“Justice for Children in Conflict” is the title of a panel on which Professor Diane Marie Amann spoke last week in London, England, as part of a centenary symposium on children and armed conflict cosponsored by Save the Children and the Royal Institute of International Affairs, the latter more commonly known as Chatham House.

Amann (2d from left above) is the Emily & Ernest Woodruff Chair in International Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center here at the University of Georgia School of Law. Since 2012, she has served as the Special Adviser to International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Children in & affected by Armed Conflict – service that included assisting in the research and drafting of the ICC Office of the Prosecutor Policy on Children (2016).

Aspects of the Policy were a focus of Amann’s talk in London last Tuesday. Asked by moderator Veronique Aubert, Senior Conflict & Humanitarian Policy & Research Advisor for Save the Children (at left above), to name the root causes of the deficit in accountability for international crimes against and affecting children, Amann cited matters like evidence-gathering and witness protections, but stressed absence of political will to prevent and punish such crimes.

Other speakers included (from center to right) Shaheed Fatima QC, a barrister at Blackstone Chambers, Jessica Gladstone, a partner at Clifford Chance LLP, and Salah Uddin, International Campaign Officer for the British Rohingya Community. The panel was one of several throughout the day’s events, held at Church House, Westminster.