarke and Radcliffe had planned to use a different singer on each track the group recorded,^[1] but none were released after "Never Never".

The other track on the single, "Stop/Start," was an instrumental, featuring Clarke's signature songwriting style with syncopation that gradually became the downbeat of the musical phrase.^{[citation needed]}

Despite the commercial success of the single, The Assembly was no longer a functioning entity by the end of 1984. Clarke went on to form Erasure with vocalist and co-songwriter Andy Bell in 1985. Although Erasure worked with Radcliffe on some of their early work, they eventually began working with other producers and engineers, including Flood. Sharkey, for his part, began a successful solo career in 1984 and achieved his only UK number one single in 1985 with "A Good Heart".

"Never Never" was re-released on CD single in 1996 with four tracks, containing both the normal and extended versions of both the title song, and "Stop/Start".^[1] The music video for "Never Never", filmed at Upminster Windmill in the London Borough of Havering, was featured on the first Now That's What I Call Music! video in 1983, though it did not feature on the corresponding compilation album.

Reunion[link]

In May 2011, Sharkey appeared on stage during the Erasure set at Mute Records's Short Circuit music festival for a one-off performance of "Never, Never" with Clarke.

Discography[link]

• "Never Never" – A side "Never Never", B side "Start-Stop" (instrumental) – 1983 – Mute TINY1 – No. 4 UK^[2]

See also[link]

• The Tube (TV series)
• Casio VL-1

References[link]