The CCJHR presents Justice Teresa Doherty
Justice Teresa Doherty
- 15 Feb 2016
Former Judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone
Justice T. Doherty
‘Crimes of Sexual Violence: the Legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone’
Wed Feb 17th 1-2.30pm
Venue: Moot Court Room, Áras na Laoi, 1st floor
(adjacent to Law School Reception)
Biography
Justice Teresa Doherty worked in legal aid clinics in Belfast as a student in the early 1970s. From 1976 to 1987, she worked in Papua New Guinea, first in the Public Solicitor’s (public defender) office, then as provincial legal officer for Morobe Province. She was appointed as the Principal Magistrate for the Momase region of Papua New Guinea in 1987 and as National and later Supreme Court judge in 1988, the first woman to hold any high judicial office in the Pacific Islands Region. She returned to Northern Ireland and to the bar in late 1997. She was appointed a judge of the High Court of Sierra Leone in 2003 following the civil war in that country and also sat in the Court of Appeal. She was appointed by the United Nations in January 2005 as a judge of the Special Court of Sierra Leone (the international war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone) and was elected the first presiding judge of Trial Chamber II. Justice Doherty is a Parole Commissioner for Northern Ireland, a part time chairman of Appeal Services, a member of the Commonwealth Reference Group for the promotion of the Rights of Women and the Girl Child. She has received recognition for her work including a CBE and an Honorary Doctor of Laws. Her dissenting opinion declaring forced marriage as a crime against humanity was upheld on appeal and is the first declaration in international law on this crime. She was also a member of the first tribunal to convict for the conscription, enlisting, and use of children in armed conflict (child soldiers).
