News Archive

“Legal Accountability in the War in Afghanistan: An Australian Perspective” 

November 2020 saw the publication of the Brereton Report into disturbing allegations of war crimes by Australian special forces in Afghanistan. One year on, this talk will examine Australia’s response to the report to date as well as ongoing work by survivors and advocates to secure some accountability for crimes committed during the conflict.   

with 

Fiona Nelson 

(Senior Legal Advisor, Australian Centre for International Justice) 

  Date: 24^th November 2021 

Time: 10 am (Irish Standard Time) 

  Join Zoom Meeting  

Speaker Bio: Prior to moving to Australia Fiona worked at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, a Berlin-based NGO that uses strategic litigation to challenge human rights abuses. Her focus was on accountability for torture and war crimes committed in the context of counterterrorism operations and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She worked on legal actions concerning states’ complicity in unlawful drone strikes in Yemen and torture in Guantanamo and CIA blacksites as well as the abuse of detainees during the Iraq War. She has also worked as a researcher in international law at the University of Potsdam. She studied Law and German at Trinity College Dublin and holds a Master of Laws from Humboldt University Berlin, where she wrote her thesis on the role of UK government lawyers in the lead-up to the Iraq War.