Interview with Elise Groulx

Elise Groulx is a lawyer and expert on international criminal law. Founding President of the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association (ICDAA), she is also the founding president of the International Criminal Bar (ICB). She orchestrated its creation in 2002 and was elected first executive president in March 2003 in Berlin. She remained in that position until December 2005.

Renowned consultant and speaker, Ms Groulx is a graduate from the University of Montreal Faculty of Law where she earned her LL.L and from the University of Quebec in Montreal where she earned a BA in Political Science. She pursued her graduate education in Paris, at the Sorbonne, in criminology and comparative criminal law and earned her LL.M from the London School of Economics in the UK. Elise Groulx has more than twenty five years of experience as a criminal defence lawyer. She received multiple prizes and distinctions for her commitments and achievements, notably the medal of the Paris Bar Association, the Quebec Bar Medal, the University of Montreal Faculty of Law Award with Ms Louise Arbour and Justice Philippe Kirsch. She also received the “Champion Justice Award” from the National Association of Criminal Defence Lawyers (NACDL) in the United States. More recently, in April 2011, Ms Groulx was selected by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association which honoured her as one of 20 outstanding Canadians for her contribution to the rule of law and to the defence of civil liberties in Canada and elsewhere in the world.

1) Can you please speak to us about your work in relation to the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association?

Founded in 1997, the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association (ICDAA) is an international, non-governmental organization with consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, the Organization of American States and soon with the Organisation Internationale de la Francophone. From the time of its creation, the mission of the ICDAA has been to strengthen the role of the defence in the new international justice system. We advocated hard championing the presumption of innocence and the full respect of fair trial rights. We have worked passionately for almost 15 years to enable the effective exercise of fundamental rights for the defence before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The activities of the ICDAA are comprised of several components. The ICDAA first became known for its advocacy work at the UN where we participated actively in the preparatory committees (PrepCom) surrounding the creation of the International Criminal Court. The ICDAA made proposals that were adopted and now form part of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence of the ICC. These proposals were focused, among other things, on the recognition of the independence of the legal profession in the new justice system. We also fought to preserve the right to cross examination as an essential part of the new system.

In 2008, the ICDAA was granted amicus curiae status in five cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Our intervention together with that of Human Rights Watch prevented the transfer of ICTR detainees to Rwanda as requested by the ICTR Prosecutor. We sought to establish before the Court that the right to a fair trial was far from guaranteed in Rwanda, which does not provide fundamental safeguards that now form part of established international customary law. We also argued that the Rwandan justice system did not guarantee judicial independence and that there was a risk of trials held in that country being very politically charged, jeopardizing the presumption of innocence. In 2011, we were granted once again Amicus status on the same issues, in three additional cases pending before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Since 2003, the ICDAA has organized more than a dozen training workshops in Europe, Africa and North America. We wanted to familiarize lawyers with the practice before international criminal tribunals and raise their awareness with regard to defence issues in the new system. The training sessions put in place by the ICDAA included practical components, advocacy techniques such as the art of cross examination unique to the adversarial system, to help prepare our colleagues from other legal systems to litigate before international courts. We also became involved in the development of transitional justice systems in post-conflict societies. Since 2005, we participated in the establishment of a national legal aid system in Afghanistan with a U.S. partner, the International Legal Foundation. This system was designed to provide access to justice to indigent defendants in Afghanistan. We also worked to increase awareness of a defence culture with our Afghan colleagues. The culture of challenging authority and not accepting decisions at face value is a lot weaker in authoritarian regimes. We tried to demonstrate that it is part of a functioning and vibrant democracy and stood by them as they were getting experience using the new legal tools provided by their recent constitution.

The ICDAA recently published together with the Revue québecoise de droit international a special issue devoted to the challenges facing the defence in the new international criminal justice system since its establishment. This special issue is the result of three years of hard team work and was launched on April 21^st, 2011, at the Quebec Court of Appeal. It is available online: http://www.sqdi.og/aiad2010.

2) What advice would you give to a student who wishes to pursue a career in international law?

I would say that it is essential to show great determination and courage to break through in international law because the competition is quite fierce. An open mind and a very curious mind are qualities that must also be developed. I believe that humility is important and it means one has to accept to be challenged in his beliefs and convictions. A new comer in the international arena is starting from zero whatever his or her track record at the national level. A strong desire to learn and grow further inhabited me when I moved to the international scene. That curiosity drove me to pursue graduate work abroad. I was fortunate to study at La Sorbonne in Paris and then at the London School of Economics in the UK.

I also believe that you must be innovative and proactive, and not be afraid to push the limits, both one’s own limits and that of any given system while challenging the existing environment. While luck may play a role in the path of some people, I believe, with all humility, that I have made my own luck by provoking the opportunities and causing things to happen.

Before embarking on the international scene, I believe it is important to first become an expert in your own field and to expand on your areas of expertise and practice.  Back in early 1997, it is as an experienced criminal defence lawyer that I made my beginnings at the UN while the ICC was in the first phase of being created. I think that my first career as a Court lawyer gave me certain credibility in this very competitive arena which is marked by diplomacy practiced at a very high level of expertise and where the political stakes are very high.

Learning several languages is an important asset, and I believe it is essential to first be bilingual (French/English). These two languages are the languages of the new international justice system. I wanted to become bilingual and this is what strongly pushed me to pursue my LL.M in London, England. More recently, I also chose to relearn Spanish, a language that I had not practiced for many years. The ability to express myself in this third language is very important in the international arena as it allows me to intervene in Latin America and Spain, where I attended about fifteen conferences, interviews and training sessions in Spanish, over the last ten (10) years.

3) How did you make the international leap?
My passion for international affairs goes back several years. I studied political science before going to law school. I later developed a deep interest for international law through my graduate studies in Paris and my LL.M in London where I specialised in Criminology, Comparative Criminal Law and Human Rights. The sudden development of international criminal law in the mid-nineties enabled me to unite my two principal areas of interest: international relations and the practice of law. Thus, I decided to create the ICDAA, which then put me in a position to push for the establishment of the International Criminal Bar for the ICC.

4) What achievement are you most proud of?

I do not know if one can speak about an achievement, but I will say that my profound commitment and my passion for the cause of justice never left me since I was a young law student. I combined my passions and strong impulses to be fully involved in different ways during my career, but I always tried to remain fully committed and to tirelessly promote the rule of law and democracy. I think citizens’ participation is an essential corner stone of a living and functioning democracy. We have to stay alert to ensure it. Lawyers can play an amazing role by giving a voice to their clients and guaranteeing that their rights are respected.

I believe that I contributed in the last 15 years to help mobilize the international legal profession around fundamental issues such as the rights of the defence and a better access to justice for all. It was not the case when I entered the field of international criminal law. Lawyers and Bar associations were too often not part of the debate and did not have a place at the negotiating tables. Today, in part thanks to the work of the ICDAA and the ICB, the international legal community is more aware of these issues and the rights of defence are visible and debated on a regular basis. An enormous amount of work remains to be done, but experts everywhere in the world exchange views, write, meet and contribute each in their own way to develop the doctrine as well as the practice surrounding defence related issues.

International courts and the new international justice system are becoming key components of international affairs. They are central instruments that cannot be overlooked any more, in the field of peace, stability and security. Given the growing number of conflicts and States known as fragile, lawyers can play a leading role.  I invite young people to reconsider the role of the legal profession remembering that lawyers are first there to promote and defend fundamental freedoms and a culture of political and civil rights but also social and economic ones. Moreover, the lawyer is an essential pillar of the legal system and is initially there to give a voice to those of this world without a voice.

The new world order offers a unique opportunity whereas all the legal systems are being reformed and revisited. It enables lawyers to play their role with passion, courage and determination. They have to decide to be more involved in their society as a whole. Let me repeat it, I strongly believe that lawyers are there to support the actors at the forefront of our society, the citizens. They have to support their mobilization and their commitment to democracy and always be ready to embark in a fight for justice and the rule of law.

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