Panel to discuss former Liberian President Taylor's conviction, 50-year prison sentence

The global impact of the conviction of former Liberian president Charles
Taylor of war crimes -- and his 50-year prison sentence -- will be discussed
by a panel of experts from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 5, in the Holeman
Lounge.

The panel discussion, organized by the International Correspondents
Committee, follows the May 30 sentencing of Taylor for aiding and abetting
war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by rebel forces during
Sierra Leone¹s decade-long civil war.

Taylor was found guilty on April 26 by the Special Court for Sierra Leone at
The Hague in the first war-crimes conviction of a former head of state since
the Nuremburg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II.

Panelists will include Ambassador-at-large Stephen J. Rapp, who heads the
Office of Global Criminal Justice in the U.S. State Department; Richard
Downie, deputy director and Fellow in the Africa Program at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies; Jonathan Temin, director of the U.S.
Institute for Peace¹s Sudan program, and Corinne Dufka, senior researcher in
Human Rights Watch¹s Africa Division.

The event is open to the public.

For more information, contact Myron Belkind, chair of the NPC International
Correspondents Committee, at [email protected], or Dipka Bhambhani
at Hill+Knowlton Strategies at 202-944-5188.