It is with great sadness but immense pride that Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers must say farewell to one of its most prominent members of its UK Advisory Board.
Her Honour Judge Joanna Korner CMG QC, has been nominated as the United Kingdom candidate to be appointed as a Judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC). We wish her the greatest success in the selection process noting her formidable qualifications to the highest judicial post and note that the ICC will be greatly enriched by her appointment to the Court.
Judge Korner, was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1974, and was appointed as Queens Counsel in 1993. She has practised at the Bar for over 40 years, including as a Senior Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), between 1999-2004, and 2009-2012, prosecuting high-level leaders charged with grave breaches of international humanitarian law. Further, she was appointed as a Special Advisor to the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004 where she worked alongside Guernica co-founder Toby Cadman on the establishment of the Special Department for War Crimes and the transfer of cases from the ICTY to the Bosnian State Court.
Her vast experience has been instrumental not merely to the work undertaken by Guernica 37, but also to the development of future generations of advocates having organised and taught numerous advocacy training courses both in the UK and internationally.
He work as a senior prosecutor at the ICTY and as special advisor to the Bosnian Chief Prosecutor ensured that innumerable victims received justice for that which occurred during the Balkan conflicts of 1991-1995..
More recently, Judge Korner has led judicial training programmes in Europe, North America, Latin America and parts of Africa.
Judge Korner is therefore the ideal candidate to be appointed as a Judge to the ICC, where that experience can be used within an essential accountability mechanism, and one that is arguably needed today more than it ever has been since its inception.