The Hague, 11 April 2016: As the Wildlife Justice Commission steps into the next stage of its development, we are delighted to announce the appointment of Olivia Swaak-Goldman as Executive Director.
Olivia has over twenty years’ experience in international justice and diplomacy, has published extensively on issues of international criminal law and international humanitarian law, and served as a lecturer for both Harvard and Leiden Universities.
On assuming the role of Executive Director, Wildlife Justice Commission, Olivia said:
“The world is waking up to the use of legal strategies to protect biodiversity. Tackling the illegal trade in wildlife by leveraging the rule of law, at a national and international level, and attacking transnational criminal networks at their heart, represents a step-change in a seemingly intractable global challenge.
The continued escalation in wildlife crime makes it crucial to activate justice and help enable definitive legal action to shut down the transnational criminal networks causing such enormous, irreplaceable, loss of wildlife species around the world.”
Prior to joining the Wildlife Justice Commission, Olivia was Head of the International Relations Task Force of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Senior Legal Advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Legal Advisor at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal and Legal Assistant at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Olivia is a dual national of the US and The Netherlands.
Founding Executive Director, Sam Muller, becomes Chair of the Wildlife Justice Commission Supervisory Board.
WJC Media Contact:
Isabel Leal Maldonado
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