Please join us for this conversation
in Honor of International Day of Living Together in Peace
Sponsored by the United Nations Association of New York
Queens County Women’s Bar Association
and the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY), International Women’s Rights Committee
Dr. Fatou Bensouda
Former Chief Prosecutor
International Criminal Court
in conversation with
Ravi Cattry, Esq.
President-Elect, Queens County Women’s Bar Association
Partner, Vreeburg & Cattry PLLC
Maria T. Cortese, Esq.
Co-Chair, Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York,
International Women’s Rights Committee
Michael A. Eastridge, Esq.
Global Justice Advocates, PLLC
Fay Yvette Parris, Esq.
President, Queens County Women’s Bar Association
Global Justice Advocates, PLLC
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Monday | 16 May 2022 | 6:00 to 7:15 p.m. EST
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Register for this event here
Please join us for a conversation with Dr. Fatou Bensouda, in celebration of the United Nations International Day of Living Together in Peace, to honor her legacy in the ICC, and to recognize her role in prosecuting those who bear the greatest responsibility for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
DR. FATOU BENSOUDA
Dr. Fatou Bensouda served as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from assuming office in 2012 until 2021. She was elected by consensus, in 2011, by the Assembly of States Parties, to serve in this capacity. Dr. Bensouda was nominated and supported as the sole African candidate for election to the post by the African Union. She is the first woman to serve as the Prosecutor of the ICC. Her nine-year mandate as ICC Prosecutor ended on 15 June 2021.
Under her leadership, Dr. Bensouda has greatly reinforced the capacity of her Office through a number of strategic and managerial initiatives and expanded her Office’s activities to cover 14 investigations, and countless active preliminary examinations in conflicts around the world.
Through her work, she has strived to advance accountability for atrocity crimes, highlighting in particular the importance of addressing traditionally underreported crimes such as sexual and gender-based crimes, mass atrocities against and affecting children, as well as the deliberate destruction of cultural heritage within the Rome Statute framework.
Between 1987 and 2000, Dr. Bensouda was successively State Counsel, Senior State Counsel, Principal State Counsel, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Solicitor General and Legal Secretary of the Republic, and Attorney General and Minister of Justice of The Republic of The Gambia. Her international career as a non-government civil servant formally began at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she worked as a Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney before rising to the position of Senior Legal Advisor and Head of the Legal Advisory Unit (2002 to 2004), after which she joined the ICC as the Court’s first Deputy Prosecutor. Dr. Bensouda has served as delegate of The Gambia to, inter alia, the meetings of the Preparatory Commission for the ICC.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the distinguished ICJ International Jurists Award (2009), presented by the then President of India P. D. Patil; the 2011 World Peace Through Law Award presented by the Whitney Harris World Law Institute, the American Society of International Law’s Honorary Membership Award (2014), and the XXXV Peace Prize by the United Nations Association of Spain (2015). In addition to receiving several honorary doctorates, Dr. Bensouda has been listed on two occasions by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world (2012 & 2017); by the New African magazine as one of the “Most Influential Africans;” by Foreign Policy as one of the “Leading Global Thinkers” (2013), by Jeune Afrique as one of 50 African women who, by their actions and initiatives in their respective roles, advance the African continent (2014 & 2015), and by Forbes magazine as Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women (2020).
In 2018, Dr. Bensouda received the Bled Strategic Forum’s Distinguished Partner Award for the continuous commitment an her part, and on the part of the ICC, to international peace and justice. In the same year, she was invited and joined the eminent roster of International Gender Champions.
Prior to the end of her mandate, Dr. Bensouda was awarded l’ordre national du Lion du Sénégal by the President of Senegal for her dedicated service in the advancement of international criminal justice, and her native country, The Gambia, announced that she will be awarded the country’s highest civilian honour for her principled service as ICC Prosecutor. At the end of her mandate in 2021, Dr. Bensouda was awarded the Outstanding Achievement Award by The International Law Association American Branch (ABILA), and the Sapienza Human Rights Award from Sapienza University Rome, Italy. She has received the 2022 Prominent Woman in International Law Award by The American Society of International Law.
Dr. Bensouda (and the Office she led as ICC Prosecutor) was nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their accomplishments and work in advancing international criminal justice, without fear or favour.
RAVI CATTRY, Esq.
Ravi Cattry is a partner of Vreeburg & Cattry PLLC practicing primarily matrimonial and family law. Ravi has experience in handling all aspects of matrimonial litigation from commencement of the action through appeals, including drafting of pleadings, discovery requests, settlement agreements, motion practice, attending conferences, conducting and defending depositions, conducting trials and handling all aspects of appeals. Ravi is certified as a mediator for matrimonial specific matters. Ravi has been admitted to practice in New York state for over seven years and is also admitted to practice in the State of New Jersey and before the United States District Court, Eastern and Southern Districts, New Jersey District Court and the United States Supreme Court.
Ravi is an active member of the legal community. She is President-Elect of the Queens County Women’s Bar Association where she has been involved in multiple committees including organizing, facilitating and participating in Continue Legal Education classes, organizing QCWBA’s annual breast cancer walk and various other programs each year. Ravi is also an active member of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York where she is co-chair of the Equal Opportunity in the Profession committee. Ravi is a member of the Queens County Bar Association where she is vice-chair of the Family Law Committee. In her free time Ravi likes to read, cook, and watch soccer and tennis.
MARIA T. CORTESE, Esq.
Maria T. Cortese is the Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney of Operations and Budget for the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office, one of the busiest prosecutorial offices in the United States.
In view of her previous experience supervising all aspects of crime prosecution and prevention, and expertise in mental health, crime strategies and re-entry for previously incarcerated individuals, Ms. Cortese also serves as liaison for the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office for the implementation of raise the age legislation.
Prior to serving as Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney, Ms. Cortese has held several other leadership positions with the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office including Chief of Strategic Enforcement Division; Executive Assistant District Attorney; Chief of the Grand Jury Intake Bureau; Deputy Bureau Chief of Trial Division; and Deputy Bureau Chief of the Narcotics Bureau. Her expansive experience has resulted in her service on The New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts and The Committee of the Mayor’s Task Force on Behavioral Health and the Criminal Justice System.
Former president of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY), Ms. Cortese has imparted her knowledge and expertise to women lawyers around the world, consulting with lawyers in Switzerland, Croatia, and elsewhere through WBASNY’s International Women’s Rights Committee, which she co-chairs.
In 2011, she was invited by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Office of the Prosecutor to appear as a Guest Lecturer addressing best prosecutorial strategies and practices relative to vulnerable witnesses, child soldiers and gangs. Cortese also presented as a Guest Expert on a panel of ICC-Office of the Prosecutor department heads (Prosecution Division, Investigation Division, Gender & Children's Unit and Jurisdiction, Cooperation and Complementarity Division). The topic, "Comprehensive Modalities for Addressing Victims' Needs", was regarded as a premier intra-departmental initiative.
Ms. Cortese also served as liaison between the United States Information Agency and the Italian government, to share information and promote an accurate view of the American justice system. She also lectured at the Luiss Law School in Rome, Italy on American criminal procedure.
Ms. Cortese received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Psychology from New York University and her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law.
MICHAEL A. EASTRIDGE, Esq.
After completing his studies in Public International Law at the Hague Academy of International Law in The Netherlands in 2003, Michael Eastridge has engaged in international transitional justice initiatives in various parts of the world — most notably with the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Liberia. Working both in the U.S. and Liberia, Mr. Eastridge assisted with victim and witness participation in the truth and reconciliation process specifically including the unprecedented involvement of the diaspora ensuring that their voices were heard and considered.
Collaborating with other institutions such as The Carter Center, Emory University and The Advocates for Human Rights in this initiative, Mr. Eastridge also founded the non-profit organization now known as ‘PeaceTending’ which was created to empower religious leaders and institutions to help accompany individuals and communities through transitional justice initiatives in post-conflict states. He has also served as adjunct professor at several colleges and continues to lecture on transitional justice issues and immigration law.
Although Mr. Eastridge has practiced law since 1994, he has worked extensively in the field of immigration law since 2006 assisting individuals, families, businesses, and other organizations in securing immigration benefits — having developed a particular expertise in healthcare and physician-related immigration issues.
Mr. Eastridge has earned degrees from Oxford College of Emory University, Emory University and the University of Tennessee, and maintains his affiliation with the Hague Academy of International Law through the Association des auditeurs et anciens auditeurs de l’Academie de droit international de La Haye.
In addition to being admitted to the Georgia and Tennessee state bars, Mr. Eastridge is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Federal 4th and 6th Circuit Courts of Appeal. In 2021, Eastridge and his colleague Fay Parris, Esq. co-founded Global Justice Advocates, PLLC, a law firm dedicated to international human rights and immigration law.
FAY YVETTE PARRIS, Esq.
Fay Yvette Parris is an international law consultant and immigration law practitioner with extensive experience in humanitarian and international human rights law. Recently, she also provided extensive service to McGuire Woods, LLP. as part of a financial crimes investigations team. In her private practice she has facilitated national interest waivers for medical researchers and represented individuals in removal proceedings, including those seeking asylum or withholding of removal under the UN Convention Against Torture. She served as a Visiting Professional with the International Criminal Court (ICC), Office of the Prosecutor, where she advised the Court on gender-based persecution; as Advisor to the ICC Trust Fund for Victims for a June 2009 Board Meeting and as a Supervising Attorney with the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights. She is President of the Queens County Women's Bar Association, a member of the American University School of International Service Board of Advisors, an Ex-Officio Director of the Global NGO Executive Committee and for eighteen years, Co-Chaired the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY) International Women's Rights Committee. Fay was the 2019 recipient of the WBASNY Marilyn R. Menge Award for outstanding work on behalf of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York.
Fay and Michael A. Eastridge, Esq. recently co-founded Global Justice Advocates, PLLC through which they endeavor to collaborate on initiatives with other entities to incorporate international human rights principles as practice within public and private spaces. One such effort, the Global Peace and Justice Initiative, is to facilitate within corporations and organizations, the establishment of accountability frameworks that comply with international legal conventions and other mandates.
Fay received a Master of Arts (MA) in Law and International Affairs from The American University School of International Service; a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the American University Washington College of Law and Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in International Affairs with a Minor in Criminal Justice from The American University, School of International Service.