Panel to discuss impact of the conviction of former Liberian President Taylor

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

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

In the first war-crimes conviction of a former head of state since the Nuremburg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II, Taylor on April 26 was found guilty by the Special Court for Sierra Leone at The Hague of 11 acts of terrorism, murder, rape, sexual slavery, outrages upon personal dignity, cruel treatment, inhumane acts, use of child soldiers, enslavement and pillage.

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 Peace’s Sudan program, and Corinne Dufka, senior researcher in Human Rights Watch’s 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.