Sareta Ashraph

Practice

Sareta has a growing involvement with international humanitarian and human rights law. She is currently a consultant to the Open Society Initiative, part of the Soros foundation and is advising on access to justice issues in Sierra Leone. From 2004 to 2009, Sareta was Co-Counsel on the Defence team representing Issa Sesay (a senior commander in the Revolutionary United Front) before the Special Court for Sierra Leone. In 2009, Sareta worked as a Legal Consultant to the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, also known as the Goldstone Inquiry, and was part of the team that conducted investigations and drafted the final Report.

Sareta is on the roster of defence legal consultants to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (the "Khmer Rouge trials") and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. She is also a Deployable Civilian Expert (Justice Sector) with DFID. She has lectured in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Bosnia on international justice issues.

When in England, Sareta is a criminal defence practitioner with a growing Crown Court practice. She is particularly interested in cases involving freedom of expression and political protest as well as cases in which women have been charged with violent offences. She undertakes work with the Bar Pro Bono Unit.

Background

Sareta worked as a legal researcher on issues surrounding violence against women in the Washington DC-based National Organization for Women before completing her Masters in International Humanitarian Law at Harvard Law School. She researched her thesis at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In 2002, Sareta worked in the West Bank assisting in investigations of allegations of violations of international humanitarian law following 'Operation Defensive Shield' in 2002. She is a national of Trinidad and Tobago and is also called to the Bar there.

Publications

"How things fell apart: a history of Sierra Leone and the conflict" (a 10 part series) The Review, February-June 2010

"In the eye of the hurricane: the Goldstone Report", TRIAL Magazine, November 2009

"Civilians, combatants and the laws of war in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict", Legal Executive, August 2003

Professional Memberships

• Amnesty International
• Bar Human Rights Committee

Year of Call

Bar of England and Wales; 2004 Trinidad and Tobago

Education

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