Lyal S. Sunga

Lyal S. Sunga is a well-known specialist on international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law.

Photo of Lyal S. Sunga, Former Investigator, UN Security Council

Career

Sunga is Visiting Professor at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law in Lund University, Sweden, and former Head of the Rule of Law program at The Hague Institute for Global Justice in The Netherlands, and former Special Advisor on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the International Development Law Organization in Rome, Italy. He was responsible for supporting the UN Security Council's investigations in Rwanda and he served as Human Rights Officer in the United Nations as a staff member from 1994–2001 — mainly on problems relating to serious human rights and humanitarian law violations, issues involving war and recovery from post-conflict situations, as well as on fact-finding, monitoring, investigation and reporting. He has also been an expert consultant for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations University, the United Nations Development Program, the International Labour Organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the European Union, the International Development Law Organization, and National Human Rights Commissions in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia, Turkey and Uganda. In May 2012, he launched a major study on the role of national human rights institutions in federal States which he prepared for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Moscow at a conference with representatives of more than 60 national human rights institutions of the Russian Federation.

Sunga has been a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer or Visiting Professor in faculties of law at McGill University, Carleton University, Helsinki University, Padjadjaran University, University of Geneva, the University of Hong Kong, Peking University and Lund University on human rights, humanitarian law and international criminal law.

Sunga holds a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University, a Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School, a Master of Laws in International Human Rights Law from the University of Essex and a Ph.D. in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International Studies. Before joining the Raoul Wallenberg Institute he was a member of the faculty at the University of Hong Kong where he taught classes in law and served as Director of the Master of Laws Program in Human Rights (2001–2005). He has also given university courses, lectures, training or conference presentations in approximately 55 countries. Sunga's work has been published in numerous scholarly academic journals and he has authored two books on international criminal law. He has given lectures and moderated panels at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Court, the T.M.C. Asser Instituut, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and The Hague Institute for Global Justice.

From 1994 to 2001 Sunga worked for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, first to assist in the investigation of facts and responsibilities relating to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda for the UN Security Council's Commission of Experts on Rwanda to draft the Commission's report recommending the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and then on the establishment and operation of the UN Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda. He also has practical experience and expertise relating to the International Criminal Court, terrorism, redress for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, impunity, the death penalty, human rights defenders, the administration of justice, the role of human rights NGOs in fact-finding, and the relation between national truth and reconciliation commissions and criminal prosecutions.

From September to December 2007 Dr. Sunga took leave from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute to act as Geneva-based coordinator of the UN Human Rights Council's Group of Experts on Darfur, mandated to assess the Government of the Sudan's implementation of UN recommendations concerning serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed during the war in Darfur.

Sunga is also a frequent commentator for media institutions, including China Central Television, The Guardian, Legal Talk Network, Daily Star, South China Morning Post, CNN, Agence France-Presse and others on current international law, politics and relations.

Published works

Books

Book sections

Law journal articles

Selected reports for the United Nations and European Union

References

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