Wayne Jordash is the Director of Global Rights Compliance Foundation and a world leading lawyer specialising in international human rights and humanitarian law, particularly in high risk and conflict-affected areas. Ranked in the UK’s leading legal indexes as “one of the world’s leading international criminal lawyers” and as “an exceptional barrister with a wealth of experience in international law”, and in Chambers and Partners 2022 as “a shrewd and intelligent barrister who uses all his might when handling the bigger causes in the field”. Wayne specialises in providing advice to governments, international organisations, corporations and communities on how to comply with IHRL and IHL, manage human rights risks and how to seek redress in the international human rights and criminal law system.

His work involves advising on all aspects of accountability and human rights due diligence, human rights investigations and fact-finding missions throughout the globe. Wayne is also an internationally recognised expert in the global network of international tribunals, including at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice in relation to allegations of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

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Catriona Murdoch is the Secretary of Global Rights Compliance Foundation and Project Director of Mass Starvation Accountability Project. Experienced in trial and appellate litigation across the international courts and tribunals, she was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2009 and is ranked as a Leading junior in both the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners directories. Catriona is one of the few world leading experts on the crime of starvation, and also advises on accountability for atrocity crimes more generally.

Catriona oversees GRC’s strategic direction and is specifically responsible for managing GRC’s strategy to advance accountability for the crime of starvation. In this role, Catriona manages sizeable and complex grant programmes in support of the agenda, routinely engaging with donors, and providing discreet legal advice to States, UN bodies and CSOs to assess the legality, and accountability prospects of, conflict induced hunger.

Separately, in support of GRC’s broader conflict accountability agenda, Catriona provides advice on accountability strategies and works with CSOs to investigate and prosecute international crimes. She also currently oversees and provides legal advice into GRC’s accountability programme focussed on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

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Michele Law is Head of Strategy at Global Rights Compliance Foundation. Michele works with team members to deliver our strategic direction and engages with our donors and clients to ensure we consistently provide an excellent service.  Michele brings into GRC over 25 years of experience as a diplomat, lawyer, and development expert, having advised, worked on, and overseen multi-million-pound conflict transformation and access to justice projects in conflict and stabilisation contexts. She is experienced in designing and undertaking complex stakeholder dialogue processes, conflict mediation, security sector reform and business and human rights interventions.

Prior to joining GRC, Michele was the Director of a consultancy focused on combatting modern slavery, before which her career was mainly within government and as an international civil servant.  In previous roles she was the Security Sector Reform policy lead for the UK government located in the then Department for Development; worked for the United Nations in Iraq advising on constitutional issues and in Afghanistan on the rule of law.  She was Deputy Director and legal adviser to the Commonwealth Secretary General and started her career as a New Zealand foreign diplomat.  She was called to the Bar in 1998 and holds a Masters in Law and a Masters in Business Studies (Mediation, Arbitration, and Negotiation).

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Alexis Martin is Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at Global Rights Compliance Foundation, after joining in 2019. She is a democracy and human rights expert with over 20 years working in fragile and complex environments. 

Alexis began her international development career in Central Asia supporting the development of independent television and radio stations. She then joined the United States Agency for International Development where she served as the media and democracy advisor for Europe and Eurasia. Later, she moved to Afghanistan where she set up a network of women-led radio stations and Iraq, where she initiated the National Dialogue Program to inform and include Iraqi citizens in political discussions and served as a media advisor for the United Nations. She has also worked on a number of security related projects, most notably in Syria, Haiti and Somalia. Alexis speaks Russian and Spanish. 

Alexis has a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Russian studies and International Economics.  

Kenneth Scott is an international criminal law and human rights expert with more than 23 years’ experience, having served as a senior prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where he successfully litigated cases against thirteen major war criminals, including the Bosnian Croat leadership case, and as the amicus curiae prosecutor at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, as a consultant to Amnesty Intenational and prior to that as a highly experienced U.S. federal prosecutor.

He has served as a UN Commissioner on Human Rights in South Sudan and in November 2017 was awarded the prestigious Mostar Peace Prize (previously awarded to such persons as Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel and Jacques Chirac). He is a GRC Senior Adviser and leads GRC’s South Sudan work, alongside a leadership role across GRC’s starvation project and training portfolios.

Lina Baddour is a licensed US attorney, specialized in international criminal and human rights law and policy. With over 15 years of experience, she joined GRC as a Senior Legal Advisor in 2017 and currently leads the projects, “Advancing International Accountability for ISIS Atrocities through Evidence Analysis in Iraq” and “Mobilising Ratification of the Rome Statute Starvation Amendment”. Previously, she led the project, “International Law and Defining Russia’s Involvement in Crimea and Donbas”.

Prior to affiliating with GRC, Lina served as a Legal Advisor with UNDP, providing technical assistance to State leadership on international accountability, peace negotiations, and human rights monitoring and compliance. She also assisted in the representation of clients before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and advised counsel appearing before the War Crimes Chamber of the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina on matters of international criminal law and procedure. She continues to represent persons and States involved in domestic and international criminal and human rights proceedings at pre-trial, trial and appellate levels, including before the International Criminal Court.

Lara Strangways is a Senior Adviser and the Head of Business & Human Rights at Global Rights Compliance Foundation. In her role Lara oversees the timely delivery of all business and human rights projects, liaising with clients to ensure the efficient implementation of deliverables according to agreed timelines and methodologies. The Business and Human Rights team are engaged across a number of multi-jurisdictional projects and have experience working with a variety of clients, ranging from industry bodies and companies through to INGOs, CSOs and governments.

Prior to joining GRC, Lara worked in-house for a diamond mining company, developing her knowledge of the human rights challenges facing the extractive sector. Lara also brings specialist knowledge in non-judicial remedies and the challenges faced by vulnerable groups in accessing non-judicial grievance mechanisms.

Lara was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2019.

Ruby Axelson is a Senior Adviser focusing on international litigation and project implementation in the fields of international criminal law, international humanitarian law and gender justice. Ruby currently leads GRC’s MATRA-Ukraine Project “Strengthening Ukraine’s Capacity to Investigate and Prosecute International Crimes”, executed in partnership between GRC and T.M.C Asser Instituut. The project goals are to enhance the capacity of Ukrainian criminal justice stakeholders in the investigation, prosecution, and adjudication of international crimes by integrating international standards into domestic practice.

Ruby also lead GRC’s project, in partnership with Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice, on ‘Defining Sexual Violence’ produced an in-depth comparative analysis of definitions of sexual violence in international and domestic jurisprudence and produced a draft amendment to the ICC Elements of Crimes definition of sexual violence

Ruby is appointed to the defence team of Jovica Stanišić before the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), prior to this she was on the defence team of Ratko Mladić at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Morgan Grant is an Adviser. In this role, Morgan has assisted with GRC’s project defining Russia’s role in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine. In the first phase of this project, Morgan conducted evidence gathering to establish a factual basis for an authoritative legal opinion on the international humanitarian and human rights law framework applicable to Ukraine since 2014. In the second phase of the project, Morgan contributed to legal research, analysis and drafting of the project’s legal opinion.

Previously, Morgan worked with GRC as a legal intern in 2018 where she assisted GRC with its War Crimes Investigation Manual and Victims’ Submission to the International Criminal Court on behalf of a number of Rohingya women and children. A Canadian qualified lawyer, Morgan was called to the Alberta bar in 2017 and has previously interned with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. In 2019, Morgan obtained a Master of Laws from the London School of Economics, specialising in public international law. Morgan also holds a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Saskatchewan, College of Law.

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Prachiti Venkatraman is an Adviser and is currently attached to the Accountability for Mass Starvation Project. In this role Prachiti conducts analytical research and drafts policy and advisory papers on the use of starvation as a weapon of war, the applicable international criminal and humanitarian laws, relevant regional and international human rights framework, and the implementation and utility of UNSC Resolution 2417. She also works on GRC’s Starvation Manual and on pursuing avenues for strategic litigation and accountability for starvation crimes.

Prachiti was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2017 and is assigned as a Legal Assistant at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. Prachiti holds a Master of Laws in International and European Law, with a specialisation in Public International Law, from the University of Amsterdam and a Master of Laws in Professional Legal Practice from BPP University, London. She completed her Bachelor of Laws at the University of Warwick.

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Sofia is an Adviser specialising in international criminal and human rights law and actively involved in various GRC projects, including the DPRK Project. She completed her Bachelor in Law in the United Kingdom, and her LLM in Public International Law with a specialisation in international criminal law in Leiden University, Netherlands. She holds the professional qualification of Bar Professional Training Course obtained in the United Kingdom and is a member of the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn. 

Prior to joining GRC, Sofia worked as a trainee at the European Commission at the Directorate-General of European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations. Admitted to the Cyprus Bar in 2018, she also provided legal counselling and litigation advice in a number of cases. Sofia is also member of the Legal Committee of the NGO ‘ACCEPT LGBTQI+ Cyprus’ where she provides pro bono legal advice as to the compatibility of domestic legislation with internationally recognised human rights standards enshrined in the constitution (through the prism of LBTQI+ rights). Sofia speaks Greek, English and is conversational in French.

Link to CV here

Clara joined Global Rights Compliance Foundation in 2021 as an Adviser. As part of the Business and Human Rights team, Clara has assisted in the design of human rights due diligence frameworks uniquely tailored to the needs of business clients and their global operations, and has conducted legal research, analysis and drafting of legal advice for civil society stakeholders in matters of business and human rights, and public international law. Previously, Clara worked with GRC as a legal intern in 2021 where she conducted research into modern slavery in global supply chains and remediation mechanisms for corporate accountability.

Prior to her role at GRC, Clara undertook a graduate research fellowship at the Amsterdam Law Clinics in international criminal justice and undertook a work experience at Peters & Peters LLP. Clara obtained a Master of Laws in Public International Law from the University of Amsterdam in 2020, holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sinology from the University of Vienna and a Bachelor of Laws from SOAS, University of London.

Perrine joined Global Rights Compliance in 2022 as a Legal Advisor. As part of the Business and Human Rights team, Perrine contributed to the UNDP-funded project “Strengthening the capacity of human rights defenders to engage in grievance mechanisms in Asia”, conducted legal research and supported the organisation of events and training for civil society stakeholders.